Review: Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand
Narrated by Fiona Hardingham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I felt like this was a good sequel. I listened to the audiobook, but I was also provided with an ARC via Edelweiss for review. The narrator was amazing and she brought life to all of the characters in such a spectacular way. I highly recommend the audio because this book is long and much like with Furyborn the pacing was off in places. I find that audiobooks tend to help with pacing issues, especially with very large books.

This picks up where Furyborn left off, but we still haven’t gotten back to the opening bit in Furyborn where Rielle falls. I still have lots of unanswered questions, in fact after Kingsbane I think I have more unanswered questions. I hope that those will get answered in the next installment as I feel like we are getting there slowly. Much like in Furyborn we are still following the back and forth perspectives of Rielle and Eliana as they navigate their power and their place in the war and politics of their respective times. There are also some other perspectives randomly thrown in throughout the book. Some of them are valuable, while I felt others didn’t really lend much to the story.

A downfall of this series is that the books are much too long. Legrand's writing is getting better and better as she continues to hone her craft, but I feel like there were far too many verbose scenes that while written well didn't really add to the plot advancement. I think that is just the author's style, she is very descriptive and sections of the book are repetitive. That being said, there is a lot going on in this book but I’m still not clear where it is heading. I’d like a bit more on the magic system, I’m still not clear on castings and why some people need them and some don’t. We did get an explanation on the angels and the saints and that whole situation. I appreciated that. I’m still not really clear on the political motivations of any particular character anymore and I’m not sure if that is by design or if that is because I missed something. At the end of this book I kind of just felt overwhelmed and confused, I think that is because the ending felt rushed and after a 500+ page book that should not be the case. I’m looking forward to the next book and I’m hoping all will become clear in the final installment of this trilogy. I’m looking forward to seeing how things play out for our two leading ladies as things have shifted for both of them. We have started to see Rielle’s fall from grace and Eliana has begun to embrace her power but things are not going according to the original plan. I’m also really interested in seeing what part Corien plays in each of their stories as this all plays out.

I also have a big problem with this series being marketed as a YA, it is not. It is an adult fantasy series. A huge pet peeve of mine is when characters are teenagers and a series is labeled YA, I don’t care what their age is it is their actions and the content that should be considered when marketing a book to specific age groups not the age of the characters alone. I think there is a line that should be maintained when it comes to sex and violence in YA vs. adult fantasy and this is clearly adult. There are some questionable scenes in this book that while I can roll my eyes at them and say it’s just a book or that’s not OK in real life, young readers may not be ready for that content or may not want to read those scenes just yet. Again that’s just my opinion.


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Review: Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Furyborn by Claire Legrand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This releases on May 22, 2018.  If you enjoy fantasy I recommend it.  Be warned, it has some more adult/mature content even though it is marketed as Young Adult.  I feel it leans more New Adult/Adult.


I really enjoyed this, and I can't wait to see what happens next. It follows two different perspectives, which typically is not my favorite but I liked how it was done here. Because the perspectives aren't the two love interests alternating back and forth and they are in different time periods, you get two distinct storylines that aren't muddled by their feelings for each other. I do think that it slowed the pacing down a bit though, just as I was getting invested in one character’s story we would switch and I would lose interest in what was going on in the other timeline. I think had we stayed with one character a little longer it would have kept the flow of the story going. The prologue sucks you in, and you think the characters are completely unrelated, but as things unfold we learn that they are very much connected.

We follow Rielle, who has since she was 5 has been hiding her abilities to control the elements. Some people can control one element but she can control all 7. Her father has had her hide her ability and train to control it after an accident when she was a child. When she is exposed, she is put through excruciating trials to see if she is the prophesied Sun Queen, come to save the kingdom from the angels when the gate trapping them finally falls. Angels in this world are evil creatures, and they were defeated by Seven Saints at one time, trapping them behind a gate. The prophecy foretells that the gate will fall and the angels will return, and that two queens will rise, one of blood and one of light. The Blood Queen will destroy the world and the Sun Queen will save it. Rielle undergoes the trials thinking that she is the Sun Queen, as she can control all 7 elements and she wants nothing more than to protect her kingdom. She also wants her best friend Audric, whom she’s been in love with forever. He of course is the Crown Prince of the kingdom and engaged to her other best friend Ludivine. Rielle and Audric’s romance is fairly predictable, and at times over the top. Ludivine is always there to support Rielle, and I really loved her as a side character. As Rielle undergoes the trials, she has some extra help, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s a plot twist you have to read for yourself.

Eliana is an assassin working for the empire and rooting out the rebel faction the Red Crown. She’s noticed that women around town keep mysteriously disappearing, but she doesn’t let it stop her work rooting out members of the Red Crown until her mother becomes one of the women that is taken. When Simon, also known as the Wolf and high ranking member of the Red Crown, tracks Eliana down and proposes that she help him on a mission in exchange for his help finding her mother. Eliana hesitantly accepts his offer in exchange for protection for her mother and young brother Remy. As her story unfolds we learn that she has some secret powers of her own, and while her meeting with Simon may have seemed convenient for both of them, we learn that he has known her since the day she was born. He knows her true identity and that she is more than just an assassin. There is a hint of a romance between the two of them.

Pros:
• The telling of the story from the dual perspectives was done really well. I’m usually not a fan, but I liked how they were done. Typically dual perspectives are bogged down with the characters mooning over one another from the romance perspective, but we don’t get that here. I liked that they were 1000 years apart, but still tied together.
• I loved the mythology. I am a mythology junkie, whether it is a creation of the author or based on myths and legends of old. I really liked what Claire Legrand did here with the angel mythology and the different magical powers people can possess. I hope we learn more about it in the future, we got a little but I want to know more.

Cons:
• The pacing was a bit slow for my taste. This book is pretty long; Goodreads says it’s over 500 pages. There is a ton of action, fighting, crazy magic trials, assassins, and evil angels for all intents and purposes I should have not been able to put this book down. I did not find that to be the case. I liked it, it’s really good, but I didn’t fly through it
• The ending. We start with the fall of Rielle, and then the book goes back and tells her story from the beginning but we never get back to the beginning. I assume we will get to that in the future books, but it is a pet peeve of mine when I don’t feel closure from a book. I was left without a sense of closure when I finished.
• This book feels confused with regards to the sex. Is it adult or YA? It is listed as YA, but I disagree. It felt YA up to a point then it switched and got pretty adult pretty fast. It is pretty violent so it gets a point for adult right there. The sex is pretty graphic and steamy, so this should not be a YA book. I don’t mind steamy, but a book should be one or the other, if you are a YA book keep the sex and mentions of sex vague and non-descript, if you are an adult book I feel like you can get away with more description.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.


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