I really wanted to like Furyborn, but this was not the book for me. It was on my TBR, anticipated releases, and one of the books I was extremely excited about reading this year. I mean by reading the description, it sounds intriguing. Two powerful women from two different time periods somehow connect. All in all, it sounded like a cool book.
However, I respect that other people may have like it, but I was a bit disappointed when I read it. I mean, the prologue was intriguing, and was what I wanted the book to be like. It had action, and I was hoping that the entire book would follow that same plot line. I was also hoping that the entire book would have a similar amount of action. That wasn’t the case. I read through a bunch of reviews, but disagreed with a lot of the positive reviews. Parts of the book were just boring in my opinion. One of the biggest parts of the book (on whether Rielle will be a Blood or Sun Queen) gets revealed by reading a few chapters of the book. I would have preferred if it was intertwined and developed more.
As I had an idea of how it would end (or will end by the end of the trilogy), I wasn’t the most motivated to finish the book. Also, I felt like the trials Rielle had to face were all the same thing over and over again with different elements instead. They all had the same point to it, and it felt redundant. The book was also really long. 512 pages to be exact. It might just be part of my personal preference, but I’m usually quite picky about longer books. For example, I really enjoyed ACOWAR, which was around 700 pages, but found Furyborn to be too long. However, if you do enjoy longer books you might find it to be a positive.
I didn’t exactly like some of the characters either. Rielle was slightly annoying at times, and I felt like there wasn’t much development around her throughout the book. I would have liked her more if she was fleshed and developed out a bit more throughout the book. Going back to Audric, he was just okay. At at times I felt like he didn’t need to be there other than as a potential love interest for Rielle. Additionally, I had higher expectations for Eliana as a character. I wanted her to be this strong female heroine, but I got the opposite from her. Similar to Rielle, I think that the book would have been better if the relationship between her and Simon was more developed throughout the story and as characters.
Although I disliked some parts of the book, I actually did like certain parts of the book. Towards the ending, the book got really exciting, and I was really cool that everything that we learned from the previous sections were connected in a nice way. I liked how the information we learned from the beginning of the book, the prologue, and a few scattered portions of the book connected to how the ending played out. I also liked a few isolated scenes, although unfortunately the good parts of the book weren’t good enough to let me raise my rating.
Although I did give this book 2 stars, I think it does have potential and I can see how other people may like it. I would suggest it to people who are okay with or enjoy longer books with split perspectives. It jumps from the past to the present, which makes it good for those who like reading about books like that with a connection at the end.
I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a honest review. All quotes are subject to change upon release.