Forestborn Series: Forestborn #1 Published by Tom Doherty Associates on August 31, 2021
Source: Netgalley Arc
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Pages: 368
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram
Format: Ebook Arc
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A young, orphaned shapeshifter in a world that fears magic must risk everything if she hopes to save her only friend in Elayne Audrey Becker's Forestborn, first in a new fantasy series with a timeless feel.
TO BE BORN OF THE FOREST IS A GIFT AND A CURSE.Rora is a shifter, as magical as all those born in the wilderness—and as feared. She uses her abilities to spy for the king, traveling under different guises and listening for signs of trouble.
When a magical illness surfaces across the kingdom, Rora uncovers a devastating truth: Finley, the young prince and her best friend, has caught it, too. His only hope is stardust, the rarest of magical elements, found deep in the wilderness where Rora grew up—and to which she swore never to return.
But for her only friend, Rora will face her past and brave the dark, magical wood, journeying with her brother and the obstinate, older prince who insists on coming. Together, they must survive sentient forests and creatures unknown, battling an ever-changing landscape while escaping human pursuers who want them dead. With illness gripping the kingdom and war on the horizon, Finley’s is not the only life that hangs in the balance.
Review
What I loved: The characters in this story are so painfully human; it makes it easy to feel their pain as they choose between life and death for one character over another. The world-building and descriptions make it very easy to imagine that you are in the story. We have three main characters in this story that takes us on a very emotional journey. 2 shifters and a human in a world where magic is outlawed, but the land is threatening to tear itself apart so much that it has sicked many. Our trio must venture where once the shifters lived to try and saved the world.
What Left Me Wanting More: “Magic fights to survive” Survival is a driving theme in this book. Survival being with magic, Survival of those who don’t, and Survival of bloodlines from being destroyed by those who want to control everything. I wanted to know more about the prediction that has placed our two shifters at the forefront of the story. Two shifters to be the ones who end the world. We told it happens every year but not how they have dictated the very life of magical creatures.
The Final Verdict: At the close of this first book, after some profound truths revealed, Rora says, “I’m not the subject of anyone’s prophecy, there to assign meaning to however they like, but my person, a good person, my actions determined by my will alone. I’m one in a pair of shifters, both of us bent on mending the cracks in this broken world. Survivors.” Survivors of a prediction that shaped the very world they live in and survivors who are determined to set things right and have the truth come into the light.
Audiobook Sample
About Elayne Audrey Becker
ELAYNE AUDREY BECKER is a storyteller with a passion for history, myth, mountains, and magic. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MSc from the University of Aberdeen, and she has worked as an editor at a New York publisher. Born and raised in Georgia, she grew up with a lake and woods as her backyard, spending long days outside and visiting national parks with her family.
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| Overall: | 4 |
