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The Legendborn Cycle #3
Oathbound
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Sci-Fi (2025)Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself – and those she loves – safe.
But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society.
Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage. As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her . . .
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself – and those she loves – safe.
But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society.
Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage. As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her . . .
656 pages, Paperback
First published March 4, 2025
3428 people are currently reading
78338 people want to read
About the author
Tracy Deonn
13 books13.3k followersTracy Deonn is a writer and 2nd gen fangirl. She grew up in North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning two degrees from UNC-CH, Tracy worked in live theater, video games, and K-12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy panels at SFF conventions, reads fanfic, arranges doggy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,027 reviews
May 23, 2025
Trust me, no one is more surprised by that three star rating up there than I am. As someone who rates, on average, less than 5% of the books I read 5 stars, Legendborn and Bloodmarked were both solid 5 star reads for me. I fear Oathbound is the Middle Book Syndrome for this series, but I'm hopeful for a STRONG comeback in book 4.
(My YouTube reading vlog including real-time check-ins and my initial thoughts on the book here)
In short, Oathbound feels very narratively messy, far far too long for what it actually accomplishes on the page, stagnates for long periods of time, and takes several steps backward in character development right at the beginning that it then takes the entire nearly 650 pages to try to make up just to get back to where it started. This book is significantly longer than both of its predecessors with much less development than either of them in terms of both character and plot.
There are a number of plot threads you can poke holes in by asking too many Why questions and there are quite a few big events that have either really unsatisfying character reactions or reactions that happen completely off-page.
I still love these characters and this world, but Oathbound feels like the book in a series that mostly exists to get you to the next one and I was really feeling the fact that this had originally been planned as a trilogy before being expanded to a cycle. I EAGERLY re-read Legendborn before the release of Bloodmarked, and Bloodmarked before the release of Oathbound this week, and I'd happily read them both a third and fourth time...but Oathbound is feeling like something I'll be skipping a second time around in favor of a recap.
(My YouTube reading vlog including real-time check-ins and my initial thoughts on the book here)
In short, Oathbound feels very narratively messy, far far too long for what it actually accomplishes on the page, stagnates for long periods of time, and takes several steps backward in character development right at the beginning that it then takes the entire nearly 650 pages to try to make up just to get back to where it started. This book is significantly longer than both of its predecessors with much less development than either of them in terms of both character and plot.
There are a number of plot threads you can poke holes in by asking too many Why questions and there are quite a few big events that have either really unsatisfying character reactions or reactions that happen completely off-page.
I still love these characters and this world, but Oathbound feels like the book in a series that mostly exists to get you to the next one and I was really feeling the fact that this had originally been planned as a trilogy before being expanded to a cycle. I EAGERLY re-read Legendborn before the release of Bloodmarked, and Bloodmarked before the release of Oathbound this week, and I'd happily read them both a third and fourth time...but Oathbound is feeling like something I'll be skipping a second time around in favor of a recap.
March 11, 2025
oh this just came out? oh this took 3 years and book 4 has no release date? hey so that’s not cool!!!! tracy you KNOW im thiiiiiiiiis close to the edge you can’t do this to me!!!!!!!!!!!! behavior both cruel and unusual!!!!!!!! a betrayal most foul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just put me out of my misery!!! take me out back!! !!!!! i just want everyone to hold hands and smile like i would genuinely rather them die (valiantly) than end this series unhappy 🤧 hasn’t bree been through ENOUGH
this wasn’t perfect and you can feel the slooooowness of all of the irons going into the fire one by one by one…. but dude WHAT is this woman cooking??? i am so invested in this it’s embarrassing for me i’m 24 years old
4.5⭐️, rounding up. truly nothing gets me out of bed anymore and this did so thank you tracy for this gift 🙏
just put me out of my misery!!! take me out back!! !!!!! i just want everyone to hold hands and smile like i would genuinely rather them die (valiantly) than end this series unhappy 🤧 hasn’t bree been through ENOUGH
this wasn’t perfect and you can feel the slooooowness of all of the irons going into the fire one by one by one…. but dude WHAT is this woman cooking??? i am so invested in this it’s embarrassing for me i’m 24 years old
4.5⭐️, rounding up. truly nothing gets me out of bed anymore and this did so thank you tracy for this gift 🙏
March 17, 2025
2025 … a true test of patience
WEVE GOT A DATE!!! MARCH 4th🥳🥳🥳
LOOK AT THAT COVERRRRRRR ITS BREE SND SEL BABES!
it is Sel if i say it is !!!🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️ let me be delulu THX
03/2 - i just noticed the gray streak in bree’s hair. i have been staring at this cover. i haven’t felt this type of excitement in a long time
3/17 it is finished
WEVE GOT A DATE!!! MARCH 4th🥳🥳🥳
LOOK AT THAT COVERRRRRRR ITS BREE SND SEL BABES!
it is Sel if i say it is !!!🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️ let me be delulu THX
03/2 - i just noticed the gray streak in bree’s hair. i have been staring at this cover. i haven’t felt this type of excitement in a long time
3/17 it is finished
November 3, 2023
give me moreeeeeeeeee
I need more of Bree w Sel, cuz they better be endgame or I'll riot. we'll riot.
I need more of Bree w Sel, cuz they better be endgame or I'll riot. we'll riot.
March 19, 2025
oh this ending was absolutely diabolical … i need the next one yesterday
March 8, 2025
congrats nicholas davis you have grown from having the personality of a slice of white bread to having the personality of a slice of white bread that has at least sat next to a toaster for a few seconds
(actual rtc)
(actual rtc)
March 5, 2025
"a knight, a king, and a prince"
April 16, 2025
pre-read review: you already know i'm beyond ready for this HIT ME WITH MY DARK AND TORTURED SEL AND QUEEN (KING🤭) BREE 😈
~~~
AND THE WAIT CONTINUES. someone please send me book #4 asap, because that cliffhanger...
(buddy read with lovely ashley!)
this book was brilliant, as expected!! tracy deonn has, beyond the shadow of a doubt, such a masterful writing style, and her ability to write the most intricate, unique, fascinating, interwoven stories is insane.
i absolutely should have reread both legendborn and bloodmarked before this one, because i was going off an online summary that i read (and my shoddy memory), and i do think that decreased my enjoyment slightly. but that's on me, simply because this series has so many insane plot points and foreshadowing and brilliant, lifelike characters, and sometimes it's hard to keep up if you don't pay attention!!
as per usual, bree was phenomenal in this book. she's just so REAL and human - she makes mistakes, she acts like the teenager that she is, and she depicts such loyalty and dedication to her loved ones. bree really shone in this book - she grew into her powers more, she protected everyone (as per usual), but she also truly focused on herself, which i think was really needed. bree has my whole heart, and i will not take criticism of her!
now, disappointingly for my fellow sel lovers, this was not a sel-heavy book. i fear we must go back and read bloodmarked to fulfill that craving, because this book has much more nick. now, let's clear up that the central plot of this book is NOT the love triangle!! legendborn is about bree and her story, and her character, and her adventures and trials. the boys are just there to hype her up, half the time.
(but sue me for being slightly disappointed at the lack of sel nonetheless. i have a soft spot for him.)
unfortunately, i wasn't a huge fan of nick in this book, which was a bit surprising to me. he's usually a little cutie patootie whose main character trait is obsession with bree (i'm not mad), and he's always, always, loyal and dedicated and determined. all good things! this book was no different, yet for some reason nick kinda irritated me with this one? he was just always THERE. maybe he was just slightly overprotective, and i wanted him to take a step back and leave bree be? she's strong and capable, let her do her thing!!! but i think this was a me problem, honestly, because everyone else seems to adore nick.
but anyway, the plot! the magic! the SIDE CHARACTERS! ugh lark and william are just the sweetest little couple and i DEMAND more of them, and more william pov! this was, sadly, an alice-deficient book - but we were introduced to some new precious characters, who i adored. zoe and elijah have my whole heart (especially zoe), and their bond is just gorgeous. i really, really hope that we get more of them, and bree gets to form a little trio with those two that remains solid through everything!!
this book was ingenious and so captivating, it really drags the reader in. such a masterful debut series - cannot wait to see what else tracy deonn writes!
~~~
AND THE WAIT CONTINUES. someone please send me book #4 asap, because that cliffhanger...
(buddy read with lovely ashley!)
this book was brilliant, as expected!! tracy deonn has, beyond the shadow of a doubt, such a masterful writing style, and her ability to write the most intricate, unique, fascinating, interwoven stories is insane.
i absolutely should have reread both legendborn and bloodmarked before this one, because i was going off an online summary that i read (and my shoddy memory), and i do think that decreased my enjoyment slightly. but that's on me, simply because this series has so many insane plot points and foreshadowing and brilliant, lifelike characters, and sometimes it's hard to keep up if you don't pay attention!!
as per usual, bree was phenomenal in this book. she's just so REAL and human - she makes mistakes, she acts like the teenager that she is, and she depicts such loyalty and dedication to her loved ones. bree really shone in this book - she grew into her powers more, she protected everyone (as per usual), but she also truly focused on herself, which i think was really needed. bree has my whole heart, and i will not take criticism of her!
now, disappointingly for my fellow sel lovers, this was not a sel-heavy book. i fear we must go back and read bloodmarked to fulfill that craving, because this book has much more nick. now, let's clear up that the central plot of this book is NOT the love triangle!! legendborn is about bree and her story, and her character, and her adventures and trials. the boys are just there to hype her up, half the time.
