Two thriving women a millennia apart, burdened with power and an intertwined fate in a world where humans and angels are enemies. The first instalment of Claire Legrand’s Empirium Trilogy is goosebumps-guaranteed, epic-filled and provides great female powerhouse material. You don’t want to miss it.
I lost you once, but I won’t ever again.
Title: Furyborn
Series: The Empirium Trilogy (#1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Author: Claire Legrand
Publish Date: 22nd May 2018
Pages: 512
Personal Rating: 8/10
“Pretend it for me. We used to play pretend all the time.”
I require book two, instantly. Furyborn doesn’t leave you time for mulling over things, provides shocking and brilliant twists and intersecting, goosebumps-guaranteed chapters, exhilarating writing, and strong and savage females. Not to forget intriguing characters and a lush world with angels and saints in it.
Summary
When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.
One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire's heart 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.
And a hunger, a craving, to answer the awakening call of her blood.
3 Reasons Why You Should Read It
Female powerhouses
Goosebumps-triggering, epic plot (even better with my playlist)
Brilliant intersecting
I know I'm supposed to narrow down to three reasons but I just want to add a particular one: The unique, marvelous and enthralling vibe/ambiance (call it what you want) in the book. It's simply gripping and, at this rate, my vocabulary is short on fitting terms for describing it properly. Sorry, no native speaker here. Deal with it.
Content
The first thing that came to my mind when I started reading Furyborn was the familiarity of the vibe in the book. It gave me feelings of The Queen of Tearling, the Darkling and The Red Queen. However, I wouldn’t say it was a bad thing. In fact, I think it was uniquely enough that I didn’t mind though.
Furyborn is written in the third person one in Rielle’s era, the other in Eliana’s, and I must say I quite enjoy the switches of the POVs each chapter. Although the switches disrupted the suspense sometimes because – let’s face it – each chapter basically ends with a cliffhanger, the structure of Furyborn makes it damnably hard to put down the book.
Because of the fact that the POV swaps after a chapter, changing back and forth between Rielle’s and Eliana’s POV which – at this point someone just has to say it – are a millennia apart, I wished for a more noticeable and stronger distinction in the world-building and the minds of those two strong women. Although the world-building itself wasn’t weak, Legrand gave us the impression that the world of Avitas hadn’t changed in one freaking bit. Like, damn, that’s an assumption. Projected onto our world that would mean that we would still live like the romans and we sure as hell do not do that.
Moreover it was quite tricky to catch up or understand something at the beginning of the book due to the POV switches. You were just about to grasp more about the temple in which Rielle lived and about other events when the chapter ended and you were thrown back into Eliana's world. All I could think of sometimes was, "Erm... remind me again, what exactly is the deal here?"
Once inside, her face hardened to stone, and her heart along with it.
The characters of the book intrigued me from the beginning, especially, the motives and feelings of Eliana became quite clear whereas Rielle is still a little mystery to me. All of them can be improved and deepened but I am pretty sure that will happen in the next two instalments of the trilogy.
There has never been a human like you. And there will never be.
Furyborn provides everything one needs – action, romance, sassy comments (which I hope will be more present in the sequel), secrets, plot twists, intersecting, many ahhhhhs and ohhhhhs, badass women and, most importantly and not to be neglected, one black hair, high cheekbones, special-eyed and tall villain who just joined my never ending list of dark-haired-handsomes.
Seriously, will the YA Fantasy genre ever tire of those dark haired dudes who are mad and twisted but hot as hell? No. Neither will I.
I will show you what I can do. I will show you who I truly am.
My expectations for the sequel are sky-high and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.
Below the divider it goes on with spoilers and my playlist for Furyborn. Don’t forget to subscribe.
Furyborn aka Epicborn
To be sought after instead of hidden away, to protect her country instead of living in fear that she was capable of nothing but hurting people, to be loved instead of hated… I will be loved.
Welcome to the other side of the divider, in the world of spoilers. As usual I discuss certain topics I think of importance (mostly it’s about the hot or the dumb dudes) in this part of my review, which rather may than may not contain spoilers.
Good girls don’t live long.
Here’s what’s awaiting you.
The Romance
Corien
Playlist
The Romance
In Furyborn there are three major ships (I guess major is the wrong word and probably the one or the other will shatter a glass bottle on my skull for actually shipping one particular pair) and the novel was originally praised for having bisexual and homosexual relationships.
So, with what do I start? – Let’s start with the assumption of Furyborn having bisexual relationships. I must admit I was a little bit disappointed because just mentioning that Eliana had sex with a woman long time ago doesn’t make the romance in a book bisexual. It simply doesn’t. Thus I beg for more of that in the following book.
Now on to the three major ships. I think we can all agree on Eliana-Simon (I guess I am not a mad bitch for scratching Harkan from the list. I mean the dude is dead as dead, isn’t he? And in any other case – tough luck, Harki-boy. You’re no longer wanted and already forgotten.) then there is Rielle-Audric (erm… *cough* I think Audric is like Cal from The Red Queen Series and I could only accept him but didn’t like him one bit. Something about Audric bugs me but since we know from the start the Sunbringer will bite the dust.), and last but no least (please don’t slap me for that) Rielle-Corien. For all I care make Eliana-Corien a ship, too.
