Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The stakes higher, the lies more bold, Legendary takes what you thought of Caraval and turns it on its head.

The story primarily focuses on Tella this time round, as she searches for her lost mother. Finding a cursed Deck of Destiny cards when she was younger has meant her fate has been written out and her future out of her hands. Each of the Fates on the cards shows her something different about herself, and she is convinced that she’s the reason her mother disappeared. All comes to a head when one of the Fates, the Jack of Hearts, appears in the flesh and promises her mother’s return if she enters and wins Caraval and brings its leader, Legend, to him to have the power to unlock all the Fates. But she’s also told she could destroy the Fates if she locates the Deck of Destiny again and gives it to Legend to end them. Does Tella win and free her mother while simultaneously unleashing all evilness into the world? Or does she locate the Deck of Destiny and give it to Legend to destroy the Fates but lose her mother? Emotions run high and moral dilemmas come into play as Tella must decide for the first time what her fate must be…

So Legendary was a definitive step up from Caraval for me. I wasn’t a big fan of Caraval, but found I warmed to Tella in this book. I enjoyed the magic element in the book but to be honest, still found something lacking. I’ll try and some it up here.

The good:

– Tella held her own. She still had that playful flirtatious thing going on which heavily bugged me in Caraval, but she had her wits this time round and made better decisions. She’s smarter than she appears.

– Jacks. He’s the villain but gosh I liked him. He’s layered, twisted, has a warped perception on things, but I just loved his scenes. I want more of him to see his character arc.

– The magic element was so enjoyable. I was only 20 pages in but felt myself enraptured in the magic of it. The world felt sprinkled with it and Garber’s writing aided in this. The different Fates were also a great addition to the series.

The bad:

– I still don’t know what it is about Dante, but I don’t like him. He’s untrustworthy and I found I just couldn’t make him a book boyfriend. I look forward to Finale to see where he goes.

– There was a lot of repetition with information being related multiple times. We were told the same facts over and over again just to make sure we understood which I can appreciate, but it was done a bit too heavily. It was sometimes two paragraphs in a row saying the same thing but phrased differently.

– There were too many outcomes for the plot and rules were broken to make new outcomes possible. I thought there were only a couple of options when it came to how Tella could save her mother, but clauses were found and new pathways opened up which made me think: anything could happen. But not in a good way. It felt like the easy option was made possible and to be honest, it’s the cheat way of writing a book to do this.

To sum it all up, I enjoyed Legendary for what it brought to the table, but am still feeling like I’m missing something. I look forward to reading Finale to see what happens and for it to hopefully improve the series like Legendary did. Hopefully it keeps going up.