Nov 30

Nov 30 Bloodmarked (The Legendborn Cycle, #2)

Author: Tracy Deonn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Young Readers
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

***Description is a spoiler for Legendborn***

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.

TL;DR Review

Bloodmarked is a solid, fast-paced sequel to Legendborn. It’s fast paced and expands the central conflict in smart, exciting ways. I need the third book like yesterday!

For you if: You want the kind of YA fantasy that you can’t read fast enough (and you read Legendborn!)

Full Review

Bloodmarked is the highly anticipated sequel to Legendborn, which I absolutely loved. And while I thought Legendborn was a sliver stronger than this one (the second book of a trilogy is always a bit of a bridge), I really enjoyed it and absolutely can’t wait to get my hands on book three (someday 🥲).

I don’t want to give any spoilers for Legendborn, so I’ll just say this about the synopsis: Bloodmarked picks up pretty much right where the first book left off, and Bree has to try to absorb what she unexpectedly learned about herself while navigating a world she’s still very new to (and tends to be unwelcome in). Our favorite characters are present throughout, and we get to meet a ton of new, exciting characters too. In fact, I thought this book expanded the scope of the world and underlying conflict really, really well.

What I love about this trilogy so far is how smart it is, how Tracy Deonn has built such a sprawling world and magic system and premise that takes aim at colonialism, systemic racism, and white privilege. These books are super fast-paced, too — the kind of book that your eyes can’t read fast enough. It also takes a GREAT author to make me enjoy a story with a love triangle (I normally hate them), but wowza is Deonn pulling that off.

This was the breath of fresh air I needed after reading a lot of (good but heavier and denser) literary fiction; it reminded me just how much I love YA fantasy romance and how great it is for my mental health.

Book three, WHERE ARE YOU?