Mageborn: An absolutely gripping fantasy novel (The Hollow King) Paperback – February 14, 2020

his book captured my interest from the first chapter. I did not want to put it down. I am so happy to have found this. I have had a few books that have not lived up to my expectations recently so this is particularly appreciated.I don't usually enjoy romance books but the romance in this was not overwhelming or overdone. I however, could still do without it. I find it embarrassing because I feel voyeuristic. I was very excited by the world building and the story itself. I encountered Jessica Thorne with The Bookbinder's Daughter. I enjoyed her writing very much and decided to delve into her other books. I am glad I came across this. Nightborn is already in my Kindle.

Mageborn is a perfect example of how new life can be breathed into old cliches. There's nothing unusual about this book in terms of its themes, plot or characters - orphan girl searching for her past and her purpose, handsome and brooding prince with untold power, societal class feud between those with magic and those without, and the magic system itself, where users can control one element or aspect such as fire, water or music.🪞Yet it still felt fresh and exciting, a cleverness that came not from original ideas but how they were woven together. Tension and loss and hope and discovery - the world was rich and the characters inspiring. It was a truly phenomenal first half or so, and I was ready to give it five stars.🪞Unfortunately it only gets four, because of this little thing called 'romance'. And yeah, sue me, but it makes me grumpy when it doesn't feel natural to either the characters or the plot, and this was one of those. This exciting tale of political scandal, magical exploitation, the almost-rape of a royal prince, chases through tunnels and streets and...oh yeah, lots of gazing into each other's eyes adoringly. Heartfelt declarations. Descriptions of how the other completes them. Meaningless sacrifices and boring paragraphs when to me, the romance should have been only secondary to the action. It deflated the tension and undermined the climax, and I felt a little let down after such a great build up.🪞There were also a few moments where things were either over-explained to death, or entirely under-explained/inconsistent. It was as if huge chunks of text had been edited out after reading, and sometimes I struggled to understand things that may be presumed obvious by the writer, while others were coloured as 'revelations' when I could have sworn we'd found out about them several chapters earlier.🪞A good book, but with the potential to be a great one. But the author's writing style and imagination may be enough to entice me back for the sequel...

I really enjoyed this book. Grace works in the academy hunting done bad mageborns. She has her own secrets she is keeping. Grace and her team are sent to the palace. Grace is tasked with protecting the Lord of Thorns. Bastien is the prince of the mageborn. He helps them when he can. Someone is out to kill him. Grace and her team must find out what is happening to all the mageborn who end up dead. Something happens and Bastien and Grace and team must leave. This book has lots of twist and turns and plot twists. When Bastien gets his memory back. You find out who certain people really are. Things you don’t see coming until the end.

I am skeptical of the raving reviews of this book. The book is OK. It is not great, just OK. It is not a gold medal and not a silver medal. It's a bronze medal in an amateur competition and by no means world class. Everyone has an opinion but I have doubts about the honesty and validity of most of the 4 and 5 star reviews I read. If they were not so completely off it might be a matter of personal opinion. Take notice of how unspecific so many of the 4 and 5 star reviews are. In many cases I didn't see evidence they even read the book. That so many practically describe a different book is cause for concern. I could see a few exceptions seeing this book as really hitting the mark for them but not the quantity the review bar graph reflects. It just isn't plausible that most people familiar with this genre would consider this book that great.That tagline "An absolutely gripping fantasy novel" is a blatant lie. It does not come close to describing this story. Most of the "activity" in this book is mental anxiety. There is too much redundant description and dwelling on feelings. We really need to see more behavior and action to decide for ourselves. Too much information fell upon characters to describe instead of writing activity from which we could cull information for ourselves. I did not care enough about a character's point of view nor the character they were describing. The whole counter-plot and its players against Bastein and Grace and their response to it got old and tiresome.Grace and Bastien are the two main characters. The trope demands that eventually they be together romantically but the story does not provide the logic behind it. Given the opportunity Bastien just says to himself that he needs Grace to exist in the world and he does not need her to be his romantic interest. Why? It is never explained. Eventually Grace accepts that Bastien is a god. We don’t need anyone describing more. We do need to see him doing godlike things.There is one scene at a public bath where a young mage approaches Bastien. Bastien proceeds to impart magic upon the young mage which travels through her and reaches each of her companions who are observing and who had encouraged her to approach him. It is a wonderful moment displaying Bastien as a kind, generous and protective mentor of the mages. Upon witnessing this gesture Grace callously interrupts yelling, “Just what do you think you are doing?” Aside from Grace ruining the moment, this is the best written passage in the book. It cleverly illustrates Bastien’s nature. There should have been many other similar situations where we could see for ourselves what Bastien is. Unfortunately there are no other similarly effective scenes.Up to this point Grace is just a callous, cynical soldier with a chip on her shoulder. Besides being on Bastien’s side (one of the good guys) by command of the king, there is not enough to like about the character of Grace. At various points someone eventually describes Grace’s virtues (like living by her principles and integrity blah blah blah) but it is not sufficiently depicted in her behavior. Bastein is a god incarnated as an attractive man with great mundane and magical power. He could choose from many women. His attraction to Grace is never adequately explained. Aside from being "strikingly beautiful" no other qualities are particularly unique or rare. She happens to be mageborn but had her magic taken from her. There are many such mageborn. His attraction to Grace is not even tied to her physical beauty. Her being strikingly beautiful is just a prop in the story lending itself to the trope as the street rodent underdog competitively virtuous in the presence of royalty.It is more effective when the reader can observe behavior and make an assessment on their own. If there ever is a description it is best when the reader has already had a chance to come to the same conclusion on their own. Giving a reader opportunities to experience characters and the world they live within takes great skill in a writer. I saw too little of it in this book. It is much easier but less effective having characters tell the reader what they should think and feel about things. But that creates a very shallow experience of the book content. Ideally as a reader I want to be emotionally invested in a book's world, including characters and story. Neither of the two central characters match what we can observe vs. how things are described by characters in the book.I would not be so critical had the book’s marketing not set up higher expectations. I have read worse and I have not bothered reading beyond the first book of many series but I did invest in this full series. However, when the first book ended I did not immediately continue with the next book. I hesitated, reconsidered then read the sample of the next book before deciding to invest in the rest of the series. Granted it is only a two-book series. The book really could have ended with the first. The two do not make a series trajectory. The second book is just a further adventures of the two main characters rather than serving as one complete story.

I got this because I was bored at work. I picked it because of the cover. Usually I am very slow at reading BUT before I knew it, I was hooked! Literally spent my entire day off...the only one I have had for a while....reading this book! I fell in love with the characters quickly! I am recommending this to all my friends who like fantasy books! It has been quite a while since I have found one that I actually liked enough to finish!!!!!