Review: Bloodmarked
When I read Legendborn, to be very honest, I wasn't impressed with Legendborn in the beginning. But then the end got really good and with a cliffhanger like that, I knew I had to get hands on the sequel. I thought 'this book better be worth it because I waited four fricking months for this'.
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.
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.
QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 5/5, WHAT WAS THAT ENDING? I NEED AN EXPLANATION RIGHT THIS MOMENT.
Possible Trigger Tags:
1. Racism
2. Violence
3. Grief
4. Mentions of rape
5. Mentions of slavery
6. Mentions of infidelity
7. Gore
8. Mentions of colonisation
9. Gaslighting
10. Sexism
WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE BOOK'S:
1. Writing Quality: Well, I must say, I am pretty much happier with this book considering Legendborn dragged a bit in the beginning. Well, the first chapter was a bit off putting but then it picked up so well that I couldn't put it down anymore. And I think that's great progress on Deonn's part. It is progress quite literally in the way the writing is done and the plot is carried out. There's more action and less of information dumping, which is something I can really enjoy in a book. The legends are more intricately woven and the adrenaline is always keeping me on the edge of my seat. And the fact that the author did the OP MC trope so well, it's just *chef's kiss*.
2. Character Development: Boy do I have opinions about this.
I think the series of events with the characters were easier to follow considering the cast was smaller and my mind was focused only on the select few.
Bree: My girl, my absolute fucking badass girlboss. Like seriously this girl, is one fucking definition of gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. Except she's just walking around emitting power and girlbossing around and just, it's just an absolute spectacle to see. And I think that it's a development from the first book considering Bree is a confused soul in the first book. To be frank, she still is confused in the second book, but at least she has a goal and she's willing to strive towards it.
Sel: Y'all. I would have thrown hands if I didn't see Sel in the second book. Like I have been rooting for Sel from the first book because he deserves that love. I mean, Nick is the golden boy, but man, I am so not into golden boys than I am into morally grey characters. Like Selwyn does this trope of morally grey characters so well. It just hurts me to see him hurting because he's succumbing to his demon nature because he knows he's gonna hurt the thing he loves the most. He has no qualms doing the bad stuff, but he'll literally die if the said bad stuff does bad things and it just kills me. Man I love Selwyn so damn much because he went from being that bad boy who hates but secretly loves the MC to the willing to kill for the MC but secretly in love with said MC.
Bree X Selwyn: Bruh, the sexual tension that these two guys have will be like gasoline and an open flame. Bound to combust and bound to burn everything that stands in its way. And they've had more intimate moments than in the first book, and when they fucking kissed, I kid you not I screamed. The slow burn through all the pages of the first book and then through the first 300 pages of the second book was killing me. Like Bree and Sel were like so, oblivious to one another it's unreal. Even a blind person could see the sexual tension that these two had, the way that it had resulted in on itself. Man the exhale of relief I let out when their sexual tension was resolved was whew.
William: My absolute favourite character after Selwyn. I don't really remember how he looked from the first book but he gives me really gentle giant vibes. Like he is this really scary and gentle giant that doesn't even do shit. But when said giant gets angry, only God or Satan can help them considering the said giant would literally commit mass genocide if their friends were hurt. Like when William killed Kizia in cold blood, it was one of the coldest scenes in the book. Manz just, mwah.
Erebus: I know Erebus is seen as the villain in the story and I think he has played the part very well. He isn't seen for much of the book, but I think that this is a great way a villain has been created. Also the way my mind did a backflip when they said Erebus was the shadow hunter because then I remembered learning that Erebus in Greek mythology was also the son of Chaos and that Erebus also means darkness and then I felt so stupid for not joining the dots. Like man, that should have made more sense.
Nick: He doesn't appear much in the book except for the part that the whole cast needs to find him, but I think he'd grown as a character too. From a goody-two-shoes to someone who literally murdered someone in cold blood because someone who killed his father, damn that was hot. Well, not hot in the sensual sense, but hot as in that's really good. I mean, he's grown enough to make his own decisions and that just makes sense in so many ways like man.
3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: 10/10, would you expect anything less from this book?
4. Plot Twists: I think it's fair enough to say that the plot twists were very well done in the book. If I was allowed to be frank, there aren't that many plot twists, but the plot device is so well executed that you're bound to be surprised at this point. Though the end was a fucking turbulence when it came to plot twists. Colour me surprised all the damn time. I think I've grown to love this series.
5. Plot: I mean, I was gonna throw hands if I didn't get any Selwyn Kane content. Like most genuinely, I was rooting for Sel right from the beginning right from Legendborn. Selwyn Kane is the love of my life and I will die for it. But anyways, I think plot-wise, this book did seem really great, albeit it did seem a bit stand-off-ish to me, I'm not really sure about that. While I love everything about it, there was this one point about rootcraft and bloodcraft that felt more of like an open end for me. Maybe Tracy Deonn did write it like that because they wanted the book to be open for reader interpretation or maybe it was just an end that was meant to remain open.
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