After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

I love a good retelling, and this one didn’t just hit the spot, it set up camp, and refused to leave. It has action, a touch of romance, and stakes that feel genuinely high. And that ending? Absolutely worth the build-up.

The story follows Bree Matthews, a sixteen-year-old still reeling from the sudden loss of her mother. She enrolls in an early college program at UNC-Chapel Hill, hoping for a clean break from her grief. Instead, she walks right into a magical battlefield on her very first night. A demon attack, a secret society called the Legendborn, and a failed memory wipe from a self-proclaimed Merlin set the stage for a story that feels both epic and deeply personal.

One of the things that impressed me most was the way Tracy Deonn blended Arthurian legend with African American history and Southern rootwork traditions. It’s a fantasy mashup that feels like an intentional, meaningful layering of cultures and histories that makes the world feel grounded even when there’s a sword fight happening in the middle of campus. The magic system has a satisfying depth to it, and the way Bree learns to navigate it becomes a core part of her growth.

Bree is one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in a while. She’s sharp, stubborn, and unwilling to settle–especially when she knows people aren’t telling her everything she needs to know. She pushes back, questions authority, and keeps digging for the truth even when it costs her. Her grief is also a living, breathing part of her character arc. It shapes her choices, her relationships, and even her magic.

The supporting cast is equally well-drawn. Nick, the charming but complicated Legendborn who becomes Bree’s ally, has his own baggage that adds tension to their partnership. Selwyn Kane, the brooding Merlin apprentice, walks the fine line between infuriating and fascinating. And the Legendborn society itself is a tangled web of politics, tradition, and secrets. Every time Bree learned something new about them, I found myself thinking, “Oh, this is going to get messy.”

The pacing also works well. The book starts strong, slows briefly as Bree learns the ropes, then ramps right back up for a finale that had me flipping pages like my life depended on it. The twist near the end reframes everything we’ve learned so far in a way that really raises the stakes.

One of my favorite things, though, is how the author handles the balance between the familiar and the new. Arthurian legend has been reimagined countless times, but here it feels revitalized. The knights, the magic, the legacy is all there, but it’s filtered through a fresh lens that challenges the default assumptions of the original myths.

If I had one small nitpick, it’s that some of the society’s rules and politics could be a lot to keep track of early on. But honestly, once the pieces click into place, it’s worth the initial complexity. The world feels richer for it. That’s not really even worth mentioning, though because I always tend to be a little lost at first when dealing with new fantasy worlds.

I’m glad I finally picked this one up after seeing it recommended so often. If you’re into fantasy with an academic setting, layered worldbuilding, and characters who feel like real people, this is one you should move to the top of your TBR. And if you love retellings that don’t just repackage the same old story but rebuild it into something entirely their own, then this is a must-read.

Reading Challenge(s):