(but sue me for being slightly disappointed at the lack of sel nonetheless. i have a soft spot for him.)
unfortunately, i wasn't a huge fan of nick in this book, which was a bit surprising to me. he's usually a little cutie patootie whose main character trait is obsession with bree (i'm not mad), and he's always, always, loyal and dedicated and determined. all good things! this book was no different, yet for some reason nick kinda irritated me with this one? he was just always THERE. maybe he was just slightly overprotective, and i wanted him to take a step back and leave bree be? she's strong and capable, let her do her thing!!! but i think this was a me problem, honestly, because everyone else seems to adore nick.
but anyway, the plot! the magic! the SIDE CHARACTERS! ugh lark and william are just the sweetest little couple and i DEMAND more of them, and more william pov! this was, sadly, an alice-deficient book - but we were introduced to some new precious characters, who i adored. zoe and elijah have my whole heart (especially zoe), and their bond is just gorgeous. i really, really hope that we get more of them, and bree gets to form a little trio with those two that remains solid through everything!!
this book was ingenious and so captivating, it really drags the reader in. such a masterful debut series - cannot wait to see what else tracy deonn writes!
March 5, 2025
i can't stop shaking...
bree you will always be loved by me 💜
bree you will always be loved by me 💜
March 4, 2025
girl who waited three years for this book only to read it all in four hours *clown shoes stomping*
August 21, 2025
"Hello, Brianna."
I waited 618 pgs to hear those two words and folded like a lawn chair and now im forever satisfied for life. TRACY DEONN THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE!! im forever obsessed with your books. there aren't enough stars in the world to rate this. but all I can say is I got my wish for my man/hubby/baby daddy sel 🧎♀️😝
rtc!! 💗💜💙
I waited 618 pgs to hear those two words and folded like a lawn chair and now im forever satisfied for life. TRACY DEONN THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE!! im forever obsessed with your books. there aren't enough stars in the world to rate this. but all I can say is I got my wish for my man/hubby/baby daddy sel 🧎♀️😝
rtc!! 💗💜💙
April 18, 2025
3.75 stars! ☆
⤿ major spoilers ﹒⟢
this was not what i expected. at all. but oh my god, that ending was insane.
i feel like most of the book didn’t actually move the plot forward, at least in the first half. i wouldn’t have minded how long this was if things were actually happening. but the best part? bree, nick, and sel meeting back up again. and that was like the last 90% of the book, which kinda says a lot.
i had such high expectations for this. i’m obsessed with the first two books, so i really thought i was going to love this one too. but every time i go in with high expectations, i end up disappointed. i’d been looking forward to this for so long, but it just wasn’t what i thought it would be. more so experience-wise. i expected to love this. i didn’t.
the biggest issue? bree. which is so weird for me because i’ve never not liked her. but this book had me so insanely annoyed with her. she never thought things through and then panicked when she had to deal with the consequences of her own decisions. the biggest example? making a bargain with the shadow king. at first, i was into it—it seemed interesting. but when she realized he left the terms vague so he could basically do whatever he wanted? that just pissed me off. because obviously that was going to happen. she didn’t think to make sure his terms were clear before agreeing, so he left it open-ended on purpose.
and then the memory loss trope happened. i hate that trope. despise it. the only thing that made it slightly better was that she still had the memories, just not the people. also, the fact that this entire series takes place over three months? what the actual fuck.
this being the nick book was also kinda disappointing. i’ve never been team nick (unless it was team throuple), so i wasn’t really into that part. it’s not like i dislike him, but i like sel more, and we barely got him in this. i see what’s happening, though. first book was nick and sel, second book was sel, and now this one is nick. i don’t know how many books are left, but i’m assuming the next one will have both? which is fine, but i was expecting way more sel in this.
the characters, though? loved some of them. sel? obviously. nick? fine, i guess. valec? great. william, mariah, and the others? still love them. bree? so annoying this book. she made everything harder for herself. and the new characters? erebus/the shadow king? he’s fine, i guess. villain-wise. i don’t really feel anything about him. zoe? i like her, but she doesn’t feel as fleshed out as the others—she’s mostly just there to support bree and nothing more. elijah? don’t care.
i did like the multiple povs, though. depends on how they’re done, but i think they worked here. same with the time skips—most of them, at least. some just felt like they skipped things we should’ve seen, but whatever. and then there’s the pacing. this book was way slower than the others. the first half barely moved the plot along, and for a book that’s longer than the first two, that made it feel even worse. at least in the other books, things happened.
there was a lot going on—the regents scheming, merlins dying, bree being pulled deeper into her bargain with the shadow king, the scions trying to hold things together—but it all felt like background noise for most of the book. so much of the focus was on bree struggling through bad decisions or dealing with things that didn’t really move the story forward.
also, the auction chapters? oh my god. bree was so bad at not being suspicious. she didn’t control any of her reactions. which was basically a theme this whole book. like the meeting she tagged along to with zoe and elijah—that was frustrating too. she made so many things worse in this book, which is just so unlike her in the others.
the first moment that actually felt good was when sel told his mom about bree being arthur’s scion. when he found out his mom saw her. that entire chapter. and that was over 300 pages in. 650 pages in this book, and it takes 300 for things to get interesting? really?
but that ending. when we found out the bloodmark was sel calling her? loved it. and when i thought he was dead? almost lost it. what the fuck. and then he wasn’t, so i was just sitting there like really. and him being the shadow king’s son? like, huh?? and the font change? so weird. but that actually has me excited for the next book, even though i didn’t love this one.
━━━━ ⊱⋆⊰ ━━━━
☆ 🖇️ pre-read 𖥻 ＜꒱
just finished my reread, and now it’s time to enter uncharted territory. i have no idea what’s coming, but considering bree’s luck? it’s gonna be bad. excited. scared. ready to be destroyed.
the legendborn cycle
⌗﹒ 01 legendborn — 5 ☆
⌗﹒ 02 bloodmarked — 5 ☆
⌗﹒ 03 oathbound — 3.75 ☆
⤿ major spoilers ﹒⟢
this was not what i expected. at all. but oh my god, that ending was insane.
i feel like most of the book didn’t actually move the plot forward, at least in the first half. i wouldn’t have minded how long this was if things were actually happening. but the best part? bree, nick, and sel meeting back up again. and that was like the last 90% of the book, which kinda says a lot.
i had such high expectations for this. i’m obsessed with the first two books, so i really thought i was going to love this one too. but every time i go in with high expectations, i end up disappointed. i’d been looking forward to this for so long, but it just wasn’t what i thought it would be. more so experience-wise. i expected to love this. i didn’t.
the biggest issue? bree. which is so weird for me because i’ve never not liked her. but this book had me so insanely annoyed with her. she never thought things through and then panicked when she had to deal with the consequences of her own decisions. the biggest example? making a bargain with the shadow king. at first, i was into it—it seemed interesting. but when she realized he left the terms vague so he could basically do whatever he wanted? that just pissed me off. because obviously that was going to happen. she didn’t think to make sure his terms were clear before agreeing, so he left it open-ended on purpose.
and then the memory loss trope happened. i hate that trope. despise it. the only thing that made it slightly better was that she still had the memories, just not the people. also, the fact that this entire series takes place over three months? what the actual fuck.
this being the nick book was also kinda disappointing. i’ve never been team nick (unless it was team throuple), so i wasn’t really into that part. it’s not like i dislike him, but i like sel more, and we barely got him in this. i see what’s happening, though. first book was nick and sel, second book was sel, and now this one is nick. i don’t know how many books are left, but i’m assuming the next one will have both? which is fine, but i was expecting way more sel in this.
the characters, though? loved some of them. sel? obviously. nick? fine, i guess. valec? great. william, mariah, and the others? still love them. bree? so annoying this book. she made everything harder for herself. and the new characters? erebus/the shadow king? he’s fine, i guess. villain-wise. i don’t really feel anything about him. zoe? i like her, but she doesn’t feel as fleshed out as the others—she’s mostly just there to support bree and nothing more. elijah? don’t care.
i did like the multiple povs, though. depends on how they’re done, but i think they worked here. same with the time skips—most of them, at least. some just felt like they skipped things we should’ve seen, but whatever. and then there’s the pacing. this book was way slower than the others. the first half barely moved the plot along, and for a book that’s longer than the first two, that made it feel even worse. at least in the other books, things happened.
there was a lot going on—the regents scheming, merlins dying, bree being pulled deeper into her bargain with the shadow king, the scions trying to hold things together—but it all felt like background noise for most of the book. so much of the focus was on bree struggling through bad decisions or dealing with things that didn’t really move the story forward.
also, the auction chapters? oh my god. bree was so bad at not being suspicious. she didn’t control any of her reactions. which was basically a theme this whole book. like the meeting she tagged along to with zoe and elijah—that was frustrating too. she made so many things worse in this book, which is just so unlike her in the others.
the first moment that actually felt good was when sel told his mom about bree being arthur’s scion. when he found out his mom saw her. that entire chapter. and that was over 300 pages in. 650 pages in this book, and it takes 300 for things to get interesting? really?
but that ending. when we found out the bloodmark was sel calling her? loved it. and when i thought he was dead? almost lost it. what the fuck. and then he wasn’t, so i was just sitting there like really. and him being the shadow king’s son? like, huh?? and the font change? so weird. but that actually has me excited for the next book, even though i didn’t love this one.
━━━━ ⊱⋆⊰ ━━━━
☆ 🖇️ pre-read 𖥻 ＜꒱
just finished my reread, and now it’s time to enter uncharted territory. i have no idea what’s coming, but considering bree’s luck? it’s gonna be bad. excited. scared. ready to be destroyed.
the legendborn cycle
⌗﹒ 01 legendborn — 5 ☆
⌗﹒ 02 bloodmarked — 5 ☆
⌗﹒ 03 oathbound — 3.75 ☆
March 8, 2025
You're telling me I waited 2.5 yrs for THIS as a selbree shipper??? Dear lord in heaven.... 💀
March 11, 2025
i had sooo much fun reading this!!! the audiobook is good too. i went into this blind and i highly suggest doing the same!! i love bree and nick and sel soooo much. this series means everything to me. although it wasn't perfect and it went in a direction i never saw coming, it made me ✨
FEEL
✨ so 5★!!!!
things i didn't like:
×the pacing in the middle felt stagnant. it felt like nothing happened and we were stuck in the same place for way too long.
⋆⭒˚.⋆pre~read⋆.˚⭒⋆
buddy read with kat!!!! i am sooo excited to see what bree, selwyn + nick have been doing
♡ borrowed the audiobook from the library + following along with my physical copy ♡
things i didn't like:
×the pacing in the middle felt stagnant. it felt like nothing happened and we were stuck in the same place for way too long.
⋆⭒˚.⋆pre~read⋆.˚⭒⋆
buddy read with kat!!!! i am sooo excited to see what bree, selwyn + nick have been doing
♡ borrowed the audiobook from the library + following along with my physical copy ♡
March 3, 2025
if you find a jaw on the floor, it’s mine. please return to owner
tis the eve before Oathbound so here’s my full review:
4.5 stars
this was an incredible feat of storytelling. from start to finish, Tracy flips the game on how to tell a story, push her characters forward, and introduce plot into an already moving story. Tracy has said pretty clearly to avoid spoilers on all fronts for Oathbound, from structure to POVs to any little detail so i’ll keep this vague: this is a story that you can absolutely expect from only Tracy Deonn. Bree faces the ultimate stakes in this book and i can’t fathom how a 17 year old girl has to deal with all of this (poor Bree ily king) but with her found family and her intuition, i trust she’ll get through it. part 3 of OB was ABSOLUTELY WILD and i was pacing through most of it (im not kidding). the ending of this book genuinely had my hands shaking as i turned the very last page. i will only say that im okay waiting for book 4 while i recover 😀
tis the eve before Oathbound so here’s my full review:
4.5 stars
this was an incredible feat of storytelling. from start to finish, Tracy flips the game on how to tell a story, push her characters forward, and introduce plot into an already moving story. Tracy has said pretty clearly to avoid spoilers on all fronts for Oathbound, from structure to POVs to any little detail so i’ll keep this vague: this is a story that you can absolutely expect from only Tracy Deonn. Bree faces the ultimate stakes in this book and i can’t fathom how a 17 year old girl has to deal with all of this (poor Bree ily king) but with her found family and her intuition, i trust she’ll get through it. part 3 of OB was ABSOLUTELY WILD and i was pacing through most of it (im not kidding). the ending of this book genuinely had my hands shaking as i turned the very last page. i will only say that im okay waiting for book 4 while i recover 😀
June 16, 2025
RATING BREAKDOWN
Characters: 3⭐️
Setting: 4⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 4⭐️
Emotional Impact: 3⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 4⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 3.75⭐️
It was so fun to return to this world and characters. This installment deviated from several familiar characters and the school/society setting to focus on the demon faction and Bree's identity, stripped of her memories, affiliations, and expectations. And what emerges is Bree as a human being, with a compassionate heart, and a raw pull towards a certain character. This was really strong thematically. Any time an author can explore their protagonist absent of their role and purpose, and just as themselves, the readers get a good look into the character, just as their actions and way of thinking and being. The memory-loss trope led to some fun romantic tension as well.
The biggest thing missing for me in this book was the characters I already know and love, who were largely absent. It has a satisfying arc and cool meta-plot/world development that will make the series stronger overall, but it is largely a setup/bridge to the conclusion. So, I believe I will be far more satisfied with the conclusion when we get book 4. Overall, this is strong, and I had a great time. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. I don't think anyone needs to urgently run and read this until book 4 is close at hand. We're not left in much different of a place after this book than we were after Blookmarked. We need the final book Tracy!
Characters: 3⭐️
Setting: 4⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 4⭐️
Emotional Impact: 3⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 4⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 3.75⭐️
It was so fun to return to this world and characters. This installment deviated from several familiar characters and the school/society setting to focus on the demon faction and Bree's identity, stripped of her memories, affiliations, and expectations. And what emerges is Bree as a human being, with a compassionate heart, and a raw pull towards a certain character. This was really strong thematically. Any time an author can explore their protagonist absent of their role and purpose, and just as themselves, the readers get a good look into the character, just as their actions and way of thinking and being. The memory-loss trope led to some fun romantic tension as well.
The biggest thing missing for me in this book was the characters I already know and love, who were largely absent. It has a satisfying arc and cool meta-plot/world development that will make the series stronger overall, but it is largely a setup/bridge to the conclusion. So, I believe I will be far more satisfied with the conclusion when we get book 4. Overall, this is strong, and I had a great time. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. I don't think anyone needs to urgently run and read this until book 4 is close at hand. We're not left in much different of a place after this book than we were after Blookmarked. We need the final book Tracy!
March 17, 2025
"Oathbound is the book the Legendborn Cycle series needed, but not a book I originally planned to write" yeah girl we can tell. Oathbound served 600+ pages of absolutely nothing and now we have to wait an undisclosed amount of time for another book that may or may not be the finale. I don't know who told you the Legendborn Cycle needed to be longer than a trilogy but they lied to your face and they're plotting on your downfall. Please just let the series rest don't ruin the incredible thing we had going.
March 18, 2025
Unpopular opinion, but I was not a fan of this book. I tried super hard to like it, but there were too many things going on for me to like it.
For starters, I disliked the plot. This book was huge, 642 pages, yet it felt like barely anything of substance actually happened. It just felt like filler. And very little was resolved. Sel’s demonia was not resolved, and neither was Alice’s condition which I thought were both guaranteed to be resolved since the book is 642 pages long. Also, don’t get me started on the trope of her losing her memories. I just don’t get why that was necessary since it added nothing to it. The whole book went super slow, then in the last 50 pages it was suddenly going way too fast.
Next, I disliked the different point of views. I can totally get why it was needed, and I liked it in the beginning, but it wasn’t proportioned well. There was too much William and Mariah in the beginning, then they totally dropped their POVs and left it only Bree for the rest of it. On top of that, there was like 3 chapters from Natasia’s POV, which barely told us much about Sel and was too sporadic.
I also found the characters lacking. I really liked Bree in Bloodmarked, but she frustrated me in this book. She kept saying she wanted to be untouchable, unstoppable, and impervious, but I didn’t really see too much growth in those aspects of her. And there was like zero character growth for Nick. He was just too basic. Sel has been my favorite character since the end of legend born since he has layers to his personality, but he was in like 2% of the book, which I found really frustrating.
Lastly, the romance. I hated it. Their romance was physical. Pure physical attraction. It even said that while Bree did not know who Nick was, her body recognized him and just reacted when they were kissing. I rooted for Bree and Sel since book 1, since there was actually a romance between them that was more than physical attraction. Then, she decided to totally eliminate Sel and any romance she had with him in this book. Book 1 was mainly Bree-Nick, then book 2 was Bree-Sel, and then book 3 was Bree-Nick. I don’t like the switching back and forth, just choose one. And the whole “we have to pretend to be fiancées and share a single room” trope is too overused, plus there were a lot of cheesy lines.
Overall, I was very disappointed. While I will probably read the next book to see what happens, this book was just not for me.
For starters, I disliked the plot. This book was huge, 642 pages, yet it felt like barely anything of substance actually happened. It just felt like filler. And very little was resolved. Sel’s demonia was not resolved, and neither was Alice’s condition which I thought were both guaranteed to be resolved since the book is 642 pages long. Also, don’t get me started on the trope of her losing her memories. I just don’t get why that was necessary since it added nothing to it. The whole book went super slow, then in the last 50 pages it was suddenly going way too fast.
Next, I disliked the different point of views. I can totally get why it was needed, and I liked it in the beginning, but it wasn’t proportioned well. There was too much William and Mariah in the beginning, then they totally dropped their POVs and left it only Bree for the rest of it. On top of that, there was like 3 chapters from Natasia’s POV, which barely told us much about Sel and was too sporadic.
I also found the characters lacking. I really liked Bree in Bloodmarked, but she frustrated me in this book. She kept saying she wanted to be untouchable, unstoppable, and impervious, but I didn’t really see too much growth in those aspects of her. And there was like zero character growth for Nick. He was just too basic. Sel has been my favorite character since the end of legend born since he has layers to his personality, but he was in like 2% of the book, which I found really frustrating.
Lastly, the romance. I hated it. Their romance was physical. Pure physical attraction. It even said that while Bree did not know who Nick was, her body recognized him and just reacted when they were kissing. I rooted for Bree and Sel since book 1, since there was actually a romance between them that was more than physical attraction. Then, she decided to totally eliminate Sel and any romance she had with him in this book. Book 1 was mainly Bree-Nick, then book 2 was Bree-Sel, and then book 3 was Bree-Nick. I don’t like the switching back and forth, just choose one. And the whole “we have to pretend to be fiancées and share a single room” trope is too overused, plus there were a lot of cheesy lines.
Overall, I was very disappointed. While I will probably read the next book to see what happens, this book was just not for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 7, 2025
this should have been a trilogy
May 31, 2025
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
I’ll start by saying it’s good to be back. I will always be grateful for Legendborn, for Bree and her magic, and how tenderly Tracy Deonn wrote about loss and power. She is an incredibly gifted writer and such an inspiration. Having Oathbound, book 3 in the series, in my hands after all this time fills me with immense gratitude.
But real talk, Gratitude with a capital G was doing the heavy lifting because this book was long-winded and messy. There was so little of this I enjoyed reading, so I felt both frustration and relief when it was over. This book was in need of some serious editing. And this is not to dog on Tracy Deonn but this felt like she got paid a little extra something to add another book to the series. And in this post Covid economy, I get it! But unfortunately Oathbound weakened the series for me as a whole, and it made me wonder what we could have gotten if she had just given us the trilogy as planned. I would have preferred a cleaner and more concise story over….this. I’ve re-read Legendborn and Bloodmarked so many times but I do not see myself revisiting this one.
The Plot is too Thickkk
This book should have been titled SideQuests, not Oathbound. Because that was the Rootcrafter plot in a nutshell. Bree left with the Shadow King to strengthen her powers and to upend him, right? So tell me why nearly halfway into this thick ass novel her entire focus is now about saving random Rootcrafters while any plan about defeating the Shadow King for what he has done to her and her family is cast aside. Bree wants to give him his crown so he’ll leave the Rootcrafter girls alone? Girl, what?! That would have even bigger repercussions. And the resolution for the Rootcrafters ends up happening off the page anyway! I’m not against this plot, it just gave major side quest energy. My cynical take is this entire plot was pretzeled in as a response to the criticisms of not enough black characters being included in the first two books.
But in exchange, there were several dropped plots: the murdered Merlins, Ava and the Morgaines, Sel’s singlehanded ability to overcome his mother’s abilities, the disappearance of Excalibur, Bree and Sel’s relationship and what Nick actually feels about them were never explored. And Alice. How are you going to leave HER BESTIE ALICE in purgatory for over 650 pages? Honestly why is she even a character if she’s going to be sidelined all the time? So much of this could have been removed for a more seamless story.
Multiple POVs
These POVs existed solely for exposition and info dumping. That’s why they petered out by the middle of the book. The essence of a multiple character perspective story isn’t just for plot purposes but also for insight into the characters themselves. William’s, Mariah’s and Natasia’s (even Nick’s) POVs were used to explain away the world and not to develop the characters themselves. Because what did we really learn about these characters that we didn’t already know? I would argue nothing. They were just mouthpieces to tell us how to feel about Bree, Nick, and Sel and their motivations. Just odd choices all around.
Erebus
A whole damn cartoon villain from beginning to end. Next.
The Love Triangle
Put me out of my misery. At this point, she should put Bree and Nick together and be done with it. Sel was not only corrupted to a damn near irredeemable place but sidelined so hard, even moreso than Nick in Bloodmarked, that now I genuinely don’t see how there is any room for him as a positive force in Bree’s life. I hated his character in this book. I do not like this turn for him at all.
As for Nick, Bree and Nick have not spent enough time together for it to be this serious between them. Nick is still being written like a Disney prince on steroids, and while a lot of people love that, I don’t. I don’t think a good and true love representation for a black girl means her man needs to be a fantasy. Especially while being literal white male privilege to the T. He can be a well rounded, imperfect love interest—a little humanity isn’t going to kill him. It would certainly make him more interesting and not so unrealistically perfect all the time. And no more call and response, we get it.
As for OT3, Tracy Deonn seems to be gearing up for this. But she’s deliberately left Nick’s sexuality vague, Sel in his hateful demon era, and Bree still so naive and inexperienced (wtf was that on the roof with Nick?) that the thought of this for her just doesn’t feel as cooked as I think it should be. I’m just not interested in this conversation any more.
Amnesia always sucks
Amnesia tropes are always a bad idea. In this case, it prevented Bree from having real and consequential conversations with her people. It undermined the depth of her relationships and made Bree’s reunions feel less meaningful. Some of them were the equivalent of a high five. Did her dad not wonder where she was for Thanksgiving? Did he spend the holidays all alone? Christmas came and went, and this man wasn’t losing his mind about his missing daughter’s whereabouts? Edwin was weirdly way too chill about everything for my liking. Not every trope needs to be reimagined and subverted especially when you’re inconsistent about what memory or knowledge loss has occurred. Tracy Deonn reset the series because she added a 4th book, and we can tell. I shouldn’t be able to tell.
And here lies the body of Selwyn Kane
This is the part that frustrates me to no end. Not because I have shipped Sel and Bree together, not because save Valec, he’s the only person in this story with a multifaceted personality, but because he is the only character in this book who has undergone any real change. Everyone else has gained new skills, new knowledge and awareness, but they are all essentially the same people they were at the start of the series. Sel actually has a character arc and has undergone significant character development, and that is what people are responding to. That’s why people like him so much and are so invested in what happens to him and his relationship with Bree. This was a boy who was slowly growing towards seeing himself beyond the shackles of the Order and accepting love from Bree and the others at Volition. I’m just really disappointed to see him move back into a sort of adversarial role, even if temporarily, because we already did that in Book 1 and I’m not interested in seeing that again. I want Bree to be happy, but I need Selwyn to be happy too.
Final Thoughts
If I’m honest, I thought this story was going to be about a young black girl stepping into her power and rightful place as King. Instead it’s snowballed in a direction I realized I don’t care for, and my overall interest in the world, the relationships, and in Bree Matthews as a character has waned. Too many villains, excessive lore, long winded storytelling, and Bree making one short sighted decision after the other only to suddenly figure it all out at the end has left me wanting something more.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I’ll start by saying it’s good to be back. I will always be grateful for Legendborn, for Bree and her magic, and how tenderly Tracy Deonn wrote about loss and power. She is an incredibly gifted writer and such an inspiration. Having Oathbound, book 3 in the series, in my hands after all this time fills me with immense gratitude.
But real talk, Gratitude with a capital G was doing the heavy lifting because this book was long-winded and messy. There was so little of this I enjoyed reading, so I felt both frustration and relief when it was over. This book was in need of some serious editing. And this is not to dog on Tracy Deonn but this felt like she got paid a little extra something to add another book to the series. And in this post Covid economy, I get it! But unfortunately Oathbound weakened the series for me as a whole, and it made me wonder what we could have gotten if she had just given us the trilogy as planned. I would have preferred a cleaner and more concise story over….this. I’ve re-read Legendborn and Bloodmarked so many times but I do not see myself revisiting this one.
The Plot is too Thickkk
This book should have been titled SideQuests, not Oathbound. Because that was the Rootcrafter plot in a nutshell. Bree left with the Shadow King to strengthen her powers and to upend him, right? So tell me why nearly halfway into this thick ass novel her entire focus is now about saving random Rootcrafters while any plan about defeating the Shadow King for what he has done to her and her family is cast aside. Bree wants to give him his crown so he’ll leave the Rootcrafter girls alone? Girl, what?! That would have even bigger repercussions. And the resolution for the Rootcrafters ends up happening off the page anyway! I’m not against this plot, it just gave major side quest energy. My cynical take is this entire plot was pretzeled in as a response to the criticisms of not enough black characters being included in the first two books.
But in exchange, there were several dropped plots: the murdered Merlins, Ava and the Morgaines, Sel’s singlehanded ability to overcome his mother’s abilities, the disappearance of Excalibur, Bree and Sel’s relationship and what Nick actually feels about them were never explored. And Alice. How are you going to leave HER BESTIE ALICE in purgatory for over 650 pages? Honestly why is she even a character if she’s going to be sidelined all the time? So much of this could have been removed for a more seamless story.
