Legendborn

The Legendborn Cycle, Book 1

By: Tracy Deonn

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

SOME LEGACIES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN.

"I love the feeling of a magical world existing just beneath the surface of our own and this story gave me everything I wanted: incredible characters, ancient lore and secret societies – all grounded in our very real, very flawed world . . ." –Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone

An explosive fantasy debut that is taking TikTok by storm. Perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare, Leigh Bardugo, Sarah J. Maas and Cinderella is Dead!

Filled with mystery and Southern Black Girl Magic, Tracy Deonn’s New York Times bestselling Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend . . .

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants to escape. A residential programme for bright high-schoolers seems like the perfect opportunity – until she witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus . . .

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so-called “Legendborn” that hunt the creatures down.

A mysterious mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts – and fails – to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory about her mother. Now Bree will do whatever it takes to discover the truth, even infiltrate the Legendborn. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and foretell a magical war, Bree must decide how far she’ll go for the truth. Should she use her magic to take the society down – or join the fight?

Winner of the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award, and a New York Times bestseller!©2020 Tracy Deonn (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, INC.

Excellent. Must read.

I don’t often review. Overall, an excellent listen. Highly recommended.

The writing and story is excellent. The main character is instantly relatable and you root for her from the get go. The author has a turn of phrase that is impactful (it is a study in great writing) and kept me gripped in the first quarter of the book, then the plot kicks up a gear and keeps you gripped the rest of the way. I was gripped from start to finish and finished it almost in one go.

The book deals with race issues (it’s not the main thing) that ordinarily I would not be interested in, but does so without being heavy-handed or preachy, which won me over.

I don’t know why audible recommends so many bad books to me. This is a hidden gem that I discovered from a booktuber, Merphy Napier. (Check out the international Audible reviews as well.) After all the boring PC crap Audible recommends, you would think this brilliant book from a black author would be a no-brainer.

The book is based on Arthurian legends — this might have put me off. Don’t let that put you off either.

The only drawback is some narration issues. The narrator is overall a good match for the main character’s voice, though her voicing of white characters was spellbreaking for me. I was looking for the distinctive southern gentleman cadence, but didn’t get it. But in no way should this deter you from what is overall a great listen.

Gripping, relevant and still fun

Loved this dark academia meets romantacy vibe ! Loved the reference to African traditional beliefs and the ways the book engages relevant issues of coloniality, slavery, racism and sexism and those intersections. Wish the second book was available here

Buffy &Vampires meets Twilight

Gripping story with realistic female leads. Its an action packed book, but just as interesting is how the main characters; healing process from grief and navigating starting uni.

Amazing narration and captivating story

Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings an already beautiful story to life. Her style brings depth to each character.

Unpopular opinion

So this story definitely has so much potential, but firstly the narration... the main character’s voice was great, but the story stated that most of the other characters weren’t her ethnicity yet the narrator made them all sound similar to the main characters accent so didn’t match up with the storyline. Secondly I felt like the main character was whining and not a strong character so inherently I already disliked her personality... I stuck with the story to see if there would be an improvement and there was but not by much aside from the physical powers the personality didn’t develop much. This was recommended to me and I liked the main character being African American but I felt the story kept digressing to her race constantly and I feel some of that was great but too much just distracted from the story I wanted a supernatural story with a kick ass main female protagonist which is t really what I got. Maybe the harsh review is partly because I felt the story just didn’t live up to the hype. I would definitely try future books by this author and narrator just that this one didn’t do it for me.

good story but the narration 👎🏻

the story was good but i couldn't finish it because of the narrator voice 😅 It's like she wants to cry all the time i couldn't stand it