I won a free ARC of this book during SDCC online thanks to Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Legendborn is about a girl, Bree, who attends UNC Chapel Hill in a program for high schoolers. Upon arrival, she notices things aren’t as they seem. It appears there is some type of magic afoot. The more she learns about this magical society, the more she realizes her mother’s death isn’t as black and white as she was led to believe. We follow her as she joins The Order and the Legendborn and tries to uncover the truth of what really happened to her mom. But the more Bree finds out about her mom, the more she discovers about her past and truths about herself. What will Bree do with all of the knowledge and thus the power she is searching for?

Let me start off by saying, for some reason I hadn’t really heard much about this book. I saw it during SDCC and I was intrigued, but again, I hadn’t heard much hype. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that. So, after I was lucky enough to win an ARC of it, I dove right in. That was the best thing I could have ever done for myself.

Y’ALL. I absolutely LOVED this book. It isn’t even on the SHELVES YET and I need to read book two! I can’t rave enough about how good this book is. It’s probably my favorite so far this year. I gave it a 5/5–my first of the year! It will be in stores tomorrow–September 15th. Let me get into why I love it and why you need to go get yourself a copy and read it ASAP!

Why I Loved Legendborn

Tracy Deonn has a gift. Her writing is amazing. It was lyrical and powerful. I felt connected to the characters and each character left me feeling different emotions. I was hooked from the beginning and didn’t want to put it down. The magic system was so interesting, too. I don’t want to go into great detail, because spoilers. But there were two main categories, really, and they were both developed pretty well.

Bree was such an amazing main character. I loved that she was such a strong female character who did what she needed to do despite what others wanted. Her “take no shit” attitude was one of my favorite qualities about her. Another favorite quality she possessed was her determination. Not only did she never give up trying to infiltrate The Order, but she never gave up trying to find out the truth about her mom. Her compassion was also an admirable quality. Even though she was there essentially for revenge, she still cared about the members of The Order and tried not to hurt them. I liked that Deonn included connections between Bree and a few characters (no spoilers!) and I’m so anxious to see where that goes in book two!

I liked the diversity that Deonn incorporated. It didn’t feel like any of it was included just to mark off on a checklist, and it felt more organic. There were a few same-sex relationships and non-binary representation as well. The discussion of racial disparity was a great inclusion in the book. Not only is it poignant as the story takes place in the south with mainly white characters, but it is important that we don’t forget the injustices and discriminations that still are prevalent in our world today.