The instant #1 New York Times bestseller! Stephanie Garber’s limitless imagination takes flight once more in the colorful, mesmerizing, and immersive sequel to the bestselling breakout debut Caraval… A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win. After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a … and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.
The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more–and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about–maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval…the games have only just begun.
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If you thought Caraval was entertaining, you are in for a treat with Legendary. It’s a bittersweet feeling when you finish a book. And Legendary is the bittersweet chocolate ganache on top of the Caraval cake (did you enjoy that lame pun? I did.)
All the hopes and dreams that were built up in Caraval have a different test/trial in Legendary. New hopes, wishes, and dreams are equally tentative. We were told in Caraval it’s all a game. In Legendary, it’s said to be real. But which is worse, thinking it’s a game or knowing it’s real?
Legendary stole my heart and I’m left in mourning. I’m mourning my hopes and denials. You can only blindly cling to naivety for so long. When the truth comes out, you are left to mourn the loss of your innocence.
Legendary leaves your innocence in tatters on the stairs of a temple seemingly forgotten. It leaves your heart bleeding on its pages. Legendary left me hoping for…everything! But don’t cling to despair the way I am because eventually the next book will be here. Just grab your blanket and rock in the corner with me while we wait!
Wow, this book was such a surprise! Up until I was about a quarter of the way through, I assumed it’d be very similar to Caraval – I still wasn’t a huge fan of Garber’s overt and sometimes nonsensical metaphoric writing, and it seemed that the world of Legend and his performers wasn’t as mysterious or magical as I wanted it to be. But the moment the Caraval games begin once more, the story instantly takes off and becomes engrossing in a way it’s prequel just didn’t manage for me. This book took a lot more risks and the characters and landscape of the story were so much richer and more fun to get swept up in. Legendary is deliciously dark and cryptic and full of angry gods and fantastically creepy villains and is totally worth the read. I liked Tella as a narrator much better, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series continues in the future!
Oh. My. Goodness…
I LOVE this series – Garber has created such an original, magical, horrifyingly off-kilter world, and populated it with a cast of characters that is truly unique and wildly inventive. She has the perfect writing style for this type of story – clear and concise, but with just enough detail to bring the world she’s created into Technicolor glory. She is also terribly witty, and there are a number of one-liners that are offered as throwaways, but that often steal the scene. Garber plays with language and imagery the way that Legend plays with people, and the result in both instances is delightfully dark and deliciously funny.
I enjoyed the introduction of the Fates as an entirely new set of players, because they offer so many opportunities for intrigue. But I also really enjoyed the deepening of Legend’s character- he’s still an enigma wrapped in a riddle, but for very different reasons (as a result of several reveals in this book), and it’s fantastically unclear – STILL – whether he’s the hero or the villain of the piece… It’s that type of moral ambiguity that I think makes the characters in this series so marvelous – they have a depth and breadth, a psychological heft if you will, that ebbs and flows like the tides and leaves you a little uncertain where they stand at all times. It makes every page a thrill, because it is almost impossible to guess when they will zig and when they will zag – or when they’ll decide to go with neither and instead stop for coffee… It keeps you off-kilter, right along with Scarlett and Tella, and that’s a fun place to be when you don’t have to worry about paying the consequences like they do!
I really enjoyed that this book was written from Tella’s perspective (as opposed to Scarlett’s, who is the focus of Book One) – it was interesting to step inside her head and get a better sense of who she is and why she behaves as she does. The two sisters are wildly different on the surface, but as more about their lives and histories is revealed, I’m starting to see more core similarities too – in intriguing, resonant ways that I suspect will shape the stories that unfold going forward. I’m curious to reread the first book now, and see if it colors my interpretation of her actions (I suspect it will)…
Speaking of which, I’m also insanely curious to see what comes next… There’s no way Garber can stop writing in this series now, there are too many loose ends and possibilities laid out at the end of this one. Which is a Very Good Thing, because a world like this deserves more than two visits!
