#Review - Nightborn by Jessica Thorne #YA #Fantasy #Romance

Series: The Hollow King #2
Format: Kindle, 382 pages
Release Date: May 26, 2020
Publisher: Bookouture
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Like deep dark water, it pulls them down. The faint fire of magic within them flickers and dies. Their eyes turn black as night. They are nightborn now.

Grace Marchant has been many things: streetwise orphan, rebellious servant, and now beloved companion of Prince Bastien, heir to the throne of Larelwynn. But their sunlit happiness is not destined to last. The golden magic which brought them together in purest passion is threatened by strange and ancient forces. Innocent people are becoming nightborn – cruel, deadly, unrecognizable to their loved ones – and these two young lovers are the only ones with power enough to stop it.

In times of peace, striking a deal with their closest enemy would be unthinkable, but now their only hope is to ally with the neighboring Valenti royal family: manipulative, cunning, and always with an eye on the Larelwynn throne. The partnership comes at a devastating price… if Grace wants to defeat the nightborn, she must watch Bastien marry a Valenti princess.

Grace knows she must make this heart-wrenching sacrifice for the good of the whole kingdom – but she also fears the magic in her veins, usually so warm and bright, is turning cold as deepest midnight. A beguiling darkness whispers to her from within. Is Grace herself becoming nightborn?

Time is running out. With Bastien promised to another, and a stony distance growing between them, will Grace find the source of the nightborn curse before every last soul is consumed by the darkness?

Combining sizzling romance, courtly intrigue, and heart-in-your-mouth action, this dark and addictive fantasy series is perfect for fans of Graceling and Emily R. King.

Nightborn is the second installment in author Jessica Thorne's The Hollow King series. This story picks up 3 months after the ending of Mageborn. There are several key characters that readers must pay attention to: Captain Grace Merchant, Queen Aurelie, Asher Kane, Kurt Parry & Bastien Larelwynn. Once upon a time, a terrible plague known as the Nightborn descended on the world. Their magic was wild and dangerous and nothing could control them.  

Lucien Larelwynn made a pact with the Hollow King to separate magic from the ruling monarchy and to keep it under strict control. The pact Lucien demanded of the Hollow King bound one member of his bloodline to control all the mageborn. As the story opens, Grace, Bastien, and Grace's remaining squad mates (Ellyn de Bruyn & Daniel Parry & Lyric Misha) are in a foreign court, where Bastien is playing -or rather trying not be played by - courtly games which might end with him being married to Princess Rynn.

Grace and Bastien need the Valenti's help in order to stop Aurelie from furthering her magic addiction that has seen mageborns rounded up and imprisoned or worse. But, the Valenti monarchy has other ideas. Tales have reached Grace of mageborn being rounded up and locked away. Aurelie and Asher as trying to use Mageborn to harness their powers and enslave them with a bit of help from Bastien's psychotic sister Celeste. Even in the Valenti Island's where Grace sent those Mageborn saved by Kurt Parry, they're not safe from machinations of powerful people.

Aurelie and Asher haven't stopped their determination to control Bastien and will go to any lengths to get what they want including killing Grace and taking her warrant as well as using a memory remover to ensure that Bastien doesn't remember her. It also means using Princess Rynn to become the next Queen of Rathlynn. Previously, Grace was given the King's Warrant by former King Marius so that she can protect Bastien. But, protecting him might cost her everything including her friends who have stood with her through thick and thin. Meanwhile something odd is happening to the Mageborn.


They are being converted, filled with darkness and turned into vicious and powerful Nightborn. There's no way to save them, and the only way to destroy them is to kill them or let them kill themselves. Grace, who is a firestarter (Flint), powers are dangerously close to turning Nightborn. After losing them for so long, having her abilities again may be catastrophic. The only way to stop the Nightborn may be returning to the source of the Maegen, source of all magic, and trying to find a cure even it if means a sacrifice.


This story has plenty of action, suspense, betrayal, romance and new characters like Lara Kellen along with Jehane Alvaran who is a very dangerous character. We also learn way more about Ellyn and her roots which really make this story deeper in depth. Don't over look Princess Rynn. While she may be a pawn like Grace and Bastien, Rynn isn't a character that is powerless or worthless. However, in fairness, this series needs a sequel. Sequences at the end of this book leave way too many unsolved story lines that really need answers. Especially when it comes to Grace and Bastien's future.

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