I liked this book, but i didn't blow my mind. My main issue is that the relationship felt forced and not organic. Overall i still want to read more of this story and of this author.

I love this genre - the world building and complex characters make for an entertaining book

Our heroine , Grace Marchant , trains as an elite soldier tracking down mageborn – those born with long-outlawed magic- and handing them over to King’s cousin and heir: the elusive Bastien Larelwynn ,
Lord of Thorns .
It is only when her best friend appears on the list she begins to acknowledge the voice inside herself …………. is this law 'JUST'
Grace must confront Bastien and also hide her own latent burgeoning magic powers ………. will she survive or become just another collared mageborn ?

This is a highly entertaining book - I must admit that it took a couple of chapters for everything to fall into place for me BUT after that I was hooked .

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review

For me this book was a good read. The beginning was a little hard for me to get through because I felt that it was a little slow and I kept drifting. Once I got past the first couple of chapters the book kept my attention. The development of the characters was done fairly well. I did have to keep some notes in to keep track of some of them however. I appreciated that it had a strong female lead for the book. I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

I really enjoyed this swords-and-sorcery fantasy novel and am glad that it is the first in a series.

After a brief foray into the past, we are plunged straight into the action as Grace and her team corner a dangerous magical criminal and, during the course of the unfolding action, we are clued in on wonderful worldbuilding details – the ‘need’ to collar mages, the sinister prince’s role in neutralising magical energy, the fear of another Hollow King rising, and Grace’s own dangerous secret. I was completely hooked from the start!

Grace and Bastien are compelling main characters, if a little too quick to throw all to the wind at the first glimpse of romantic chemistry! The side characters are great too, each with their own quirks and motivations, and the antagonists are creepy and unnerving – manipulative, deceptive, utterly unpredictable.

I would love to see less focus on the romantic relationship between fire and shadow, and more focus on the plot action, because I particularly liked the crime mystery thread that ran right through the fantasy story and fleshed out the political intrigues. It created a nice sense of balance to have Grace continue with her investigatory bent even as she is dragged into a wider arena and a bigger plot.

The story ends on something of a cliffhanger and this is one of those books where you want to have the next in the series on hand because you need to know what is going to happen next. Definitely one to watch for fantasy fans.





She wasn’t collared. It hadn’t been deemed necessary when she came here. There was no magic left in her. Once it had started to rekindle… well, she had guarded that secret. She didn’t want to be collared. Some of the mageborn might say it protected them, helped them channel and control the way they used magic, kept them from being lost in its depths, swept away in the stream, or pulled down into the Deep Dark beneath.
But if that was true, why did so many run? Why did people actively flee Rathlynn instead of doing their duty and submitting?
Why was it even called submitting?

– Jessica Thorne, Mageborn

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Need an epic fantasy with a dark brooding prince whom everyone fears and strong willed lieutenant determined to do her duty despite any obstacles she may face, obstacles such as said prince who wants to aid her investigations into mysterious deaths of mageborns (magic people) despite being her number one suspect?! Well look no further cause Mageborn has you covered. It’s dark and broody and a little bit horny.. who doesn’t love a bit of romance! Put it this way fans of A Court Of Thorns And Roses will love it, I know I did! And the story itself is intriguing, a dying king, a venomous queen and a struggle for power, all the while an even darker threat lurks in the background. Ok I’ll stop before I give anymore away, I really enjoyed Mageborn it’s fiery and enthralling and I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface, can’t wait for book 2!

This book has good and bad parts. It's a bit slow then picks up, the writing on the other hand is where I feel a bit unsure. Some of it is very well done, and other parts makes it hard to continue to read. I do enjoy the characters, they are written rather nicely and intriguing. While character's were great, the writting was sort of choppy for me. It does go into detail about the city/area and gives you world building but it's either too much on one part or barely enough to leave you confused. While I did like this story, I think it could have been done a bit better. The romance could had used a slow burn rather than the way it went for the main character and the 'lord of thornes'. It would have helped the story in some ways for me I think.

You have your main character who is suppose to catch mageborn (people born with magic) and take them to the crown to either submit or die. It keeps her close to the next in line heir to the throne. Which is our 'hero' in this story and both have secrets about them that they are trying to keep while working together to figure out who is killing the mageborn. Which again if the plot would have been a bit better this would be awesome.

I would like to try the next book to see if it's going to be better and maybe make a bit more sense. Sometimes books aren't always easy to make heads or tails when your doing first in a series. I am interested to see where Thorne takes things and hopefully does do this series justice.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As I sat down to write this, I realized that I was conflicted on how I felt about this book. While the premise was super interesting and right up my alley, I felt like something was missing. The world building and the story line did progressively improve over the course of the story... I just felt it could have been better executed.

I enjoyed it, but I didn't find myself yearning to pick it up and read. It was a good book though!

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Mageborn is an interesting story involving magic, friendship, romance, some politics (as it does involve a kingdome), betrayal, and mysterious occurrences that need to be solved.

In it we follow two POVs, Grace (an elite soldier who hunts down the corrupted mageborn) and Bastien (otherwise known as the Lord of Thorns who oversees all things mageborn). We are first introduced to Grace as her and her team hunt down a mageborn, though due to some complications it turns bad and one of her team members is left injured. Fast forward back to their home (not sure if that's really what to call it. All the soldiers live in the same place), and the Lord of Shadows is there to help Grace's injured team member.

This kickstarts a tense partnership between Grace and Bastien as they eventually team up to find out why so many mageborn are being corrupted and killed.

I enjoyed the beginning, however once the romance started everything else turned to background noise. The plot is barely there, the character growth is little, the mystery is okay but not overly suspenseful or tense.

Overall, this is a decent start to the series, but I personally wasn't a fan of the romance and therefore not a fan of the last half of the book.

Absolutely loved this and can’t wait for more! The characters are engaging and the story intriguing. Recommended.

Mageborn is a solid novel. It has the potential to be something great but usually has too much going on to tap into that potential. I mean, there is really too much going on. This could've easily been two books and towards the end I was bored and waiting for things to wrap up. I loved the characters and the world the author created and the idea is also really good. I just think it was poorly executed. I gave Mageborn three stars, although I might change it to four, and I will definitely be reading the second book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Jessica Thorne and Bookouture for my arc of Mageborn in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: after the last Great War, Grace Marchant was sold to The Academy. An elite force trained to bring in wild Mageborn, people born with outlawed special powers and bring them under control of the crown. An ancient pact binds the Larelwynn kings to protect the land and prevent a Mageborn uprising. Helping him is his cousin Bastien, Lord of Thorns and controller of the Mageborn. When dead Mageborn start turning up in the city Grace and Bastien form an unlikely team to get to the bottom of it. Placing their own lives in danger.

Slightly conflicted review from me... the premise of Mageborn was really interesting. I liked the world building and towards the end the storyline did pick up massively, but while it intrigued me enough to keep reading to the end, I found I wasn't particularly wanting to pick it up. It took me a lot longer to read than a book of this size should. This was mainly due to two things; character development being the first, the characters were at times fantastic and at others just really underdeveloped or overdeveloped. For example; a character who is supposed to be feared, respected, revered, one sign of a love interest and his entire personality changes to one which is somewhat weak, fearful, confused, vulnerable. While I'm all for a fierce female and vulnerable Male role reversal thing, this felt somewhat overdone in places.
Other than that I did like the romance and I liked the history and world building enough to want to read the second book. I thought the twist was good and I'm interested to see what will happen next. I always think with debut novels you can expect certain things to niggle which are ironed out in the next book so I have high hopes as this was pretty good to begin with!

Mageborn is a new fantasy story coming from Ms. Thorne. This fantasy had the potential to be really epic, but a few things would allow it to be like that.
Grace is an orphan that needs to fight her own way in this harsh world to become. A fierce girl that knows where her loyalty lies but is that what it should be like?
Bastien is a Lord of Thorns, a brooding male character that I always enjoy (I think he was my fav here), at first he is one big unknown, but later when things are revealed, some parts of the twist will blow your mind!
Generally, this book was a good one, but i would concentrate more on the magic/fantasy aspect, that was not developed and described enough for me. With a more elaborated part of that art, I think this book would be considered MUCH better!

Unable to read as the "Send to Kindle" feature malfunctioned.

Interested enough that I plan to buy the book

Things I love in a fantasy novel:

A strong female protagonist (this is my personal preference, no point in trying to deny it)
Unique and varied systems of magic
BIG reveals
A character or two with a delectably mysterious past
Epic fight scenes
Complex and unexpected villains
Diversity in ethnic and romantic representation
A central issue that turns out to be merely symptomatic of something so, so much bigger.

So basically, Mageborn has it all!

Are there bits of this book that were familiar? Sure. But they are also the things that I love and crave. Were these familiar elements carbon copies from other books? Hell no! Thorne has injected so much creativity and imagination that nothing gets close to predictable or boring. It’s fun, energetic, and there are twists around every corner – especially when you think you know where things are going!

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Grace and Bastien. Grace is a little firecracker (pun intended) with more spunk than anyone knows what to do with. Her caustic exterior hides a gooey centre and the love that she has for her team is so compelling. You know within the first few pages that this is a girl who would die for the ones that she loves, and that this is a quality that might cause some serious complications in the future. Bastien on the other hand knows that he will be alone in the world once his cousin passes, and his lack of support network positions him as a direct contrast to our heroine. Throw in a touch of amnesia, more power than any one human should be able to handle, and a kingdom that hates you for your title and you have a mighty nice recipe for some serious character development. And you know there have to be some sparks when opposites attract, let’s just hope these sparks don’t burn the kingdom down!

And can I just say that I’m in love with the magic system in Mageborn? I appreciate the variety in the types of magic, that mageborn children can be born to magicless parents and vice versa, that the mageborn need to be grounded in order to keep them from going hollow, and especially how magic can be stolen from from one person and channeled to another. But above all, I really appreciated how that while the magic is something that’s incredibly powerful and awe inspiring, that it’s also fragile and fleeting and needs to be protected from those who would abuse it.

I can’t wait to dive back into Rathlynn and ride alongside Grace as she rediscovers her powers as a flint, Bastien as he negotiates life after getting his memories back, and Danny and Ellyn as they make their way through a rapidly changing world. Friendships will be tested, characters are guaranteed to grow and and change, and we know that drama waits around every corner. Will tough choices have to be made? Yup. Does betrayal in some form or another seem inevitable? Yup! Will the budding romances get messy and complicated? Yuuuuup!

Not only was this a smashing read by itself, but it’s one of the most complete and intriguing set-ups for future action I’ve read in this past year. If you’re on the hunt for a fabulous fantasy read, consider Mageborn, you won’t regret it!

Mageborn is a great read full of torment and the struggles finding yourself. There’s a mix of friendship and budding romance. First impressions and said stories aren’t always true when it comes to the characters in Mageborn.

The story of how Mageborns came to be and how they are treated by the crown was intriguing . A hollow king and the man that brought him down. The family line that is cursed to keep peace and protection to those within the town. Secrets are deep and betrayal is great.

There’s everything from assassination attempts to slipping someone something similar to drugs, believing in the law and turning your back on it for the greater good. Every character had depth and relatability. I could see myself being friends with them and feeling the knife in my own back when someone swung the blade.

The plot was entertaining and exciting. There were some things that I could see coming and some not. Those moments were always great. I love being shocked by characters.

There were parts that seemed to repeat itself on several different occasions, it seemed to be the same information too as if the reader would’ve forgotten. It did make reading a little slower, after the halfway point things did speed up.

Overall, it was a great fantasy read. It did end openly leaving the reader hanging, but thankfully a sequel has already been named.

The cover of is beautiful. But the writing was very difficult for me to get through. The only way I can describe it is unnecessary dense. The world building and overall plot was pretty good. Just the writing made it a slog to get through.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the e-ARC. I thought the premise was interesting, writing was good, and characters were what i was expecting to get out of this read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for sending me a free advanced reader copy of this book for an honest review. Mageborn debuted February 18th.

