Week 35 Review: Legendborn

From Goodreads:
Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn's YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called "Legendborn" students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a "Merlin" and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree's memory of everything she saw.

The mage's failure unlocks Bree's own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there's more to her mother's death than what's on the police report, she'll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society's secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur's knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she'll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

My Review:
Wow, I just utterly loved this book! The characters and their stories, the world and the magic and the myths, it was all just incredible to read, and the writing was so easy to read! I just devoured this book, and it's a pretty chunky book for YA! It was epic and it was wonderful, and it's going to be a top read of 2020! And it's a debut novel, so Tracy Deonn has a wonderful hit right at the start! I'm so excited to see where she goes from here!

I just loved reading about Bree, she's strong and stubborn and angry. And dealing with grief of the death of her mom. Not using the word loss, because she didn't lose her mom, it's not like she can find her again. And that's something that Bree thinks about, how the word loss doesn't apply. I just loved her and her story!

This world of the Legendborn was so interesting, because there's the whole King Arthur legend, and the magic and the details that were so fascinating. And the society and culture that's been built around it. Most of Europe, which includes Wales where King Arthur originates, is predominantly Caucasian. And this book brings in that fact, that Bree is Black, and very much an outsider to that society. I loved to hate that she was breaking boundaries-loved that she was, hated that she had to.

Just so much was going on in this book! From the world, to her grief, the magic, and the mystery of her mom's death, plus a bit of romance. Oh, the romance! I mean, it went one way, but I was picking up on some tension that might lean another in the future, and given the ending, it'd be pretty interesting to read!

Reading that ending, man! It just kept coming, it was totally unexpected but made perfect sense, it was so action packed and it was such a game changer! IT's so hard to talk about without spoiling it! I just utterly loved it, and where it left off has so many plot lines that I can't wait to see continued in the sequel!

Loved this book so much, and I'm so excited for more in this series!

Author: Tracy Deonn
Series: Legendborn #1
Read: August 27th, 2020
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a 2020 Retelling Reading Challenge, DAC Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Expected Publication: September 15th 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars