"Furyborn" by Claire Legrand

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. 


There are minor spoilers below but nothing major. 

Where to start? Where to start? There is so much about this book that I really enjoyed and I few things I feel like could be improved. One of these things is the world building. The overall world of Furyborn is so intriguing; there's magic, angels, princesses. It's all such quintessential fantasy stuff, but different than a traditional YA fantasy novel. The world is certainly unique, but I feel like it could have been developed more. All I can hope is that it will be in the next book.

Like the world building, I loved the casual queerness of many characters. While stories where someone's sexuality is the driving point are important and have their place, there's also a need for stories where queer people just get to be queer and that isn't all there is about them. It's mentioned that there are two kings of Astavar. A couple members of Red Crown are gay men. Eliana is said to have been with men and women.

However, it's the bi representation with Eliana that I felt to be really unclear. The mention of her having been with a woman was very brief so it wasn't the best rep ever. She only has relationships with men in the book. It's true there are bi women who only have relationships with men and they are valid, the way bisexuality was presented in Furyborn was very unclear. It could have been better.

On the topic of relationships, I felt like many of them in the book were forced and lacking chemistry. Eliana and Harkan just felt more like friends than lovers. Eliana and Simon felt so forced that I couldn't believe they actually might get together. Honestly, I hope they don't last. A bright spot in this was Audric and Rielle since they did certainly have chemistry.

In fact, Audric and Rielle were a bit steamier than anticipated. If sex scenes are not your thing, be warned there are a couple of them. They aren't overly detailed but I was still a bit surprised by them. Just like I was surprised by the occasionally use of curse words. Again, not bad, but if you're sensitive just be warned.

Overall, I enjoyed the development of the two main characters greatly. Watching Eliana and Rielle become either the Sun Queen or the Blood Queen (I'm not going to tell you who is who but the summary kind of gives it away in my opinion) was well done. They both grow and change a good deal in Furyborn and I can't wait to see how this continues in the sequel.

Now that I've covered the basics, I can rave about little details I loved. Well, two specific details. Navi and Remy! They were hands down my favorite characters. Navi wasn't in the story too much but I have a good feel about her. I loved her strength and how she was still a strong woman without falling into the trope of "strong female character". I can't wait to see what she'll be like as the story continues.

And Remy. Sweet, little Remy! He has my whole heart. He's the bookish younger brother who isn't afraid to speak his mind and I absolutely adore him. All the other characters definitely share my feelings as everyone else adores him and not in a Mary Sue way. He's just awesome and I can't wait to see him develop in book 2.

So, overall, I loved the book but there are things that could have been explored more or done better. Hopefully, they will be in the sequel.

Rating: 4.5 Stars