Jessica Thorne’s book The Queen’s Wing blew me away last year; I fell in love with its characters, its science-fantasy feel, and the can’t-look-away plot. So when I saw that Thorne has a new series out, I immediately hit the request button on NetGalley. Mageborn was an all right read for me, but I don’t think that it measures up to Thorne’s other series, unfortunately. In all honesty, I do think that because I’ve read the other series and know Thorne’s potential, this knowledge kept me from fully falling in love with Mageborn.

The premise is pretty interesting–a woman who tracks down rogue magic users is given an assignment that puts her in close contact with the heir to the throne. There’s a lot of your standard fantasy tropes: court intrigue, prejudice against those with magical abilities, shaky or repressed memories, brewing rebellion. I saw some people on Goodreads complaining about the Graceling and Sarah J. Maas comps–I don’t see much of SJM in Mageborn, but I was reminded of Graceling throughout, especially because of the jumbled memory thread of the plot. The problem is that Graceling did it much better. It’s been a while since I read the trilogy, but it sticks pretty heavily in my mind, and I’m not sure if Mageborn will. I enjoyed it while I was reading, but there wasn’t one thing that stuck out to me as setting the book above other fantasy.

There’s another thing that I debated mentioning, but I’m just going to go ahead and say it: there are too many fragmented and repetitive sentences in this book for my taste. I don’t remember Thorne’s other series relying on these stylistic choices so much, or perhaps the intense plot of that series made it so that I didn’t notice. I noticed it here, though, a lot; it feels like you can’t go two sentences without a fragment or repetition. For example:

She didn’t pull away and for that he was grateful. Stupidly grateful.

Or this one, which takes the repetition to a ridiculous level:

“Tell him… tell him I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this.”

“He knows, pet,” said Simona. “Divinities protect and defend you, he knows.”

Did you count? That’s tell him, I didn’t want… this, and he knows, all repeated in the span of twenty-six words. Don’t get me wrong; repetition can be a powerful tool for writers to place emphasis on something, but you can’t go a page in Mageborn without seeing Thorne leaning on these writing tricks. It got old for me fast, sadly, in the same way that SJM’s writing can wear on a person.

Essentially, I had decent fun reading this book, but it didn’t leave me with a deep impression. Maybe I’ll pick up the next in series, but mostly I’ll be hoping for a third in Thorne’s other series, since there are still a lot of plot threads left to explore there.

For Grace, it is an honour to serve. Alongside her team, she is trained to stop evil magic-users. A new case, and a broodingly-handsome new ally are soon to unravel everything.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Grace tracks down the mageborn, so they can be registered and put to useful work; or stopped if necessary. All the while, Grace keeps quiet that she once had magic, and there are traces of it still, allowing her to be super-effective at sniffing it out.
After a mageborn girl is killed, and left with scars on her hand, just like Grace's, the investigation becomes so much more important.

Bastien is the kings cousin, and 'Lord of Thorns' - the royal magic-user who traditionally cannot ever assume the throne. His cousin is sick, though, and Bastien finds himself the only (and unwilling) heir. His country fear him becoming a tyrannical king, if given the chance; and his court is full of schemers. Only Grace can be trusted.

This started off as a murder mystery, set in a city with oppressed magic. I was completely hooked by the world and the rules that the author had created.
Unfortunately, the plot quickly becomes swallowed by the romance between Bastien and Grace, which was quite sweet in places, but a bit overwhelming.
When it steers back to the mystery of the stolen magic, in the second half of the book, it was good, but not as great as the first section.
I did have an eye-rolling moment when the Bad Guys literally show off to everyone that they are Bad Guys. In front of the people investigating them, and the ones that could potentially stop them.

I do really like the dynamics between Grace and her team. They are more than just background characters, they have their parts to play, and I hope their in the rest of the series.

Overall this was a 3.5 out of 5 for me. It's a fun read, and I am intrigued as to what happens next.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I'll start by staying I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy books but this one had a beautiful cover so I decided to give a try. I was a bit lost with the prologue, I just kept waiting for the characters to emerge and story to pick up. I was waiting for a bit. Once it did, I was impressed with the world building and the magical elements. Interesting characters and engaging writing. Interested to see what the author comes up with next !