Published by Simon and Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Academia, Action, Adventure, Modern Fantasy, Aether Magic, Healing Magic, Summoning Magic, Various Magic, Arthurian, Black Authors, Black Characters, Gay Characters, OwnVoices Representation, Demons, Monsters, Diverse Representation, Royalty Characters, Family Drama, Mental Health, Trauma
Series: The Legendborn Cycle #1
My Rating:
Published on: 15th September 2020
Pages: 512
Disability Representation: Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD), Trauma and PTSD
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones
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An Instant New York Times Bestseller!
Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author AwardFilled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.
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.
Content Warnings:
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Welcome to my book reviews for The Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn, including Legendborn, Bloodmarked and now Oathbound! Please be aware that reviews for books further in the series may contain spoilers.
Legendborn Book Review
[book info]
It’s taken me a long time to find the words to write this review because Legendborn is not just a fantastically written novel; it’s an important novel. Reading a novel like Legendborn set in the US, and particularly in a part of the US where racism is rife, isn’t just a massive culture shock; it’s sickening. In a way, it was also educational because, as a disabled bisexual pagan, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of prejudice, and yet there were things I hadn’t even considered that black people might notice or feel. For example, the feeling of being unwelcome in historical buildings because they were built for white people. That one completely floored me. I can’t even begin to comprehend the visual monument of being unaccepted and unwanted that these buildings represent to the black community.
That is just one example of how in-depth and personal Legendborn gets with racism. I’m probably making it sound like this book isn’t a fantasy novel at all; however, Tracy Deonn expertly weaves Bree’s racial identity and the racism she encounters with the main plot of the novel. As Bree looks for answers about the magic she’s witnessed has to contend with a secret society that is predominantly white, and when she has to infiltrate it to find out more, she has to contend with racism from multiple fronts.
Bree is also still struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death, and when her father grows worried about her, he signs her up for therapy. This leads her to new information about her mother and her extended family, and through the connection with her therapist, Deonn explores several main themes: Bree’s family, the history of racism in the US, and her struggle with grief. I was really impressed with how Deonn wove Bree’s grief and journey with her grief into the story. You didn’t feel like you were reading a novel about a girl who had lost her mom, just like you didn’t feel you were reading a book about a girl who struggled against racism; you were very much reading a fantasy novel based on Arthurian Legend.
It’s this ability that Deonn has to weave everything together so that it feels genuine that makes Legendborn so important. It’s a book that people can enjoy for the world-building and magic, but it’s also one where they can relate to Bree and her friends as well. Because life is messy, life isn’t split into these nice neat compartmentalized blocks where only one thing happens at a time or one person only has one thing to deal with. Ok, so most people aren’t going to be infiltrating a secret society of the Knights of the Round Table, but they know what it’s like to say the wrong thing to their best friend and upset them.
Regarding magic and world-building in the book, I’m not sure how much I can say without giving major spoilers. It’s one of the most unique takes on Arthurian legends I’ve seen. The synopsis explains that the Legendborn are descendants of King Arthur’s knights, but there’s so much more to it, and like all magic systems, there’s a drawback. By the end of the book, everything has been completely turned on its head, and you won’t see it coming. Throw in an interesting and varied cast of characters, and Legendborn is an amazing book that I really can’t recommend enough. Even better, it’s the first book of the series, so there’s more to come!
Bloodmarked Book Review
Published by Simon and Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Academia, Action, Adventure, Modern Fantasy, Aether Magic, Healing Magic, Summoning Magic, Various Magic, Arthurian, Demons, Monsters, Witches, Diverse Representation, Magic Users, Villain Characters, Gay Characters, OwnVoices Representation, Scottish Characters, Mental Health, Time Travel
Series: The Legendborn Cycle #2
My Rating:
Published on: 8th November 2022
Pages: 561
Disability Representation: Trauma and PTSD
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The shadows have risen, and the line is law.
All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:
A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.
But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.
Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.
When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.
If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.
This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!
Content Warnings:
Legendborn was an incredible read, and here I am attempting to put into words how I feel about its sequel, Bloodmarked, months after reading it. To be quite frank, I still don’t have a clue where to begin. Tracy Deonn has written another exceptional book that will rip your heart out multiple times, fix it up a bit and then tear it into shreds all over again.
The stakes get even higher in this book, and it shows Bree who her friends and allies truly are as the Regents reveal how they plan to handle everything that happened in Legendborn. Bree has to fight with everything she has, and to do that, she needs to learn to use her powers. The problem is that her Scion powers don’t want to play ball, and too many people are taking that as a sign of weakness. With her back against the wall, Bree accepts help from the last place she wants to, putting her in more danger than she ever imagined.
