Nightborn by Jessica Thorne
I enjoyed the first book, Mageborn, so when I saw this pop up on Netgalley, I grabbed it. Wow. I enjoyed it even more than the first.
The story opens with Grace Marchant and Bastien Larelwynn (the Lord of Thorns) in a foreign court, where Bastien is playing -or rather trying not be played by – courtly games. Meanwhile something odd is happening to the Mageborn. They are being converted, filled with darkness and turned into vicious and powerful Nightborn. There’s no way to save them, and the only way to destroy them is to kill them or let them kill themselves.
Grace’s powers are dangerously close to turning Nightborn. Quite early on, something terrible happens to Bastien (I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s pretty terrible) and everything goes wrong.
There’s romance and magic (the costly kind, not the nice twinkly kind) and quite a lot of violence. The pace doesn’t let up right until the end. It’s a brilliant fantasy adventure that gallops along.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy. The usual disclaimer that I know the author in real life – we belong to the same writers organisation. This is my honest review of the book.
Rhoda Baxter 