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
I loved Legendary, and I might have enjoyed reading Tella’s POV even more than Scarlett’s POV from Caraval. Tella is a feisty, fierce, independent character, who waffles in her decisions a bit less than her sister. (But, let’s be real, I love them both.) I also loved the introduction of the fates folklore, and the Jacks/Dante love triangle is fantastic. Stephanie Garber’s writing continues to be superb, with descriptions that left me spellbound. This is a must-read series for YA fantasy lovers!
If this book were a pint of ice cream, I shamelessly ate it all and don’t care about how much I’m going to have to run to work it off. I’d do it again, and again. Actually, going to go pig out on book 3!
I loved Legendary as much as I did the Caraval. Both stories have been very original, and even though the main character changed from Scarlett telling the story to Donatella, I thought the author did a great job with the transition. I’m intrigued by Stephanie’s writing style and can’t wait for the next book to come out. “Stephanie Garber, if you read the reviews, I have one thing to add, hurry up and write more books. I can’t wait to read them.
This is the second book after Caraval. The first book is based off of Scarlett playing the magical game of Caraval to save her sister. This second book is Tella playing the magical game as well. This time though the game is much more deadly and has a lot riding on it. Tella owes a debt to a stranger, whose bargain may be more then what she can keep.
I think I liked this second book more than the first. It actually doesn’t focus as much on the game as the first. There is so much more going on and it intertwines with the first and adds a lot more. The characters are well developed and you are experiencing everything with them. There is mystery, magic, heartbreak, sacrifices, and love. It’s a page-turner. I’m looking forward to the third.
**This book has lots of heavy kissing and touching, sexual remarks and innuendos.
Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
To say I loved Caraval would be an understatement. Normally I try fight against overly hyped books and I thought for sure I would find it lackluster, but it turned out to be such a fun read!! Consequently I went into this sequel with high expectations that it didn’t quite meet, but I still absolutely loved this beautiful book.
THE GOOD
I had a completely different reading experience with this book than I did the last one. Instead of being a mere passenger that’s swept away like I was during Caraval, I went into this with both eyes open and a heavy dose of skepticism. I noticed every character, every movement, every sentence and even flipped back to earlier parts of the book while I read to try and piece this crazy puzzle together. But that actually made this way more fun, like I was playing the game WITH Tella, and Garber does a great job dishing out little clues throughout the story. There were still some plot twists that I saw coming from miles away, but there were also a lot that I didn’t, so it was still a fun journey.
I also really really loved the premise! In the last novel, Caravel didn’t really have a theme—Scarlett just played the game as it had always been. But this is a special version of Caraval created specifically for the Empress’s birthday and deals with the different fates. The fates are sort of like the divination, tarot card versions of the Greek gods??? Like if Greek mythology and Wicca got together and had a baby it would be the fates. Am I even making sense anymore?? However you want to describe them, I absolutely LOOOOVED the different fates and their dark magic! it was like a physical manifestation of tarot cards, which I thought was super clever.
Plus, Garber’s writing is still gosh darn BEAUTIFUL. Her words completely transported and captivated me from the very beginning. And that ending!!! UGGGHHHHH!! My heart just about melted out of my body. I NEED THE NEXT ONE.
THE UGLY
The comment I’ve heard the most since finishing Caraval is that people found Scarlett annoying and in the throws of my post-reading high, I was genuinely surprised by this. Did I love her character? No, but I didn’t really hate her either. Tella was the one that really got under my skin during the last novel. But surprisingly, Legendary managed to improve my opinion of Tella and lower my opinion of Scarlett. I will never doubt you Scarlett haters again because MY GOD was she annoying in this. Thankfully she doesn’t have much page time and just flits in and out of the background, but DANG. Tella also has a few questionable moments, but not nearly as cringe-worthy as Crimson. It was’t really enough to distract me from the story, but it did make my eye twitch a couple times.
