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4.5/5 stars, that was such a ride omg

I am sorry, I cannot believe that Legendborn is a debut novel. As a reader, I typically do not lean towards urban fantasy as it just doesn't seem to mesh with me. But as so many people on the internet read and loved this, I knew I had to try it out, even if it was said to be like City of Bones (which I didn't like). This is such an amazing book, the group of characters is fun and while the plot does reflect City of Bones, the atmosphere reflects Ninth House which was one of my favorite books of the year. It was magic mixed with dark academia and knights and the atmosphere was so amazing I felt sucked in every single second my eyes were on the page.

The plot, again, reflected other books and while I should have seen some things coming because of this, it was just too easy to get lost in the story and follow along. Some of the tropes in this book as well felt a little overused or stuck a little too close to the trope, but overall didn't deter my love. There was the chosen one trope thrown in, which I actually as a reader can sometimes enjoy. The "good" boy trope, the "tall dark-haired sarcastic boy" trope, and more but as a whole, it is so amazing.

The worldbuilding and the atmosphere was pretty amazing, but on the flip side, I feel like not all the magic systems were conveyed or explained to the full depth they should have been. Sometimes they were confusing but with clues from the characters, and explanations, it seemed to fit together well. Other than that the magic was pretty fun, especially following the "lines of Arthur" thing. Some still don't make sense to me but that just leaves room for it to be explored in the second book in the series!

The racism and sexism that is present in this book and how it addresses them is important. The stories that the author tells, and the monuments that are pointed out in this book, most of them really are still standing at Carolina University. We as a nation, a world, and people tend to overlook the stories of African Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and more people of color to make ourselves feel better. When in fact, their stories are very important for all the suffering that has happened to them for simply being of a different color skin, when in fact, we are all just the HUMAN race and should all be treated equally. Exploring more of these stories, especially from an African-American author's perspective was a struggle, I hated seeing everything that had happened to these people of color, but it was important nonetheless.

Bree was a great main character, she wasn't perfect and I enjoyed seeing her struggle (as in getting better as a person because of it). Early on in the book, we know that she is struggling through the grief and trauma of losing her mother, the author states that she struggles specifically from acute traumatic grief, PTSD, and early Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD). While I have never experienced these myself, I feel as though Bree's actions reflect someone who is suffering from things like this, especially because the author experienced these things too. Bree as a character evolved from her grief, she is not over it entirely, but she was able to overcome parts of it, and it is so great to see this happen. She had a therapist during part of the book, and while it was a bit different from how it usually works, it was nice to see a therapist in a YA book not be totally useless.

Selwyn was probably my favorite character, even though I hated him in the beginning. Yes, his first description was also "tall dark-haired sarcastic boy" but he slowly evolved into a little more each scene we got with him, doesn't mean he changed from being mean completely, but we slowly peeled back the layers of him. He's a Merlin, one of the most powerful magic users in the Order and sworn to protect Arthur's bloodline, which went for a spin in this book. He is complicated I suppose, in the beginning, all he wanted to do was kill Bree and learn her secrets because he was trying to protect the Order. But we got to see more of his past as he spent more time with Bree and I gotta admit, his charming sarcasm got to me and I just NEED MORE.

Nick was also a great character to have in the cast, but he went from one of my favorites to meh at the end. Nick is the poster boy, he's the perfect blonde-haired boy who does everything for the greater good. This trope isn't necessarily a bad thing! I just felt like his story relied a little too much on this, and didn't allow room for him to grow. He went from being one of the nicest guys to being a little too focused on doing everything for the right reasons instead of thinking of how he could do it. He wasn't horrible, in fact, I still liked seeing him through the whole book, but we got less time with him in the second half and I feel like we should've had more. (view spoiler)[ For sure upset about that ending though lol, I hope he gets found because he is super important and doesn't deserve torture from the shadowborns (hide spoiler)]

The side characters were a big bunch, and not all of them got great character introductions or explorations, but I have always loved having a big group of people working together in stories. My favorites out of the group were William (the healer), Greer (an LGBTQ rep! they/them), Tor & Sarah (bonded squire and legend born and also lovers). While the Order is supposed to be taken from ancient bloodlines, so it's supposed to be white, straight, etc for the sake of keeping their lines "pure" (racist if you ask me) there were some characters who were LGBTQ in it. They were also looked down upon but I loved Greer, Sarah & Tor a ton. As a whole, seeing the whole group working together was a blast, and I hope we see more William in the coming book.

The ending was a crazy explosion of things happening super fast. I won't talk about it because of spoilers, but the ending felt a tiny bit rushed, and not explained. But at the same time, this left us up for a cliffhanger so I'm not that upset! I have no idea how the series is going to continue.

"Don't make life about the loss. Make it about the love"