Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn

  The first in what will be a trilogy (3-book series) when Oathborn is released March 4th, and the winner of the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent, Legendborn is a good, long introduction to a modern version of the King Arthur story...with a lot of twists! Main character Bree Matthews is a high school student taking an advanced college program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where her mother also went to school. But while her mother was a student she was in an accident and was killed. Bree is going to find out what happened, and the more she learns the more she realizes that this might not have been an accident after all.

    In the middle of this simple-sounding story line are powerful people tied to century-long lines of power, going all the way back to medieval times. Nick, who also becomes Bree's crush, is from the family line of King Arthur himself, thought to be the most powerful of all families and lines. However, Bree is also Black, and along the way she becomes aware of the power that her family line brings to the story. The two lines do not play well together, and Bree is caught in the middle - and of course the crush doesn't make things any easier!

    This first book by author Deonn is fun, and in many places a real page-turner! But it has to be as it settles in at just under 500 pages long. There is a lot of action and excitement, romance, beasts and monsters and demons. There are many characters that eventually start to find their place in the story, but early on some of the names were hard to remember and follow. The book reminded me a lot of the Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series, which pitted vampires and werewolves with a romance holding the whole story together. Legendborn also reminded me a little of Marie Lu's Legend series, also page turning adventure and a strong romantic element.

    For her first book, Legendborn is very well done. I didn't like the enormous cliff hanger at the end - I thought Deonn could have given a little more closure and still make us want to read the next book (Bloodmarked). And at times I found myself wanting to skip ahead a few pages, especially when Bree was writhing in pain or indecision, which happened a lot by the end of the story. On the other hand, kudos to Deonn for tying African American slave history into a King Arthur story. It made the situation she creates in the book between the Arthurian line and the African American/slave line very interesting. And I think you'll be surprised, pleasantly, by who the "hero" turns out to be!

    A good start, although I don't have the stamina to jump right into Bloodmarked just yet. Perhaps you will! It seems that we will be reading Deonn books for a ling time to come! 4 paws!