I received this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Normally, a novel like this is exactly my sort of thing. I love fantasy, I love YA Fantasy even more, and sprawling epic YA fantasy? Yes, please! Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book and I marked it as DNF at the 20%. It really didn't grab me, and reading it felt like a chore. I may give it another go in the future, to see if I was just in the wrong headspace for it at the time, but as of right now it's too much information overload and a too slow start to get me really hooked. I'm sad because I went in really excited to read it.

I do think the idea is very different and creative, but I think there might have been some execution problems.

This is. a book that you don't know how to feel when you first read it. Upon re-reading it, I loved it more than the first time. I loved the description and two timelines, make for a very interesting read.

Okay so the 1000 year dual timeline of this book is so interesting! Although that sounds like it may be confusing, it was actually rather easy to keep up with and the timelines flowed together very well!

This cover? The description? I should have loved this, but noooooooo. I just could not get into this one! I gave it the good old 50 page requirement and then I decided life was too short.

This was a DNF for me. I don't know if it's how all-over-the-place this felt in the beginning, or how daunting the amount of story here seemed. But, I wasn't connecting with the characters at all. I had great hopes for this one, too.

Absolutely outstanding! I cannot wait to read book two! For some reason I didn't think I was going to end up liking this book and decided to try it out anyways. I was HOOKED! I loved every second of this book. I think what I enjoyed the most was all of the politics. It was so interesting and had me reading late into the night.

This book has received mixed reviews but I actually loved it. It was different, feministic and written really well. I cannot wait for the next book.

Loved this book and will recommend to teens and adults who read YA. Fun read for YA loving readers who like strong characters and lots of action.

I was very excited when I was approved for this book! I had read the prologue, and it sounded amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. However, this is entirely my preference; it was a good book, I just didn’t like parts of it.

This book is told in dual points of view: Rielle’s and Eliana’s. Rielle lives in a kingdom, best friends with the crown prince. Eliana’s point of view is set years later, under a tyrannical empire. While I liked that we got two drastically different story lines, I struggled to read it. You know when you’re reading a really good scene and then, just when you’re about to get to a good part, it switches points of view? and you hate it? So yeah, that was kind of my problem. I loved Rielle’s parts at the beginning and hated when it switched to Eliana’s because Eliana’s storyline was kind of boring at the start. And then during the second half, it switched; Rielle’s story grew tiresome to me, but I really started getting into what was happening with Eliana.

This was honestly the reason it took me a month and a half to read this book; the premise is so cool, and I really enjoyed the worldbuilding with the angel mythology! This is one of those books with little excerpts from a book/letter/something at the beginning of the chapters, and I always find that it adds to the world a lot.

I wasn’t really into some of the romance; idk, again it’s really just a personal preference. I liked that Eliana is bisexual without making a big deal about it! However, it wasn’t immediately apparent, so I’m not entirely sure why everyone’s hailing it as THE bisexual fantasy. Maybe that will change in the next one though. And honestly (**slight spoilers but not really**) I thought Rielle easily could have been in a polyamorous relationship. But we’ll see.

Furyborn was an interesting start to a series, and I’m excited to see where it goes next. The worldbuilding is lush and the characters are written so well. Pick it up if you’re a fan of high fantasy, angels, and prophecies!

Furyborn is a ya high fantasy that follows a dual perspective from a queen in the past and a girl in the present timeline. What I enjoyed about the story was the political intrigue. Finding out how things were going to play out politically was super interesting in both timelines. Also, I thought the character development and world building were solid. The action scenes were also very engaging.

However, this was not my favorite fantasy read. The plot twist seemed pretty obvious to me and I wasn't sure if it was suppose to be a surprise to us or were we just waiting for the characters to figure it out. Also, I felt that there were some parts that were overly long AND the sex scenes were awkward.

Overall, I'm intrigued enough to continue the series because I feel the issues I had with this book will be gone in the next one and I would like to see where the central conflict is going.

This is such a great addition to supernatural angel literature. Rielle is a brilliantly written character who is easy to identify with as she navigates her struggles. Great YA read!!!

* okay look I loved this but I also didn’t love it
*I didn't care for Rielle or learning how she becomes the blood queen since it’s boring trials and like we know she will complete them - like every time finished one of Eliana’s chapters I felt like groaning because I didn't care as much about her story - I’m hoping her story in Kingsbane will be more interesting since this was just backstory for her really and I think the inclusion of the trials were unnecessary
* Rielle is also more of the typical YA “heroine” we see with she’s so special since she doesn’t need a caster and guess what she can control ALL elements and I just………… care. her character was flat and considering she has this terrible guilty secret she doesn’t think about it much - her dad was more complex and had more development than her and we don’t see him that much in the actual story
* I guess it’s supposed to be that you don’t like her since we know she descends to evil but LIKE …. it was tiring.
* Audric is a soft boy and I like him but he also felt typical and like BruH why is your love never faltering, you have so much faith and you're so young
* HE ALSO GETS ATTACKED AND IT'S NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN LIKE EVER and he’s the PRINCE
* I think part of the prologue shouldn’t have been included since it makes the MAJOR PLOT TWIST super predictable - I think I was able to call it about halfway through - there was another smaller twist that I was surprised by [Corien being the emperor in Eliana’s time]
* Eliana’s story was more interesting - I loved Remy and Navi, they were well done and fantastic
* Eliana still has room to grow - would have liked to see a bit stronger development from her but it’s sort of understandable with the circumstances
* I’ve seen people complain about her plotline and I read it as part of her doing what she needed to survive and help her family

actual rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars

Confusing and not holding my interest. The characters could use some background or history. It's hard to identify with them otherwise and they come across as bland. I’m not going to rate it but it’s a DNF for me.

What It's About?
FURYBORN is Claire Legrand's first book in a fantasy series called Empirium, about two young women with supernatural powers beyond all measure in an alternative fantasy universe. The prologue starts off with Queen Rielle giving birth, pushing the baby into the hands of an 8-year-old angel-human hybrid named Simon (who can time travel), and then proceeding to destroy everything around her to get away from a telepathic angel, Corien. Then the chapters alternate between Rielle in the past and a young woman named Eliana 1,020 years later. Rielle lives during a time in which a select group have 1 out of 7 elemental powers, but she can master them all -- something her father and tutor have been keeping secret from the royal crown. When assassins threaten her best friend (and secret beloved) Audric, the kingdom's crown prince, Rielle uses several elements at once to save him (and kill the mercenaries after him). It turns out Rielle's powers deem her either the prophetic Sun Queen, who will save the world, or Blood Queen, who will destroy it (by handing it over to oppressed angels desperate to leave their realms). A millennium later, Eliana's world is post-ruin and run by an evil emperor, but she works for it anyhow as a well-paid bounty hunter for the Empire. When Eliana's mother is kidnapped, she teams up with a rebel faction to save her, only to discover she's now part of a thousand-year-long battle that connects her storyline to the legendary Queen Rielle's.

Is It Any Good?
An amazing prologue and intriguing premise make this series starter a riveting YA fantasy read, particularly among fans of ultrapowerful "chosen one" protagonists. Legrand's opening chapter is brilliant and sets the page-turning tone -- a baby, an evil queen, mentions of a lost love, and a battle between said queen and an even more mysterious angel. That's a compelling start if ever there was one. Once the story rewinds (for Rielle) and goes forward (for Eliana), it occasionally gets tripped up with more action than world-building (and definitely more steamy romance and sex positivity than is typical in YA books outside of, say, Sarah Maas' bestsellers), but readers will still want to barrel through to figure out what's happening and what turns Rielle into the character we meet in the opening pages.

Between the two main characters, Rielle is the more likable, even though readers know where her story "ends" from the start. At times she seems a bit too overwhelmed by desire for Audric (and even the sexy angel speaking in her mind) than worried for her world's future, but she is, after all, a teenager in love. Audric, for his part, is an earnest, handsome hero without any stereotypical bad-boy edge. That edginess is reserved for Simon, who's scarred and cryptic and has a complicated attraction to Eliana. The plot is super simple if excised from all the action sequences (a seven-part trial in the past, a rebel mission in the present). But younger readers unused to timeline changes may find it difficult to understand if they're rushing. Even after 500-plus pages, readers may not fully grasp the scope of what's at stake for Eliana's timeline, but they'll be ready for more of the Blood and Sun Queens in Book 2.

A good book is still on your mind days later. Furyborn achieves that and more. I still find myself unpacking the complicated emotions between our four central characters, even weeks after reading.

Two have not one but two fierce female POCs is a gift—and the idea to split between timelines is a stroke of genius. Some of the plot may mirror the basic YA building blocks (queen tempted by an outside force, etc) but the way Claire Legrand tells the story redeems any of those criticisms. She skillfully plays with the idea of "breaking bad" but on a timeline. We know Rielle, the queen who seems initially to be the golden and unscarred character, will ultimately end up our (sympathetic) antagonist... while watching Eliana Ferracora redeem herself. It's a story of balance and an intricate character story that is nonetheless a page-turner I couldn't put down.

If you're looking for a fast-paced but complex story, look no further.

This book was a very unique take on dark fantasy. The story is told through two POVs, Rielle and Eliana ... but the twist is: their stories take place 1,020 years apart.

What surprised me was that each chapter switched between the two POVs. Because of that reason, most chapters ended slightly "cliffhangery" and that did take some getting used to.

I thought this was a daring undertaking for the author. I won't say it was without flaws; I do feel like she could have melded the two stories together with better pacing, but I can understand why it would be a bit too difficult to do with the first book in a series. She was essentially crafting two worlds within the same world, so I have a feeling, now that the world-building is complete, that I will have a more enjoyable time with book 2.

I did enjoy this book a fair bit, but I'll be honest, I didn't LOVE it. I feel like I'm hovering between 3 and 4 stars. After contemplating it for a full day, I decided to lean a bit more towards 3 stars, regardless of how imaginative Legrand's story was. Parts if it were too drawn out for my tastes.

It was well crafted, but it was by no means an easy read. If you want something easy where you can turn your brain off and just enjoy a fast-paced book, this is not what you're looking for. You need to pay attention and dedicate time to fully lose yourself within the pages.

I had a hard time deciding which POV and story I liked better. Whenever I was reading Rielle's chapters, I would think <i>she's my favourite</i>, then I would read Eliana's chapters and think <i>nope she's my favourite</i>. It was a fun and vicious cycle. Plus, Audric and Simon were very enjoyable to read about ... especially a particular scene with Audric <i>*wiggles eyebrows suggestively*</i>. But I have to admit, the surprising standout "star" of the book was Eliana's little brother Remy. He was just so stinking cute. So cute it made me ache. So sweet I just wanted to bundle him up in my arms and protect him forever. It's a very strong author who can make you love side characters just as much (and sometimes even more) as you love the protagonists, and Legrand achieved that.

I don't think I would recommend this book to everyone, but I know for sure there is an audience for a book like this. I know several people who would become full-on obsessed with Legrand's world, and I'll very happily tell them they need to read this book.

I'll definitely be anxiously awaiting the sequel. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I read this a while ago and while going to review it on Goodreads realized I couldn't remember anything about it. So I looked at the Goodreads summary again and was like "nope still don't remember" so not a great start. I ended up having to open and skim it again just to remember anything about it and when I did I remembered why I didn't remember: it wasn't very engaging. The story was ok. The plot was fine. It just didn't really have any single thing that hooked me in and I didn't find any of the characters to be actually engaging.

This is an amazing fantasy and one of the best young adult fantasy titles I read of the year. The pace never slows down, and yet the author created rich characters with many dimensions to uncover. I can't wait to read the second installment in this series--Furyborn was a fantastic journey!

Finally able to purchase this for the school! And, the second in the series, as well. Looking forward to sharing Furyborn in the first week and watching it never be on the shelf! Two exceptional women in a story beautifully woven together by the author.