An Immersive and Complex Fantasy

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Furyborn was an immersive and complex fantasy detailing the lives of two women—whose stories never coincide—and their fight to hold onto themselves in worlds so different. Legrand crafted an action-packed story which told two very different tales through the intricacies of time period, position, and heart. And through it all she managed to hook the end of every chapter in order to keep the pages turning and the action building.

Both heroines, one-thousand years apart, were imperfectly flawed women with non-redeeming qualities and yet I enjoyed the honesty in exploring the motives of two similarly different women. Their selfish tendencies were inherent but born from a need to be, and though both straddled that line of egoism and selflessness throughout their independent journeys, there was never a moment where they went too far on either spectrum to make me dislike them. Legrand found that delicate balance and played around with it beautifully, bringing forth the very humanity we all battle with and displayed it in two starkly different ways. Their worlds were as vast and separate as they were; two women a product of their station and situation. And even with my being able to see behind the curtains of their connections—likely they never meant to hide anything—I still found myself very much intrigued and captivated by the overarching storyline. Even with as much as this one book held–two very complete stories that could have been two separate books themselves–the romances in both centuries, however, were a bit disconnecting at times mainly due to it feeling like an element that needed to have gone in rather than one that should have and it felt as if they just weren’t given enough time to develop organically outside of everything else. My hope is this’ll find its footing more in the next book.

Told in alternating chapters of past and present, there was no possibility of getting lost or forgetting the other story as each remained so prominent in my mind. Switching back and forth became a fun game as I couldn’t wait to get back to both storylines–something that can be hard to pull off successfully but was done here. It was a big, big book with a lot to delve into, and though I’m waffling between star ratings, Furyborn was a really enjoyable read. Worlds were built, characters were sewn in, questions were asked with some answered, but there is much, much more coming, so many questions hanging, and I cannot wait for what’s to come with these two renegade women.