Multiple POVs
These POVs existed solely for exposition and info dumping. That’s why they petered out by the middle of the book. The essence of a multiple character perspective story isn’t just for plot purposes but also for insight into the characters themselves. William’s, Mariah’s and Natasia’s (even Nick’s) POVs were used to explain away the world and not to develop the characters themselves. Because what did we really learn about these characters that we didn’t already know? I would argue nothing. They were just mouthpieces to tell us how to feel about Bree, Nick, and Sel and their motivations. Just odd choices all around.
Erebus
A whole damn cartoon villain from beginning to end. Next.
The Love Triangle
Put me out of my misery. At this point, she should put Bree and Nick together and be done with it. Sel was not only corrupted to a damn near irredeemable place but sidelined so hard, even moreso than Nick in Bloodmarked, that now I genuinely don’t see how there is any room for him as a positive force in Bree’s life. I hated his character in this book. I do not like this turn for him at all.
As for Nick, Bree and Nick have not spent enough time together for it to be this serious between them. Nick is still being written like a Disney prince on steroids, and while a lot of people love that, I don’t. I don’t think a good and true love representation for a black girl means her man needs to be a fantasy. Especially while being literal white male privilege to the T. He can be a well rounded, imperfect love interest—a little humanity isn’t going to kill him. It would certainly make him more interesting and not so unrealistically perfect all the time. And no more call and response, we get it.
As for OT3, Tracy Deonn seems to be gearing up for this. But she’s deliberately left Nick’s sexuality vague, Sel in his hateful demon era, and Bree still so naive and inexperienced (wtf was that on the roof with Nick?) that the thought of this for her just doesn’t feel as cooked as I think it should be. I’m just not interested in this conversation any more.
Amnesia always sucks
Amnesia tropes are always a bad idea. In this case, it prevented Bree from having real and consequential conversations with her people. It undermined the depth of her relationships and made Bree’s reunions feel less meaningful. Some of them were the equivalent of a high five. Did her dad not wonder where she was for Thanksgiving? Did he spend the holidays all alone? Christmas came and went, and this man wasn’t losing his mind about his missing daughter’s whereabouts? Edwin was weirdly way too chill about everything for my liking. Not every trope needs to be reimagined and subverted especially when you’re inconsistent about what memory or knowledge loss has occurred. Tracy Deonn reset the series because she added a 4th book, and we can tell. I shouldn’t be able to tell.
And here lies the body of Selwyn Kane
This is the part that frustrates me to no end. Not because I have shipped Sel and Bree together, not because save Valec, he’s the only person in this story with a multifaceted personality, but because he is the only character in this book who has undergone any real change. Everyone else has gained new skills, new knowledge and awareness, but they are all essentially the same people they were at the start of the series. Sel actually has a character arc and has undergone significant character development, and that is what people are responding to. That’s why people like him so much and are so invested in what happens to him and his relationship with Bree. This was a boy who was slowly growing towards seeing himself beyond the shackles of the Order and accepting love from Bree and the others at Volition. I’m just really disappointed to see him move back into a sort of adversarial role, even if temporarily, because we already did that in Book 1 and I’m not interested in seeing that again. I want Bree to be happy, but I need Selwyn to be happy too.
Final Thoughts
If I’m honest, I thought this story was going to be about a young black girl stepping into her power and rightful place as King. Instead it’s snowballed in a direction I realized I don’t care for, and my overall interest in the world, the relationships, and in Bree Matthews as a character has waned. Too many villains, excessive lore, long winded storytelling, and Bree making one short sighted decision after the other only to suddenly figure it all out at the end has left me wanting something more.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
March 5, 2025
Tracy is a queen of the craft. This book was phenomenal!!!!!
Bree is back but fractured. She has to find her path forward. But there are so many obstacles in her way. She is so incredibly strong and she’s hands down one of my favorite fmcs of all time.
I had no idea where the hell this love triangle was going but when I read ”So drown.” my soul actually left my body.
I love love loved!!! the multiple povs we got in this. The world expanded so much and I love every single character.
If you thought the cliffy in bloodmarked was bad HAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHHAA
Bree is back but fractured. She has to find her path forward. But there are so many obstacles in her way. She is so incredibly strong and she’s hands down one of my favorite fmcs of all time.
I had no idea where the hell this love triangle was going but when I read ”So drown.” my soul actually left my body.
I love love loved!!! the multiple povs we got in this. The world expanded so much and I love every single character.
If you thought the cliffy in bloodmarked was bad HAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHHAA
March 7, 2025
pearls: clutched
tea: clocked
im: gagged
thoughts: none
oh my good heavens.
what a masterclass of a book.
i’m absolutely dumbfounded.
tracy deonn, you absolute genius.
tea: clocked
im: gagged
thoughts: none
oh my good heavens.
what a masterclass of a book.
i’m absolutely dumbfounded.
tracy deonn, you absolute genius.
March 13, 2025
THIS CAME OUT LAST WEEK??? WHY DID I THINK IT WOULD COME OUT IN 2026
September 28, 2025
4 stars. Epic in both page length, scope, and thematic work, Oathbound is a sprawling third entry in the Legendborn Cycle that reminded me of just how much I love good YA fantasy.
March 8, 2025
i’m gonna need 7-10 business days to recover and gather my thoughts, but needless to say this is my favorite in the series so far omfg
March 26, 2025
Initial reaction: Nope. Nuh-uh. Absolutely not.
(I'll have a more coherent rant review later, but I'm done with this series.)
Full review:
I tagged this book as "zero stars is too much for this" on Goodreads, but my overall rating is 1 star. And I know many of you are thinking, "Rose, woman, what the hell happened?" People usually know me for being chill, but when I get riled up about a book, I don't have a filter. This is the first time in a while (maybe not too long if any of you saw my review on Ibi Zoboi's "(S)Kin") where I am actively wondering what people consider to be strong representations of Black folks/Black culture/Black leading characters in books for teens. THIS IS NOT IT. HOLY GUACAMOLE BATMAN, THIS IS NOT IT AT ALL. I'm not having a filter on how awful this book was. Might as well rip the band-aid off and warn y'all now. This is a rant review, understatement.
Y'all think a Black teen girl being sidelined in her own narrative and spoken for by her white counterparts is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think a Black teen girl being missing, tortured, and held captive for four months with no one having ANY idea where she is, is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think someone getting their memories wiped where they can't remember the faces of the people they knew, loved and met in exchange for learning to hone abilities is "Black Girl Magic"? Y'all think Black girls and teens and their magic being forcibily stolen and auctioned off - their MAGIC AND THEIR BODIES, ALMOST TO THE POINT OF DEATH - to the highest (white) bidder is "Black Girl Magic"? Y'all think a Black girl getting assaulted by a white man in a bathroom and essentially trafficked for her magic is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think continuously putting down another Black girl every chance and every POV it gets (Mariah, namely, I'm going to say her name because she freaking deserves to be recognized even if this narrative won't and ACTIVELY REFUSES TO) who is doing the work to protect those she loves in the service of another Black girl who keeps being projected as "The One" and does barely anything, is "Black Girl Magic"?
Those, among SO many other problems with "Oathbound" are not things to be praised or overlooked. FFS, this book was NOT IT.
*breathes, calms* I need all of you to understand me when I say this, begging really to take it seriously. Honestly and spoken in good faith. Reading something like this book - the mediocre writing, the complete lack of care with very heavy subjects, the trauma for the sake of trauma, the misogynoir and overt/subtle violence against women and Black girls - reading this as a Black woman is *exhausting* and freaking enraging. And it is utterly disgusting to know it's coming from someone within our community SUPPOSEDLY WRITING FOR TEENS. Black people deserve better stories. Black kids and teens deserve better quality stories than this nonsense! I would argue this is not even a book that feels like it's for teens at all. Who is book this meant for? What was the focus? I don't think the narrative even knows.
I'm not even scratching the surface of all the problems in this book yet for portrayal, but we'll get there. Bear with me.
As you can surmise from my very heated opening, I had a passionate, visceral reaction to finishing the third book in the "Legendborn Cycle" series by Tracy Deonn. I don't know if I had very many definitive expectations going in, but none of them included what this amounted to. I salute those of you who pick up and march through the uninspired trauma heavy, haphazardly written slog of "Oathbound". I did it and struggled, but made it. Not only did it feel too long for 656 pages, none of that was necessary. Shave off 400 pages and we could have gotten the same content streamlined. (But it still would have been mediocre work. I genuinely don't understand why people liked this one. It was horrible.)
The length might have been one tell-tale problem sign from the start. I have never, in all my years of passionately reading YA literature up til' now, have seen a 56 page prologue with six parts to it. The one time I remember seeing a multi-part prologue was in an adult fantasy that was written quite some time back (I'm guessing 1970s-ish, I don't remember the title). But even then, that kind of inclusion was rare. Even then, the multi-part prologue I'm thinking of had only been ten pages and made sense. Regardless, this book should have started and stuck with Bree's POV, front and center. It was/is supposed to be her story. But "Oathbound" basically told me it really wasn't hers at all, despite the reminders and shifts of focus.