In Bloodmarked, Deonn takes Bree’s story down a much darker path, continuing to highlight real-world issues through a fantasy narrative. Once again, Deonn forces the reader to look their biases right in the eye and acknowledge them. I wasn’t even aware of one that had been with me since my youth and was still causing me harm until a massive light was shone on it in Bloodmarked. That is how powerful Deonn’s writing is, and The Legendborn Cycle is a must-read for all ages.
The character development in Bloodmarked is some of the best I have ever seen, and there are too many beautiful scenes to mention. The ending of the book is a cliffhanger, but in a way, I don’t consider it a bad one. I’m putting my final thought under a spoiler tag due to a spoiler:
View Spoiler »Oathbound Book Review
Published by Simon and Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Action, Adventure, Dark Academia, Modern Fantasy, Aether Magic, Compulsion, Summoning Magic, Various Magic, Arthurian, Asian Characters, Black Characters, Brown Characters, OwnVoices Representation, Queer Characters, Scottish Characters, Transgender Characters, Black Authors, Demons, Spirits, Witches, Diverse Representation, Knight Characters, Magic Users, Villain Characters, Mental Health, Trauma
Series: The Legendborn Cycle #3
My Rating:
Published on: 4th March 2025
Pages: 656
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones
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The phenomenal third book in the TikTok sensation Legendborn Cycle by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Tracy Deonn. Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi, Sabaa Tahir, Cassandra Clare and Leigh Bardugo!
Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can't understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself - and those she loves - safe.
But Bree's decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King's hands - and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.
Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order's Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them . . . or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.
As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her . . .
Content Warnings:
It took me a while to get to Oathbound, and for some reason, I thought it was the final book in the series. You can imagine my surprise when I got to the last section of the book and started to realise how many plot hooks were still open. I think the reason for my confusion is that the first three books are being sold as a set.
Following on from exactly where Bloodmarked left off, one chapter of Bree’s life has closed. After the horrific treatment she experienced at the hands of the Regants, she has accepted the offer of the Shadow King to train. Completely alone, Bree finds herself in his world, and soon realises that the deal she thought she made is much more complicated.
As she trains under his tutelage, her friends have no idea where she or Sel are. Both of them disappeared the same night without a word. The deal Bree made with the Shadow King included taking Sel to his mother in the hope that she could help him recover after drinking Bree’s power. Separately, the Legendborn and Rootcrafters search for Bree. While Valec and Mariah work on a lead at their end, Nick makes a deal with the Regants. With Lark and William along for the ride, the three hunt for the elusive Mograines.
All roads lead to the same destination, a private auction where the stakes have never been higher.
I don’t think it’s possible for me not to enjoy a book in this series at this point. That being said, I did find Oathbound to be less enjoyable than the first two books. There is a lot packed into this book, and at times it felt like too much, especially when I realised it wasn’t the last book. While I loved the amount of lore Deonn gives us here, book three felt very bogged down.
I also wasn’t that keen on the change to multiple narrators. Along with Bree, Oathbound includes William, Mariah and Sel’s mother, Natasia, as narrators. As I said, a lot happens in this one, and it was a bit overwhelming at times. The narrators did grow on me as the book progressed. I think what didn’t work for me was the choice of narrators. Mariah rather than Valec, William instead of Nick. The only one that made sense to me was Natasia, and I loved the way it begins as a voice recording before shifting to the present.
The ending is a huge cliffhanger, again, so for those who aren’t a fan of them, I’d hold off until the next book comes out. This one is huge! I can’t wait to see how the story progresses in the next book!
About Tracy Deonn
Tracy Deonn is the #1 New York Times bestselling and Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe award-winning author of the Legendborn Cycle. The Cycle includes the internationally bestselling titles, Legendborn and Bloodmarked, the third title, Oathbound, out in 2025, and a fourth novel to follow. Legendborn has been translated into over a dozen languages and counting. Tracy’s writing has appeared in several anthologies, on Tor.com, and in the 40th Anniversary The Empire Strikes Back collection, From a Certain Point of View. In addition to being a featured expert in the 2019 Star Wars fandom SyFy Channel docu-series Looking for Leia, Tracy was also a co-writer and consulting producer.
After earning her master’s degree in communication and performance studies from UNC, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. As an instructor, Tracy taught theater to middle and undergraduate students, and creative and academic writing at the university level. When she’s not writing, Tracy reads comics and fanfic, dreams up new magic systems, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything.
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