Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
The shadows have risen, and the line is law. All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights - only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new: A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion. But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped. Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected. When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But her enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death. If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first - without losing herself in the process.
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This book not only lived up to every expectation, it blew them all out of the sky. Tracy Deonn is a master at characterization and has written some of the most relatable characters and relationship dynamics in a YA series I’ve ever read. Bree’s journey in Legendborn was so beautiful and exciting and heartbreaking that it was hard to imagine anything could top that but this sequel did just that. Usually book two in a trilogy are the worst ones, the filler ones, the ones where the things you loved about the characters in the first book disappear so that the third book can fix all those problems before a happy ending. Instead of allowing Bloodmarked to fall into that trap, Deonn made sure this one didn’t undo the work of the first book, it amplified it. It took all those same issues and dug so much deeper, making the situation so much more complicated and intriguing than I thought possible without undoing all the hard work of the first book. I absolutely loved that and I can’t believe I binged this so fast and now have to WAIT for the next one…. AGAIN.
This book follows Bree as she, once again, must navigate the intricacies of a secret Arthurian society that has an ancient mission of protecting humanity through old ancestral magic. Yet again, bigotry and racism is one of the biggest obstacles in Bree’s journey. What more do we expect from an old patriarchal southern “boys” club? Even knowing these things, it’s still disappointing to see how people Bree considers friends can still fail so significantly in understanding or acknowledging the immense obstacles she has to overcome just to be accepted let alone find a place of belonging. As elders and council members become involved in the tragic happenings of the southern chapter, things escalate and we’re now playing in the adult league. We’re introduced to new characters and get to know some old ones on a much deeper level as Bree and her most trusted companions end up on the run in order to discover the truth behind the entire organizations corruption and the true depth of Bree’s power and their origins.
There are so many things about this book that I absolutely loved but first and foremost, the magic system is top tier. In the first book I was definitely intrigued by the blood magic and the root magic and how that combination works with Bree’s own power but this book delved so deeply into the origins of each branch of magic that it felt like something that could be so real in our actual world. The difference between power that’s given and power that’s taken had such unnerving resemblances to real power dynamics between colonizers and the colonized and it created such an intricate picture of how corruption starts and grows. Having this book focus on Bree’s roots, the origins of her powers, and her learning how to wield them not only gave us so much more insight into her and her ancestors’ history but also into her relationships with all of the people in her life.
Now we know I’m a sucker for character development and character driven stories so it should come as no surprise that if I enjoyed this book, the characterizations were supreme. Bree is such a deep and relatable character. Her journey through grief in the first book built connections to readers that went beyond that of your average fantasy heroine. But in this book we got to see the other side of her. Pieces of the “Before” Bree that was missing in the first book and how trusting and unfailingly loyal she could be to those that have deserved her friendship. Selwyn, William, Alice, and Nicholas all became so much more relatable and easier to understand in this book as well. There isn’t one single driver behind any of their motivations which makes their dynamics so complex but the one thing they can agree on, is their trust and belief in Bree as a friend and as a leader. I loved getting to see that side of these characters. Not just the fighting and the banter and the romantic relationships, but the true friendships between the most unlikely characters. I loved seeing more of Selwyn and how, even though he can never TRULY relate to the racism Bree faces, he does understand what it’s like to never truly belong and be ostracized because of what he was born as and finding that common ground between them was beautiful. I also loved that we got to know Alice in this book because, given she’s Bree’s number one girl, we barely got five seconds of her in the first book. Given how excellent each characters plot and development went in this book and grew from the storylines in book one, I have such high hopes for the final book that I fully believe will be met.
I could go on for literal DAYS about how great this book was but I can’t do that without MAJOR spoilers so this review will be short and sweet for the time being (but don’t be afraid to comment or email me to discuss if you need to talk about this book as badly as I do!) Obviously I loved this book and it’s an instant 5 star read and contender for top books of 2022 for me. If you haven’t started the Legendborn cycle yet, what the hell are you waiting for?!