I’ve heard some mixed reviews about this one and wasn’t quite sure what to expect going in, but guys … I loved it!

This book has all the things that I typically look for in a high fantasy:

✦ Myths, legends, or prophecies in world-building
✦ A strong female lead (or two in this case?)
✦ A bounty hunter who is damn good at her job and enjoys it
✦ Complicated romances
✦ Oops, look at that, a bunch of people died

All I can say is that the ending is such a freaking tease and now I just have to read the next book because IT’S ON!

In a totally unrelated side note, this is listed on Amazon under Teen & Young Adult Horror, and I have absolutely no idea why? This is an epic dark fantasy, but there’s nothing even remotely close to horror, and if I bought this expecting horror, I’d be pretty disappointed.

Warnings for character death, sex (not particularly graphic), war, and torture.

*Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.*

 

❧ Eliana, a.k.a the Dread of Orline, is pretty much everything you could want in an antiheroine.

She isn’t inherently evil, yet rather, a product of the world she lives in. She’s good at what she does and takes pride in it, because that’s the easiest way to keep your sanity and stay alive.

But wait! That doesn’t mean she’s entirely heartless.

Maybe just … 75% heartless? There’s still plenty of room for growth in her character, and she has a good character arc, even though it’s obviously not completed by the end of the book. I’m actually ridiculously excited to see where book two takes her.

❧ The Wolf makes the fangirl in me really happy.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s no Romeo. Then again, Romeo was kind of boring and (spoiler alert?) ended up killing himself in the end, so … probably, that’s a good thing.

But The Wolf has a darkness in him and is obviously just a teensy bit broken, despite being strong and capable and protective, and who doesn’t find that sexy? I mean, come on.

The relationship between Eliana and The Wolf is so full of all sorts of different kinds of tension, and I couldn’t decide whether they were going to kiss or kill each other, and this is sooo my type of character interaction.

Because life is about decisions, and you know, sometimes the knife wins out. But I especially loved that both characters are strong on their own, are perfectly happy being on their own, and neither one overpowers the other. Yet. I mean, I’m still not taking the murder thing off the table, obviously. Still, their dynamic made me ridiculously happy.

❧ There were so many gray characters, and I was so confused about who to root for and who to hate, and OMG I’VE JUST DECIDED TO LOVE EVERYBODY.

Yes, even the antagonists. Why not? There’s something fairly compelling about them, too, or the brief glimpses we get of them (as they’re not really explored in depth in this book, which mostly focuses on the protagonists more than anything).

I kept trying to figure out how to describe these characters, because they’re so freaking complicated. So you know what? I’m just going to say what song I associate with them, and you can make what you will of that because I refuse to explain my choice. Although, if you’ve read the book and have different songs, I’d love to hear them!

✦ The Wolf – King and Lionheart (Of Mice and Men)
✦ Eliana – I (Just) Died In Your Arms (Hidden Citizens)
✦ Harkan – Don’t Fear The Reaper (The Spiritual Machines)
✦ Remy – Again (YUI)
✦ Rielle – All The King’s Horses (Karmina)
✦ Audric – King (Lauren Aquilina)
✦ Corien – O’ Death (Jen Titus)

❧ The myths and lores are fabulous, and I’m hoping the sequel will delve more into the bits that were kind of glossed over but seem important.

This seemed to be more prominent in Rielle’s portion, where there are prophecies and prayers and just masterful world-building as to the culture of that time and how society was structured, etc. In Eliana’s part, there is basically Remy, her little brother, who has read the old myths and lores and wholeheartedly believes in them.

Remy is a treasure, an absolute darling, and I wish more little brothers were so adorable and not at all annoying.

Which is how you know this is fiction, obviously. Although, there are plenty of times he annoys Eliana, because why won’t he just let her kill things and betray their friends?! Gosh. Brothers. Am I right?

❧ The story is told via two perspectives, two timelines, and they’re very different and they don’t ever meet up in this book, which was sort of frustrating.

Rielle is the main character of her own story, set in the “past,” and her struggle focuses on proving that she is the Sun Queen. Her whole arc is based around this and the struggles with her two friends: the future king and his intended bride.

Eliana’s story, on the other hand, takes place 1,000 years in the future from Rielle’s, in a much darker time and place, and her struggle is basically finding her mother after she’s taken.

The two stories don’t exactly coincide, which in the end, made it feel like I was reading two books instead of one, and then struggling to try to keep each of them straight.

I spent about the first 25% of the book confused, waiting for things to start adding up and wondering why the perspectives kept rotating between the two times and trying to keep things straight.

In the end, the parallels start to become clear, but I still walked away feeling like the storytelling was muddled by this rotation, because it was hard to sink into either story. Essentially, there are really two very disparate stories being told in Furyborn, and when I became invested in one, I was yanked back to the other in the next chapter. Even by the end, neither of them wraps up and neither comes full circle to tie into the other (even though it becomes obvious how they’re related). So if you’re expecting that, you’ll be disappointed. This is the first in a series, so I assume it’ll become more clear as the series goes on.

❧ If you read the prologue, the rest of the book becomes painfully obvious.

I kept thinking there must be something more to it, because everything is basically laid out in the prologue, if you pay attention and read closely. By about 15% of the way through the book, thanks to that, I knew where it was heading, which made it really hard to root for particular characters when you know how it ends.

The book leaves things unanswered, so despite knowing how things turn out by the time you’re done with the prologue, there’s still mysteries to be found by reading.

I just didn’t find any particularly surprising plot twists because of it. Well, except for maybe one or two minor ones, but it felt like the “major” reveals were kind of obvious.

❧ I wasn’t as enamored with Rielle’s story as Eliana’s.

Sure, Rielle herself was a fantastic character, finding her strength, trying to figure out who/what she is and where she fits in the world. But her plot’s a bit … tedious. Okay, it’s exhausting. There’s a lot of just petty drama and squabbles and just … I came for the stabbiness and murders, okay? I’m not as interested in the romance and political drama.

❧ I’m still not entirely sure about the structure of magic and the different races and all that?

There are humans and angels and marques and wraiths, and they’re clearly different and their powers are different. But some humans have powers, too, and others don’t. So I’m not really sure what the difference is or how they all came to be pitted against each other, and it doesn’t really say. I assume this will be explored more in future books. At least in Eliana’s time, basically nobody had magic, where it was commonplace in Rielle’s. Obviously, something happened between the two, and I know it’s a series, so we’ll probably find out more later, but so much seems to have happened in those 1,000 years between the timelines and there’s basically no information about that gap, which makes it really hard to reconcile the two, and that sort of bugged me.

It also makes the ending all that more confusing, when all the races are revealed and more things are added to the mix, and I just … I’m not entirely sure what’s going on or how everything ties together?

Again, I assume this is handled in the sequel, and series can be frustrating that way, but I guess I figured I’d understand more about the world by the end of this book than I did. I think I’m actually more confused, after having read it, than I was, say, 25% of the way through as far as the world-building goes.

Have you read Furyborn yet? What did you think? Are you also a little bit in love with The Wolf?