William, Natasia (Selwyn's middle aged mama! And over Sel himself? WHAT?), Nick (briefly, he's not in POV for long), and Mariah all have alternating POVs in this book. Someone explain to me why it was decided that Bree had to be sidelined in her own book by all of these (almost) unnecessary extra perspectives. This request is rhetorical, I don't want an actual answer, but I do want people to think about this, whether you've picked up this narrative or not.
To give a very general summary of what happened in this book, Bree Matthews has made a deal with and is in the clutches of the Shadow King/Erebus. This book picks up where "Bloodmarked" left off. She hopes to collab with him in order to become stronger and hone her magic in a way that her ancestors would not/could not provide answers for. I talked in my previous review for "Bloodmarked" about how the Black cast was essentially thrown under the bus, Bree's ancestors included by Bree's own choices, but yet she opted to go with the Evil Encarnate to get her magic training. (Okay, I guess.)
Along with the Shadow King, Bree's held captive by two Black demon twins -Zoelle and Elijah. They are children/minions of the Shadow King that give Bree a hard time in her training. Mind you, the Shadow King does not deliver things without taking something, and Bree learns the hard way that she'll pay the price for enlisting the King's help.
Meanwhile, we get the long slog of multiple perspectives in terms of what's being done while Bree is missing. Which is a lot and you can definitely feel the length of the story in these sections, but I'll try to break it down as brief as I can. Spoiler tag activated (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED):
That's the gist of what each alternate perspective provided. Now I'm going to circle back to Bree. Bree is so far from the character we were introduced to in "Legendborn" that it was hard for me to feel for anything she did. She didn't do much, if anything at all in this narrative, no matter how many times the book kept trying to beat you over the head saying how important she was. TCO and all that jazz. Granted, "Legendborn" was not a perfect narrative, but at least I understood Bree's grief over her mother, her school experiences, that particular narrative in itself, self contained. "Bloodmarked" Bree I fell off with after she threw her ancestors under the bus, serial cheated with Sel, among other things.
"Oathbound" Bree really just meanders from one thing to the next, witnessing and falling into situations that are tedious and making excuses for the "mistakes" she made (Girl, you erased your connections to your ancestors and said they were useless to you; that was not a "mistake".) And we're reminded of this through the narrative, first from other characters lecturing her (Mariah, Valec, even Zoelle, who ends up being a reluctant ally, do this) but then they turn around and praise her. (Really?! Y'all aren't going to hold her accountable at all?! Let her truly learn something from this?) I need y'all to understand: Bree never grows or learns from any terrible thing she does throughout this entire book and before it. Never. Not once. At all. She may have pointed out, during a haphazard mission where a Black girl was assaulted by a Warlock in the club bathroom, that said girl was being disappeared/trafficked for her magic, but that's really all she did. Bree wasn't involved in said girl's rescue (Will and Lark actually did that), and she didn't realize until the auction she was supposed to be undercover for that there were Bloodroot girls (Black girls and teens trafficked for their magic, including a young child who almost DIED) getting sold at the auction to WHITE PEOPLE. They were initially there for the Shadow King's crown, not the girls.
I...*sighs*.
Did I mention that Bree was suffering from memory loss through this whole book as a result of her own actions destroying her ancestral connections? That the Shadow King took advantage of that as a result of training her to use her later? No? Yeah, that too.
When it came to Bree being praised for doing essentially nothing, and me - as a reader - feeling lied to about her heroic deeds, I felt like I was watching the last episode of OG Neon Genesis Evangelion all over again with respect to how the cast responded to Shinji. (Congratulations! If you get the reference, you get it.)
Sel is not in this book very much, but the few times he is, he's not a great character. He spends most of the time with, and ends up assaulting, his mother, shows up only when its convenient. I mentioned in my notes he came across like a poor man's version of Damon from The Vampire Diaries and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. (The Sun and Moon comparison towards the end of the book was a big part of the latter comparison; I couldn't unsee it when I saw it.) And given how this ends, Sel is definitely going to be a big part of the next book in a not good way.
Suffice to say, I will not be here for the next book based on the events of this novel. I'm done. I don't want anything to do with the Legendborn series from here on out. It has been a while since I've read a book that's completely turned me off a series and not prompted me to keep moving forward. This is the end of the line for me. Keep the endlessly enslaved, endlessly tortured Black girl who shoves aside everyone (including her best friend, don't get me started on what Bree does to Alice - that was the nail in the coffin for me. She's not a friend. Bree is not a friend.) and everything other than her own selfish whims away. I want no part of it. Teens deserve better stories than this, especially Black kids and teens.
This is NOT "Black Girl Magic."
Overall score: 1/5 stars.
(I'll have a more coherent rant review later, but I'm done with this series.)
Full review:
I tagged this book as "zero stars is too much for this" on Goodreads, but my overall rating is 1 star. And I know many of you are thinking, "Rose, woman, what the hell happened?" People usually know me for being chill, but when I get riled up about a book, I don't have a filter. This is the first time in a while (maybe not too long if any of you saw my review on Ibi Zoboi's "(S)Kin") where I am actively wondering what people consider to be strong representations of Black folks/Black culture/Black leading characters in books for teens. THIS IS NOT IT. HOLY GUACAMOLE BATMAN, THIS IS NOT IT AT ALL. I'm not having a filter on how awful this book was. Might as well rip the band-aid off and warn y'all now. This is a rant review, understatement.
Y'all think a Black teen girl being sidelined in her own narrative and spoken for by her white counterparts is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think a Black teen girl being missing, tortured, and held captive for four months with no one having ANY idea where she is, is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think someone getting their memories wiped where they can't remember the faces of the people they knew, loved and met in exchange for learning to hone abilities is "Black Girl Magic"? Y'all think Black girls and teens and their magic being forcibily stolen and auctioned off - their MAGIC AND THEIR BODIES, ALMOST TO THE POINT OF DEATH - to the highest (white) bidder is "Black Girl Magic"? Y'all think a Black girl getting assaulted by a white man in a bathroom and essentially trafficked for her magic is "Black Girl Magic?" Y'all think continuously putting down another Black girl every chance and every POV it gets (Mariah, namely, I'm going to say her name because she freaking deserves to be recognized even if this narrative won't and ACTIVELY REFUSES TO) who is doing the work to protect those she loves in the service of another Black girl who keeps being projected as "The One" and does barely anything, is "Black Girl Magic"?
Those, among SO many other problems with "Oathbound" are not things to be praised or overlooked. FFS, this book was NOT IT.
*breathes, calms* I need all of you to understand me when I say this, begging really to take it seriously. Honestly and spoken in good faith. Reading something like this book - the mediocre writing, the complete lack of care with very heavy subjects, the trauma for the sake of trauma, the misogynoir and overt/subtle violence against women and Black girls - reading this as a Black woman is *exhausting* and freaking enraging. And it is utterly disgusting to know it's coming from someone within our community SUPPOSEDLY WRITING FOR TEENS. Black people deserve better stories. Black kids and teens deserve better quality stories than this nonsense! I would argue this is not even a book that feels like it's for teens at all. Who is book this meant for? What was the focus? I don't think the narrative even knows.
I'm not even scratching the surface of all the problems in this book yet for portrayal, but we'll get there. Bear with me.
As you can surmise from my very heated opening, I had a passionate, visceral reaction to finishing the third book in the "Legendborn Cycle" series by Tracy Deonn. I don't know if I had very many definitive expectations going in, but none of them included what this amounted to. I salute those of you who pick up and march through the uninspired trauma heavy, haphazardly written slog of "Oathbound". I did it and struggled, but made it. Not only did it feel too long for 656 pages, none of that was necessary. Shave off 400 pages and we could have gotten the same content streamlined. (But it still would have been mediocre work. I genuinely don't understand why people liked this one. It was horrible.)
The length might have been one tell-tale problem sign from the start. I have never, in all my years of passionately reading YA literature up til' now, have seen a 56 page prologue with six parts to it. The one time I remember seeing a multi-part prologue was in an adult fantasy that was written quite some time back (I'm guessing 1970s-ish, I don't remember the title). But even then, that kind of inclusion was rare. Even then, the multi-part prologue I'm thinking of had only been ten pages and made sense. Regardless, this book should have started and stuck with Bree's POV, front and center. It was/is supposed to be her story. But "Oathbound" basically told me it really wasn't hers at all, despite the reminders and shifts of focus.
William, Natasia (Selwyn's middle aged mama! And over Sel himself? WHAT?), Nick (briefly, he's not in POV for long), and Mariah all have alternating POVs in this book. Someone explain to me why it was decided that Bree had to be sidelined in her own book by all of these (almost) unnecessary extra perspectives. This request is rhetorical, I don't want an actual answer, but I do want people to think about this, whether you've picked up this narrative or not.
To give a very general summary of what happened in this book, Bree Matthews has made a deal with and is in the clutches of the Shadow King/Erebus. This book picks up where "Bloodmarked" left off. She hopes to collab with him in order to become stronger and hone her magic in a way that her ancestors would not/could not provide answers for. I talked in my previous review for "Bloodmarked" about how the Black cast was essentially thrown under the bus, Bree's ancestors included by Bree's own choices, but yet she opted to go with the Evil Encarnate to get her magic training. (Okay, I guess.)
