Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn | Book Review

【 BLOODMARKED 】

book two in the Legendborn series

Somehow even better than book one.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Author: Tracy Deonn
Published: November 2022
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 550 (paperback)

Huge thanks to Tandem Collective and Simon & Schuster for a copy of this for review

This was just incredible – and this review will contains some spoilers for book one. I can’t even begin to process the events of this book and how much I enjoyed them. The combination of Tracy Deonn tackling a retelling of the Arthurian legend mixed in with combating racist attitudes, is simply out of this world.

Bree is such a strong character and following the hectic events of book one and her being thrust up front and centre within the Legendborn, we don’t miss a beat as events pick up immediately where we left off. She’s so feisty and isn’t afraid to stand up to people – whether it be about her status as descendent of Arthur or comments about her hair – she’s an inspiration in every way.

I ship her and Sel so hard. It having been a year since I read book one, I couldn’t remember who I shipped together and I started off mostly with a huge crush on William. And while he isn’t an option for Bree, I still stand by that crush; William is adorable. But I never really felt the connection with Nick in this book – and to start with I found Sel difficult to warm up to (who doesn’t).

But as Sel gets far more ‘screen time’ in this than Nick does, I found myself hardcore batting for the SS Bree + Sel. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so passionately about a romance in a book – lately I find myself feeling excited but not super invested in YA romances (particularly love triangles), but something about the way Deonn structured this (SIZZLING WITH TENSION, I TELL YOU), I was suffering delightful hot flushes the whole way through.

So yes, in short, very excited to see where book three takes matters.

Speaking of the next book – what a cruel place to leave us hanging! After well over 500 pages of excitement (and tiny font, omg my poor eyes, take me to the optometrist) this story was cut straight off at the knees practically mid-scene. I think I might just expire waiting for the next book because I NEED to know what is going to happen next.

Whew. A great book, a great series. If you want fantasy with a purpose – something that’s able to provide a good story and comment on complicated social issues, then make sure you pick this up next!