Synopsis

Review
3 stars
First of all I am grateful to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me the opportunity to read this much awaited sequel!
I absolutely adored Furyborn and I could not wait to read Kingsbane!
When Kingsbane landed on my Kindle I think I screamed so loud that I awoke my neighbors.
Sadly I struggled with that story. As it gets many good reviews, I guess it’s a case of “it’s not you, it’s me” . I hope to help you decide if the book still could be your jam and will go with my likes and dislikes
Let’s begin with the positive:
The world building is still excellent. You have fantastic beasts, angels, magic etc. Claire Legrand knows how to write to make you see this fictional world.
The plot is strong with twists you won’t see coming. There is action, you move nearly all the time, meet new people, have threats to avoid and quests to fulfill be it get ancient artifacts from the Saints or find a cure or ….
We get to read about the back story of the characters and about what happened to the angels. Believe me, the humans were not flawless here and they did trick the angels!
I never saw that ending coming! As this is a trilogy it ends on a cliffhanger so you’ve been warned.
BUT
Here come my dislikes
I really disliked the characters.
Of course in book one we know that Rielle was the bad guy. But I rooted for her and really loved her as kickass girl! I wanted her to have excuses.
Here…
Here she changed so much and I could not stand her. In that Claire Legrand did really a fantastic job depicting a villain. Power was so tempting. But I had problems with the grasp Corien had on Rielle. Why was she attracted to him like that? She just seemed kind of selfish in her search for power. I would say she became power drunk and accumulated bad decisions.
On a side note, if I did not like Eliana at all in book one I warmed up to her character in this sequel. She is trying her best but she is also a very conflicted character and not easy to like either. She is stubborn and decided to do things her way. That led to mistakes…
As I love above all else character’s driven stories it was really difficult to feel concerned with their ordeals.
What bothered me deeply too were the numerous sex scenes. I am a romance reader so I am used to hot scenes but not in YA books. This CAN’T qualify as a YA!
The way these scenes happened and how Rielle wanted it made me feel uneasy. I did not like how she seemed to use Audric and … well you got it for as much as I loved her before I disliked her here.
I think if this book would have been labelled as adult I would have been prepared and probably not bothered by these scenes.
I like my relationships to be focused and exclusive but that was not the case. I loved Audric and each time Corien happened felt like a deep betrayal. The relationship between Ludvine, Rielle and Audric was also …peculiar and probably not fitting for a YA story again.
Would I recommend this book?
If you have read and loved Furyborn I would say read it and make your own opinion.
I know that I will read other books by Claire Legrand as I loved not only Furyborn but also Sawkill Girls (unique story).
I guess you can’t love all books from an author…
Have you read Furyborn? Did you love it? Do you want to read Kingsbane?
Thanks for reading
I have had Fury Born for a long time and just couldn’t get into the darn story. I can imagine you struggling with this one. I can’t even get through the first one.
Mary
I haven’t read Furyborn yet. It’s on my TBR mountain though! Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one as much 🙁
I haven’t read Furyborn yet but it’s on my TBR list! I’m sorry the sequel didn’t meet your expectations! I hope you’re enjoying your current read!
Ah, if it became more of a character driven storyline, and then you didn’t like the characters, I can understand why you felt that way!!
How odd!! I saw so many reviews that were all a bit “this book was disappointing” for Furyborn so maybe that’s why?
It sounds like the author went in a different direction with the series. I often wonder why they do that. I’ve not tried this series yet.
I also wonder why Laura! Still no clue to this day.
Oh sorry this didn’t work better for you! I confess, I gave up after the first book 😛
Hahaha but I was smitten after the first book! So it feels like I was cheated on!
Great review! Now I know what I’m getting into. I still want to read it but at least I have an idea what to expect.
I really hope you’ll still be startruck with this series!
I hope so too!
I haven’t picked up the first book yet, so I don’t want to read too much of this and get spoiled. I’m sorry to see this one probably didn’t live up to your expectations.
Alicia I do hope it will work better for you!
I’m sorry this wasn’t a better read for you. I enjoyed Furyborn but have been waiting to see some reviews for Kingsbane. So far what I’ve seen are mixed.
Really Suzanne? I have read nearly only very postive ones and I was feeling like the black sheep here! Did you see them on Goodreads? Twitter? Just to ease up my mind LOL
This is a growing and very worrying trend by female YA author, to do a lot of what are (quite possibly) unnecessary sex scene, IMHO! What a shame as you so loved the first book, that this one dropped the ball.
Yes Alexandra but honestly it spoiled my fun. I see more than 90% of the current reviews being overenthusiastic though so it must be me being easily unsettled ….
Oh sorry this was a little disappointing! Glad to hear the world building is still on point though- it DOES sound like an amazing world. The angels thing has me curious too. But the sex scenes- urgh I have a fairly low tolerance for that in YA especially if it’s pretty heavy.
Sawkill Girls looked pretty awesome to me too, so I may still read some LeGrand.
Well I don’t like sex scenes in YA either Greg. It is just confusing and often “clashes” with the tone. It feels artificial or forced.
I couldn’t get on with Furyborn….I tried 3 times and had to admit defeat!
Ha Damn Caro! I loved it so much so now it’s painful you know …
I had the same problem! I am glad it’s not just ME!!