Along with the Shadow King, Bree's held captive by two Black demon twins -Zoelle and Elijah. They are children/minions of the Shadow King that give Bree a hard time in her training. Mind you, the Shadow King does not deliver things without taking something, and Bree learns the hard way that she'll pay the price for enlisting the King's help.
Meanwhile, we get the long slog of multiple perspectives in terms of what's being done while Bree is missing. Which is a lot and you can definitely feel the length of the story in these sections, but I'll try to break it down as brief as I can. Spoiler tag activated (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED):
That's the gist of what each alternate perspective provided. Now I'm going to circle back to Bree. Bree is so far from the character we were introduced to in "Legendborn" that it was hard for me to feel for anything she did. She didn't do much, if anything at all in this narrative, no matter how many times the book kept trying to beat you over the head saying how important she was. TCO and all that jazz. Granted, "Legendborn" was not a perfect narrative, but at least I understood Bree's grief over her mother, her school experiences, that particular narrative in itself, self contained. "Bloodmarked" Bree I fell off with after she threw her ancestors under the bus, serial cheated with Sel, among other things.
"Oathbound" Bree really just meanders from one thing to the next, witnessing and falling into situations that are tedious and making excuses for the "mistakes" she made (Girl, you erased your connections to your ancestors and said they were useless to you; that was not a "mistake".) And we're reminded of this through the narrative, first from other characters lecturing her (Mariah, Valec, even Zoelle, who ends up being a reluctant ally, do this) but then they turn around and praise her. (Really?! Y'all aren't going to hold her accountable at all?! Let her truly learn something from this?) I need y'all to understand: Bree never grows or learns from any terrible thing she does throughout this entire book and before it. Never. Not once. At all. She may have pointed out, during a haphazard mission where a Black girl was assaulted by a Warlock in the club bathroom, that said girl was being disappeared/trafficked for her magic, but that's really all she did. Bree wasn't involved in said girl's rescue (Will and Lark actually did that), and she didn't realize until the auction she was supposed to be undercover for that there were Bloodroot girls (Black girls and teens trafficked for their magic, including a young child who almost DIED) getting sold at the auction to WHITE PEOPLE. They were initially there for the Shadow King's crown, not the girls.
I...*sighs*.
Did I mention that Bree was suffering from memory loss through this whole book as a result of her own actions destroying her ancestral connections? That the Shadow King took advantage of that as a result of training her to use her later? No? Yeah, that too.
When it came to Bree being praised for doing essentially nothing, and me - as a reader - feeling lied to about her heroic deeds, I felt like I was watching the last episode of OG Neon Genesis Evangelion all over again with respect to how the cast responded to Shinji. (Congratulations! If you get the reference, you get it.)
Sel is not in this book very much, but the few times he is, he's not a great character. He spends most of the time with, and ends up assaulting, his mother, shows up only when its convenient. I mentioned in my notes he came across like a poor man's version of Damon from The Vampire Diaries and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. (The Sun and Moon comparison towards the end of the book was a big part of the latter comparison; I couldn't unsee it when I saw it.) And given how this ends, Sel is definitely going to be a big part of the next book in a not good way.
Suffice to say, I will not be here for the next book based on the events of this novel. I'm done. I don't want anything to do with the Legendborn series from here on out. It has been a while since I've read a book that's completely turned me off a series and not prompted me to keep moving forward. This is the end of the line for me. Keep the endlessly enslaved, endlessly tortured Black girl who shoves aside everyone (including her best friend, don't get me started on what Bree does to Alice - that was the nail in the coffin for me. She's not a friend. Bree is not a friend.) and everything other than her own selfish whims away. I want no part of it. Teens deserve better stories than this, especially Black kids and teens.
This is NOT "Black Girl Magic."
Overall score: 1/5 stars.
September 9, 2025
lord how do these amnesia trope books keeping finding me, my mortal enemy persists
March 10, 2025
Deliciously wicked and massively entertaining, Oathbound is easily my favorite entry to the Legendborn series. Like the Shadow King, I devoured this one. I was so entertained from start to finish. It was so JUICY with a juicier ending that got me grinning like a goruchel.
This book will definitely not be for everyone. It goes in a direction that even I didn’t see coming, yet one I really enjoyed all the same. Tracy delivers a memory loss trope I’m not particularly fond of yet transforms it into something meaningful, beautiful and powerful. I was really moved by the journey Bree went through in this book and found her arc very cathartic and heartfelt. This felt like a more cohesive story than Bloodmarked and is more character driven with stronger focus and clarity. It has more of the themes from Legendborn that I loved, like grief, and this time expands on it tenfold, tackling the different ways each character copes with trauma and acknowledging and overcoming their demons. I was worried about the multiple POVs, but found myself loving everyone’s POV as they all moved the plot along. It also explores the roles each character plays within Bree’s absence and who steps up in the face of uncertainty. Many characters get their own moments to shine and I think it was the right call for this to be a multiple POV book.
The character interactions in this are so JUICY, bringing together characters who have never met before, which makes everything super entertaining when the audience already knows what’s going on. Just waiting for the characters to catch up to speed on everything made for a very entertaining read. I love that at this point even Tracy is able to poke fun at her own series, acknowledging how complex her world has become. It is very self aware. Tracy also knows how to feed with fan favorite tropes. Which ones I won’t say, but I was GIGGLING. For an incredibly high stakes book, this book is also incredibly funny yet it never affected the novel negatively.
Without context this book reminded me of Emily Wilde meets Six of Crows meets Teen Wolf. So unexpected yet worked so well! There’s a clear goal to this novel and it was executed really well. I think I felt my heart stop at the 78% mark and again at the end. Did I predict certain theories? Yes. Was I still gagged? Absolutely.
OKAY FULL SPOILERS COMING IN NOW!!
Sorry I will be an Erebus defender for life!! I could yap about this man for ages. Erebus put me through it this book. I freaking loved Erebus since Bloodmarked and never found him that evil?? Dangerous, yeah, but evil evil? Nah, everyone is so much worse. Don’t cross him and you’ll be fine. The whole time reading Oathbound I was just praying, “please don’t be the main villain” LMFAO. I was rooting for Erebus really badly and I am so glad Erebus wasn’t the main villain, not really. Everything about this man is so my type. Ok yeah he’s consumed the souls of 20 decades worth of people, but he’s also a gentleman?? Man says please, is patient and is reasonable to a certain extent?? That’s a win in my book, I don’t make the rules. He’s just so funny, relatable, tired of life and entertaining. Until now, I don’t think I can ever see Erebus as someone truly evil, murdering and consuming the souls of 20 decades worth of people aside. I see him more like the lesser of four evils?? And I’m glad that the Regents seem to be the main villains going into the final Legendborn book. I was so worried Tracy would kill Erebus off, but with that ending, oh we are gonna be fed good Arawn content in the next book. Hello Daddy Kane. He’s officially a DILF, guys.
Of course we have to address the big elephant in the room, which was Sel’s notable absence. I think Sel had 10% screen time, which I did find very surprising especially after how Bloodmarked ended. Sel spends most of the book “bonding” with his mom, with barely any dialogue, and then only reappears at the very end. I am surprised Sel did not get any POV chapters, but I do think it added to Sel’s newfound mystery, danger and allure, being unable to predict what would happen when he reunited with Bree. I was terrified for her sake. Their reunion only comes at the end, but I was on my toes. And Selwyn channeling his inner Void!Stiles? I was living for it. You know what? This new, chaotic, reckless, IDGAF, unhinged, feral version of Selwyn can stay.
“Got you.”
“Got who?”
I’M SORRY THAT BOOK 1 PARALLEL?? DEAD. DECEASED.
“Nicholas Davis and Selwyn Kane. The sun and the moon. Does she know the moon lives in you, too?”
“She does. Just like she knows the sun lives within you.”
TRACY DEONN, YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME. I LOVE BOTH OF THEM SO MUCH, I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.
“I want what every demon wants, Briana. Chaos.” I swear that was taken straight out of a Void!Stiles line and I was here for it. Hello, Void!Selwyn.
And that ending?? Alexa, play you should see me in a crown, I FREAKING KNEW IT!! Ohhh chaos is coming and I am here for it. I had a feeling Selwyn would be the Shadow King’s son since the ending to Bloodmarked, but I was still incredibly thrilled when it was confirmed. That final chapter was so juicy I could not stop cackling. One of my fav cliffhangers ever.
“Here we stand and here we are. A king, a knight… and a prince.” SORRY, LIVES WERE CHANGED.
“What… shall… we…do?” I have no idea, Selwyn. I have no fucking idea. All I know is that I am seated for all the chaos.
