Legendborn — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Tracy Deonn
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Pages: 501

Summary (Provided by 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.

First Impressions

Honestly this cover did not make a good first impression. I saw it all over the internet and people were raving about it but the cover just didn’t do it for me. I used to read more fantasy but haven’t in the past few years. When I read and enjoyed the sequel to Ninth House, it sparked my enjoyment of Urban Fantasy novels and I did some research about the best current Urban Fantasy. This book came up and I liked that it was by an author of color with a main character of color, so I added it to my list.

What I thought

I had more fun reading this book than I have in a long time.

Bree’s mother died in a car accident right after she got into the Early College program at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. When she gets to UNC, she discovers that magic exists. Through that, she discovers a secret society called the Legendborn, that is based on the mythology of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Throughout this story, in addition to the fantasy element, Bree is dealing with grief. A huge storyline is Bree coming to terms with the loss of her mother. She even goes to therapy and uses both therapy and magic to try to discover who she is now in the after of her mom dying. I honestly haven’t read a book that deals with grief this well and honestly. I love that it is out there and especially that it’s in the YA genre for younger readers who need it.

When it comes to the fantasy element, I enjoyed every piece of it. The mystery, the legend, the magic, it all flowed so well. Part of the reason I gravitate towards Urban Fantasy is because the magic element can take a lot to follow without adding in a whole new world and language. There is a lot of back story in the fantasy element, but I found it super easy to follow. Not only was it pretty logical, but I appreciated that Bree would explain how to pronouns some of the unique words that came up as a result.

Honestly, I can’t find much to fault in this book other than the length and the fact I feel a love triangle coming. I got a little sick of love triangles back when dystopian novels were super popular. I also feel like, being a little older, I’m not immediately in love with the bad boy who may or may not have a heart of gold, but rather the good guy who is kind and dependable. It’ll be interesting to see how much of a factor this becomes in the future.