What happened in Legendborn by Tracy Deonn?

Read a full summary of Legendborn, book #1, in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn series. This page is full of spoilers, so beware. If you are wondering what happened in Legendborn, then you are in the right place!

Author
Tracy Deonn

Ratings
4.7 stars on Amazon
4.4 stars on Goodreads
Add Legendborn on Goodreads.

Legendborn Series Recaps:
#1 Legendborn
#2 Bloodmarked (synopsis)

***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

Briana- Rootcrafter/ King Arthur
Nick- Bree’s boyfriend/ Supposed king
Alice- Bree’s best friend
Selwyn Kane- Nick’s kingsmage/ Legendborn
Lord Martin Davis- Nick’s father/ current Lord
Aether- powers (magic)
Shadowborn- Demons
Legendborn- Pages, Kingsmage, Squires
People-Onceborn

Special thanks to Ifeoluwa Adebisi for providing this recap!

What happened in Legendborn?

Born in a small town called Bentonville in South Carolina, Briana wants nothing more than to escape her overprotective mom and her nosy neighbors. She applied to UNC-Chapel Hill behind her mom’s back, which her mom was against. She hoped her mom would support her, but instead, they had a big fight. Bree didn’t know this would be the last time she would speak to her mom.

Three months after her mother’s death, Bree and her best friend Alice attend UNC-Chapel Hill. On their first night, Bree can’t stop thinking about her mom and decides to attend a party, which is very unlike her. The party gets out of hand, and Bree can only think about how to contain her alter ego, which first appeared after her mom died. She thinks of her as After-Bree. Then Bree sees Sel fight a creature using magic. He tries to erase her memory, but it doesn’t work. She realizes she’s seen this kind of magic before.

So, on her first night at the school, she gets into trouble, sees what she shouldn’t see, and hears what no onceborn should hear. “Is that magic?” Since law enforcement had to get involved, her dean has no choice but to provide her with a mentor. (And she’s left with a strike toward expulsion.)

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Ending her first day unfocused, Bree finally meets with her new mentor, Nick. He is persistent about her having fun. On their way back to her dorm, they see another creature, a hellhound, and instead of running from it, she runs towards it and is badly injured. Nick kills the hellhound.

Demons, magic, and aether: she finds out all these are real while she recovers in their secret society house with the help of Nick and their healer, William. She can’t help but think her mom’s death had something to do with everything that’s happened since she knows her memory was tampered with the night of her mother’s accident, as well as the night of the party and during her recovery by Nick’s kingsmage, Sel. But it didn’t work on her.

She decides to go undercover as a page to determine if her mother’s death was intentional. But it won’t be easy since the Legendborn are testing the pages in a series of trials.

Joining the order is more challenging than she thought, even with Nick, now her boyfriend, helping her to find the truth. And Sel keeps calling her a demon in human form. More gates are opening with increased shadowborn attacks, and more squires are awakening with great power and strength. If all thirteen scions awaken, they will start a deadly war with shadowborns called a camlann. She also finds out her mother had a secret. She was a Wildcrafter who could manipulate Rootcraft (magic), and she despised the Legendborn. Bree’s dad gives her a necklace that belonged to her mom, which tells her about rootcraft.

How did Legendborn end?

During the annual selection gala, Nick, who turns out to be King Arthur’s descendant (and next in line to the throne), picks Bree as his squire. This is surprising since Bree has just joined the order.

This act enrages his father, Lord Martin Davis, who has Bree kidnapped and uses Alice to threaten her. He tells Bree to stay away from Nick and that he plans to awaken Nick and let Arthur dominate him by opening the gates. But the love Bree has for Nick doesn’t let her give up. She intends to save Nick from his unstable father. They fight their way toward the sword of Excalibur. To everyone’s surprise, Nick cannot pull it free. Instead, Arthur chooses Bree when she pulls the sword from the stone, and Nick is Called, but by Lancelot. With Arthur’s power, they defeat the demons.

It turned out Bree wasn’t the demon Sel claimed her to be, but a boy named Evan, who was also a squire in their chapel. So many of her friends were lost during her awakening by Arthur.

After the fight, Bree collapses, and when she awakes, she learns that Nick’s dad has taken Nick into hiding. Sel swears they’ll find Nick and calls Bree his king. Now that she is the king, she must pick between Nick or being the king of the Legendborns and fighting beside them during the Camlann. She is still determining what the future holds for her and her mission. But she does know that her mother’s death was an accident, and now, with the help of her ancestors, she can learn more about being a rootcrafter and her powers.

There you go! That’s what happened in Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. We hope you enjoyed this Legendborn summary with spoilers.

Special thanks to Ifeoluwa Adebisi for providing this recap!

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