Moving onto Nick!! I never had anything against Nick since day one. I think I shipped Bree and Nick before I shipped her with Sel, although admittedly after Bloodmarked, I was team Sel. But god did Oathbound make my love for Nick skyrocket to new heights. I forgot how much I missed his interactions with Bree. The fake engagement trope? Only one bed trope? Tracy is so mother. Of course I would have wanted this with Sel too, but reading Oathbound definitely made me realise I am also still a Nick girlie and I ate that shit up like a goruchel. I felt Nick’s love for Bree really come through in Oathbound and I fear for Nick’s fate now that a part of Arawyn’s crown is embedded into him. I felt my heart shatter when that bomb was dropped. I think it was essential to have Nick be the center focus of this book and profess his love for Bree, especially if he ends up sacrificing himself in the final book. I was not expecting a potential doomed love trope from Bree and Nick, Tracy Deonn. The AUDACITY.
“This conversation is between kings.”
“The only king I see here is Bree.” NICHOLAS! DAVIS!
I’m really excited and anxious for Book 4. Sel might have the most dysfunctional family ever and I will be very excited to see the interactions between Arawn, Selwyn and Natasia going forward and potentially a trip to Annwfyn?? What mischief and chaos is Selwyn gonna spur on now that he’s the Shadow King’s heir?! Is he gonna overthrow his dad? Will anyone be endgame at this point?? Alice’s fate still remains unclear. The Regents are shaping up to be the main villains with whatever secret serum they are experimenting with. AHHH I’m not ready to say goodbye to this world!!
This book will definitely not be for everyone. It goes in a direction that even I didn’t see coming, yet one I really enjoyed all the same. Tracy delivers a memory loss trope I’m not particularly fond of yet transforms it into something meaningful, beautiful and powerful. I was really moved by the journey Bree went through in this book and found her arc very cathartic and heartfelt. This felt like a more cohesive story than Bloodmarked and is more character driven with stronger focus and clarity. It has more of the themes from Legendborn that I loved, like grief, and this time expands on it tenfold, tackling the different ways each character copes with trauma and acknowledging and overcoming their demons. I was worried about the multiple POVs, but found myself loving everyone’s POV as they all moved the plot along. It also explores the roles each character plays within Bree’s absence and who steps up in the face of uncertainty. Many characters get their own moments to shine and I think it was the right call for this to be a multiple POV book.
The character interactions in this are so JUICY, bringing together characters who have never met before, which makes everything super entertaining when the audience already knows what’s going on. Just waiting for the characters to catch up to speed on everything made for a very entertaining read. I love that at this point even Tracy is able to poke fun at her own series, acknowledging how complex her world has become. It is very self aware. Tracy also knows how to feed with fan favorite tropes. Which ones I won’t say, but I was GIGGLING. For an incredibly high stakes book, this book is also incredibly funny yet it never affected the novel negatively.
Without context this book reminded me of Emily Wilde meets Six of Crows meets Teen Wolf. So unexpected yet worked so well! There’s a clear goal to this novel and it was executed really well. I think I felt my heart stop at the 78% mark and again at the end. Did I predict certain theories? Yes. Was I still gagged? Absolutely.
OKAY FULL SPOILERS COMING IN NOW!!
Sorry I will be an Erebus defender for life!! I could yap about this man for ages. Erebus put me through it this book. I freaking loved Erebus since Bloodmarked and never found him that evil?? Dangerous, yeah, but evil evil? Nah, everyone is so much worse. Don’t cross him and you’ll be fine. The whole time reading Oathbound I was just praying, “please don’t be the main villain” LMFAO. I was rooting for Erebus really badly and I am so glad Erebus wasn’t the main villain, not really. Everything about this man is so my type. Ok yeah he’s consumed the souls of 20 decades worth of people, but he’s also a gentleman?? Man says please, is patient and is reasonable to a certain extent?? That’s a win in my book, I don’t make the rules. He’s just so funny, relatable, tired of life and entertaining. Until now, I don’t think I can ever see Erebus as someone truly evil, murdering and consuming the souls of 20 decades worth of people aside. I see him more like the lesser of four evils?? And I’m glad that the Regents seem to be the main villains going into the final Legendborn book. I was so worried Tracy would kill Erebus off, but with that ending, oh we are gonna be fed good Arawn content in the next book. Hello Daddy Kane. He’s officially a DILF, guys.
Of course we have to address the big elephant in the room, which was Sel’s notable absence. I think Sel had 10% screen time, which I did find very surprising especially after how Bloodmarked ended. Sel spends most of the book “bonding” with his mom, with barely any dialogue, and then only reappears at the very end. I am surprised Sel did not get any POV chapters, but I do think it added to Sel’s newfound mystery, danger and allure, being unable to predict what would happen when he reunited with Bree. I was terrified for her sake. Their reunion only comes at the end, but I was on my toes. And Selwyn channeling his inner Void!Stiles? I was living for it. You know what? This new, chaotic, reckless, IDGAF, unhinged, feral version of Selwyn can stay.
“Got you.”
“Got who?”
I’M SORRY THAT BOOK 1 PARALLEL?? DEAD. DECEASED.
“Nicholas Davis and Selwyn Kane. The sun and the moon. Does she know the moon lives in you, too?”
“She does. Just like she knows the sun lives within you.”
TRACY DEONN, YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME. I LOVE BOTH OF THEM SO MUCH, I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.
“I want what every demon wants, Briana. Chaos.” I swear that was taken straight out of a Void!Stiles line and I was here for it. Hello, Void!Selwyn.
And that ending?? Alexa, play you should see me in a crown, I FREAKING KNEW IT!! Ohhh chaos is coming and I am here for it. I had a feeling Selwyn would be the Shadow King’s son since the ending to Bloodmarked, but I was still incredibly thrilled when it was confirmed. That final chapter was so juicy I could not stop cackling. One of my fav cliffhangers ever.
“Here we stand and here we are. A king, a knight… and a prince.” SORRY, LIVES WERE CHANGED.
“What… shall… we…do?” I have no idea, Selwyn. I have no fucking idea. All I know is that I am seated for all the chaos.
Moving onto Nick!! I never had anything against Nick since day one. I think I shipped Bree and Nick before I shipped her with Sel, although admittedly after Bloodmarked, I was team Sel. But god did Oathbound make my love for Nick skyrocket to new heights. I forgot how much I missed his interactions with Bree. The fake engagement trope? Only one bed trope? Tracy is so mother. Of course I would have wanted this with Sel too, but reading Oathbound definitely made me realise I am also still a Nick girlie and I ate that shit up like a goruchel. I felt Nick’s love for Bree really come through in Oathbound and I fear for Nick’s fate now that a part of Arawyn’s crown is embedded into him. I felt my heart shatter when that bomb was dropped. I think it was essential to have Nick be the center focus of this book and profess his love for Bree, especially if he ends up sacrificing himself in the final book. I was not expecting a potential doomed love trope from Bree and Nick, Tracy Deonn. The AUDACITY.
“This conversation is between kings.”
“The only king I see here is Bree.” NICHOLAS! DAVIS!
I’m really excited and anxious for Book 4. Sel might have the most dysfunctional family ever and I will be very excited to see the interactions between Arawn, Selwyn and Natasia going forward and potentially a trip to Annwfyn?? What mischief and chaos is Selwyn gonna spur on now that he’s the Shadow King’s heir?! Is he gonna overthrow his dad? Will anyone be endgame at this point?? Alice’s fate still remains unclear. The Regents are shaping up to be the main villains with whatever secret serum they are experimenting with. AHHH I’m not ready to say goodbye to this world!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2025
Even though the first half of the book was slower paced, I understand why it had to be: Deonn was moving the pieces into perfect position so that the gripping, absolutely insane second half was possible. As soon as we get into the locked-room scenario, the narrative and its emotional potency skyrockets, more than making up for the set-up.
Notes on the audio
As the series now includes other POV chapters, I was utterly delighted to see that Simon & Schuster allocated budget to hire voice actors for each POV.
All were fantastic except for one. The narrator for Mariah made a grating vocal choice when speaking as Valechaz, and it genuinely gave me a headache and had me needing to take breaks. Luckily, there are few (if any) Moriah chapters in the second half, so it's smooth sailing from there on out.
Has Abbott-Pratt learned to do a Scottish accent yet? Lmao no. Not even close. Maybe it won't stand out to North Americans? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I blame 6+ years of living in the UK for giving me the ability to hear when attempts at a Scottish brogue slip into Irish, or into something Cockny-esque. I'm nitpicking, but I promise if you found a Scottish reader and asked them, they'd be like "it was busted."
Am I letting that affect my rating? Not a chance.
Notes on the audio
As the series now includes other POV chapters, I was utterly delighted to see that Simon & Schuster allocated budget to hire voice actors for each POV.
All were fantastic except for one. The narrator for Mariah made a grating vocal choice when speaking as Valechaz, and it genuinely gave me a headache and had me needing to take breaks. Luckily, there are few (if any) Moriah chapters in the second half, so it's smooth sailing from there on out.
Has Abbott-Pratt learned to do a Scottish accent yet? Lmao no. Not even close. Maybe it won't stand out to North Americans? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I blame 6+ years of living in the UK for giving me the ability to hear when attempts at a Scottish brogue slip into Irish, or into something Cockny-esque. I'm nitpicking, but I promise if you found a Scottish reader and asked them, they'd be like "it was busted."
Am I letting that affect my rating? Not a chance.
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