Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Furyborn (Empirium Trilogy, #1)

by Claire Legrand

The stunningly original, must-read fantasy of 2018 follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world—and of each other.

Reviewed by Ashley on

4 of 5 stars

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REALLY cool story! That's definitely the best part of this book. I love the two timelines and how they connect. That part was fantastic. I also love how the prologue shows you what happens, then the story backs up a bit and shows you how that came about.

I removed a star because the ending lost me a little, mostly how Simon just totally changed into a different person. He starts out being kind of dark, aloof, and dangerous. Then at the end he's totally mushy. It's almost like he has no sense of self anymore, he's just blindly devoted. That dangerous, merciless killer that I adored from the first half was totally gone.

This is a really cool story though:

- Betrayals.
- Mystery.
- Forbidden love.
- Bounty hunters.
- Magic, angels, and war.

Mostly I think I loved reading about Rielle. I love how she clearly was a good person, but had this huge struggle with an angel kind of pulling her to the dark side. It's almost a bit Star Wars-y, like a Jedi being tricked and manipulated into falling to the dark side.

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Reading updates

  • 15 December, 2017: Started reading
  • 22 December, 2017: Finished reading
  • 22 December, 2017: Reviewed
  • 24 October, 2020: Started reading
  • 24 October, 2020: on page 0 out of 512 0%
  • 25 October, 2020: on page 250 out of 512 49%
    "Three cakes are, generally speaking, much more effective than one."
  • 26 October, 2020: on page 372 out of 512 73%
  • 26 October, 2020: on page 440 out of 512 86%
  • 27 October, 2020: Finished reading
  • 22 December, 2017: Reviewed