May 2021 First in a Series BOTM - Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn

[Alaina]

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.

**This BOTM thread will be open until June 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Deanie]

Part One: (view spoiler)[Poor Bree, losing her mother like that so young. But that's part of the typical superhero origin story, and she seems to be aiming to be some kind of superhero. I like the world building, and so far this is a very good book. (hide spoiler)]

[Ruthie]

I've finished reading it! Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ruthie]

(view spoiler)[

feels very derivative-I know it's a retelling but there's also a mixture of other things I've read in other non-Arthurian books: the other side, gates magical creatures come through, monsters who feed on humans+create and thrive on chaos, "challenge" for acolytes to compete against each other--All of these things I've read before and this is a new take on it but all of these things combined with an Arthurian retelling makes it feel like another fantasy potluck book
-overpowered/"chosen one" MC (it's explained but still this trope is overdone)
-some of the "twists" were fairly guessable/obvious/trope-y BUT not all of them!
-MC's Mom is in the STEM field so I was hoping our MC would have some STEM "powers" or affinity and was disappointed that she didn't
-romance developing too fast--I thought the romance btw Bree and Nick developed way too fast and I like the dynamic of her with Saowin better-it's more interesting but I also really like the enemies to lovers trope
-at times the narrator delivered lines in an overly dramatic way- I would have liked more natural highly emotional parts, neutrally emotional parts, and low emotional parts at least with the inflection of how lines were delivered in the narration. (hide spoiler)]

[Ruthie]

I started to get more interested about halfway when

(view spoiler)[

we meet the therapist and she starts talking about the root magic and we learn more about Bree's ancesters (hide spoiler)]

[Ruthie]

I also like the part towards the end where we find out

(view spoiler)[

More about Brees ancestry and about why she's a descendant of Arthur about the slavery and the rape of one of her ancestors by someone in the line of Arthur. It was really sad of course but it made her being overpowered throughout the book and an ancestor of Arthur make more sense and unfortunately realistic because of what's happened in American history and the time period of slavery.

I said in my review that the parts talking about root and ancestry/history were the most important parts to me and I would love if the author would write prequels with a focus on historical fiction instead of contemporary after or in between Bree's story (hide spoiler)]

[Deanie]

Part II: (view spoiler)[So, that’s a whole lot of exposition, and some of it is confusing, which I think the readers are supposed to be confused about since we’re identifying with Bree. The racism is awful and should be out of place in the 21st century, though it is an ancient secret society in the South, so, there’s that. I do wonder about Bree’s abilities, and what she got from her mother… she could be an actual descendant, especially if the scion families kept slaves and had children with them… (hide spoiler)]

Part III: (view spoiler)[ That is so heartbreakingly sad. For Bree, for Sel, even for Nick… What will Bree do now that she knows her mother’s death was an accident after all? How will Sel react to knowing that his mom was doing evil things? What does this mean for Bree and Nick? Of course, none of this explains Bree’s strange abilities… neither the Order nor the Root magic people can explain all that she can do. Maybe she’ll be the link between the two groups, if this giant battle is coming? (hide spoiler)]

Part IV: (view spoiler)[ Well, I called it about Bree being the descendant of a scion and a slave. I wasn't expecting her to be the scion of Arthur, though. I like it. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. (hide spoiler)]