Eliana-Simon. The bickering, sassy kind of couple – there you go. I really liked their relationship which actually hasn’t turned yet into a romantically involved one which is, in fact, what I appreciate. Still I loved the fact that Eliana thinks of Simon as an equal, fighting opponent and partner. And vice versa. There is just that kind of something in their chemistry which I totally cheer for and it's called slow-burn romance. And that's hot. - Seriously, I root for those two.
Although I resent that Simon is blond he makes up for it with his sly humour and the fact that his hair is not just blond but ash blond. That's hot again.
Simon stopped at a door in the wall. “Only if you are my opponent, Dread. We could re-create our first meeting for everyone.” “The one when I would’ve beaten you, had you not pulled a gun at me?” “The one when I knocked you soundly on your ass.”
“Come to catch a peek of me naked, did you?” She winced. But Simon only smiled. “Oh, Eliana,” he murmured, his voice no longer playful, “I want so much more than simply a peek.”
“You see a path of what, exactly?” “Ice. Some rocks too.” “Ah. No problem at all, for a newly blinded man to skip across the water on such a path.” She couldn’t help a smile. “I’ll help you.”
Rielle-Corien. Please, no hate, ok? I’m sure I can’t be the only one who believes them to be hot and perfect together, can I? The more I think about it the more I think it is indeed true. I’m all alone with my Rorien ship. The stunning Blood Queen and her dark-haired, mischievous angel aka Emperor of the Undying who is probably the hottest dude out there in Avitas. Whatever arguments might come as in “what the fuck is wrong with you, he’s mad!” or “He’s a pervert or whatever blabla you can come up with” spare yourself the effort. I am always and forever on the hunt for the dark-haired dudes with serious issues. And I found my Furyborn sample in Corien. Simply, deal with it.
And you have the tongue of a serpent. Cruel and repellent. Corien retreated, a sulky bend to his presence.
And thus, Corien murmured, we begin. Rielle touched her mouth, chasing the sensation of lips brushing against her own. With a small smile, she whispered. “He’s here.”
Rielle-Audric. Ah, I’m sighting at the exact moment I’m writing this. The way I’m about to approach this is already suspicious enough but I’ll just go for it. Rielle and Audric are one of those relationships I just can’t stop looking into the other direction. I don’t know what exactly my problem with that kind of romance is but it’s like Cal and Mare from The Red Queen, Mal and Alina from the Grisha Trilogy and now this. Despite Audric being a good influence and preventing Rielle from slaughtering every living around her, I’m not a fan of him. Just can’t bring myself to love him which could also correlate with the fact that he is actually declared dead in the prologue of the book. Erm… *cough* yeah…
Corien
He’s the villain, duh. Obviously. A vengeful angel who wants to bring back all angels and bitchslap the human race. – Sounds like a hobby to me.
“Do what? Kill me?” Corien chuckled. “My dear man, I’d like to see you try.”
Corien is the perfect mixture of madness, manipulative and sensuous asshole, mischievous bringing dude, a child and with a pinch of cockiness. Moreover he looks like a freaking Adonis (at least in my depraved mind he does and hell do men look good in my world especially the ones with the dark hair and the long, billowing coats in black) and I have a soft spot for evil characters or great villains which happen to be hot.
Corien. He moved slowly across the room, light-blue eyes fixed on her face. Tall and lean, hands held carefully behind his back, sleek dark coat buttoned at his shoulder and trailing the floor. Pale face, cheekbones high and elegant, a full mouth that curved with delight at the sight of her. Her dreams, as vivid as they had been, had not done him justice.
Yeah, my ass.
Playlist
This time I really overtrumped myself because, heaven, hell, what a masterpiece playlist I created really deserves a pat on my shoulder (from myself). I’m still torn and not hundred percent sure whether it was the story itself or my genius playlist that supplied me countless shivers and goosebumps moments.
Dua Lipa – Swan Song
Hozier – Work Song
Ruelle – Live Like Legends
Hozier – Almost (Sweet Music)
Lana Del Rey – Dark Paradies
Ruelle – Where We Come Alive
KÀRYNN – BINARY
They will spurn you, and you will be left alone. – The hollow of her mind expanded into her heart until all she could feel was a desperate, endless sadness. “I don’t want to be alone,” she whispered against her pillow.
The sequel and second instalment of the Empirium Trilogy, Kingsbane, will be released on 21st May 2019. Only three months left, we can do this! And I predict it will be glorious if not better than the first one.
Even though I know Corien is an angel, I want him to come back to me. I want… I want. I crave. I hunger.
Read my 4-star review of Furyborn by Claire Legrand on Goodreads and follow me there to check out the books I've read and are on my to-do list.
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