Review: Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1)

Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1)
By Tracy Deonn

Published By: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
Date Read: June 22, 2024
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 503

From Goodreads:
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.

Legendborn is a book that has been on my radar for a long time. Ever since it first released, I have been really interested in this book. When I found out that it is inspired by Arthurian lore, it just made me even more interested in reading it. I am such a huge fan of fantasy books, so an Arthurian inspired one sounded like something I would absolutely love. I really enjoyed Legendborn, but honestly I feel like it was missing something.

Legendborn follows the story of Bree, a teenager who is struggling to deal with the death of her mother. Moving away to a University, it seems like the getaway she needs. Until she witnesses a magical attack on her first night, and ends up finding herself involved with a group of mages. The more she learns, the more she is certain that what happened to her mother was not an accident and she is determined to get to the bottom of what happened, even if it puts herself in mortal danger.

This is an incredibly difficult review for me to write. I know this is a much loved book and series, and while I really enjoyed this book, I just feel like I’m missing something. It was enjoyable and it was a very unique spin on the Arthurian legends, which I loved but I just feel like everyone is obsessed with the series and I don’t really get why. Others are definitely seeing something that I have missed. I found this book incredibly slow to get into it. Now, I’m not sure whether this is because I listened to the audiobook, and maybe I might have enjoyed it more physically reading, but I really had to force myself to keep listening at times. As a fantasy reader, I totally get that the first book of a fantasy series is usually slower because of the world building, but I just felt like it was more than that, and I was getting bored at moments.

Having said that, there was a lot I enjoyed. As I said it’s a unique spin on the Arthurian Legends, and as a huge fan of Arthurian lore, I really loved that about the book. Once I got around two-thirds into the book, I loved it. It was fast paced and action packed, and the ending really does have me wanting to read the second book in the series. However, I am still sat with the feeling that something was missing for me. I may re-read it physically at some point to see whether that is what I need to find that spark that everyone else has with this series. It was a solid start to the series, but the pacing was just a bit ‘off’ for me.