FINAL WORD
I loved this!!! It was beautiful, magical fun just like the first one. If you enjoyed Caraval, you’ll like this one too. I can’t wait for whatever comes next!!!!!
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Another adventurous re-read with this story from Tella’s point of view! She and Scarlett return to Caraval in a new location. There continues to be mystery and adventure while Tella tries to uncover the secrets of her mother. There are some returning characters along with new characters. The story and descriptions just get more vivid!
I think the name says it all…..it is in fact truly legendary…
Are you ready for another game? The magic of Caraval once again graces the world for the Empress’s birthday and this time Tella has no choice but to play. Indebted to a dangerous man, Tella must win the game in order to discover Legend’s true name to clear her debt. But winning the game may cost her more than she originally bargained for. As the magic of Caraval comes to life Tella will find herself swept up in a fight for both her heart and life. But it’s just a game. Or is it?
Tella’s story is a much faster paced adventure than Scarlett’s. Tella is impulsive and more likely to take risks. She is also quite the conflicted character once you get to know her, and I loved every minute of it. She dives headfirst into situations and is passionate about everything she does. Even if she is afraid, she does her best not to show it and has a sharp tongue to back her up. The pacing was also helped by the fact that the stakes were higher than the last book. Tella has to go through riskier situations than Scarlet ever had to. As a character, Scarlett most likely would not have been able to accomplish even half of what Tella did in this book.
The world is also cracked open and expands beyond the sisters and their family. Stephanie Garber begins to add in world history, information on the fates, and how magic once worked. And don’t worry the family ties are still a strong theme in this story, they are just accented by the world-building.
Stephanie Garber has once again created a beautiful and dangerous world for the characters to traverse. The descriptions are just as vivid and colorful as in Caraval, drawing the reader in and immersing them in a world that leaves them stunned. The writing style of Legendary is bursting with creativity and immediately pulls you in, making you sort through what is real and imaginary alongside the characters. And even after the story has come to an end you will look back over everything you experienced to try to sort out what was real. I don’t want this adventure to end, but there is only one more book to go. And I can’t wait to start it!
I rated Caraval one-star. I told my friend I almost genuinely hated it.
I wouldn’t have read the second book if it weren’t for my friend, Emma, who is absolutely in love with the series. I had 3 main problems with Caraval:
1) The magic and world building was unexplained and vague, had little thought put into it.
2) The POV, Scarlett, was irritating. She was painfully gullible and lacked personality.
3) The writing style was insufferable and made little sense (see review for examples).
Emma promised me that Legendary would fix (at the very least) 2 out of those 3 ailments. But I found that Legendary fixed all three of these issues, and I am very happy to have read it. I love the Fates, the stars, Legend, the setting, and Tella’s POV. Tella was much more intelligent, headstrong, fierce, and enjoyable. She was bursting with personality through her dialogue. I thought that Julian was lackluster in Caraval, but where Julian failed in the first book, Dante quickly rose and had me swooning. I loved all scenes with him.
Even in the writing I feel like the author wasn’t trying so hard or being forceful with her metaphors. There were still a couple bad ones (like “the evening smelled like sugared spiderwebs and drunken peaches”) but it wasn’t nearly as insufferable and frequent as in the first book.
I also felt like the plot itself, and what was at stake, was much more invigorating and exciting than the first book.
Overall, I loved this book. I cannot wait to read the third installment!
If I thought the first book in this series was absolutely amazing, this one definitely surpasses it. Tella was such a fun character to get inside the head of! She was daring, headstrong, fearless, and above all, selfless. In Legendary, she has to make an impossible choice, one where no matter what, she will lose someone she loves.
Danger, love, and adventure come together in an incredible sequel in the Caraval Series. Like the first book, the author managed to pull me into the pages and keep me there. I questioned what was real and what was not, whose motives were more worthy over another’s, and especially what would be the end result of the book.
If you haven’t read the Caraval Series, I highly recommend it!
This book was amazing way better than the first one. Tella is an amazing character, even though on the first installment she came across as childish and reckless, she´s super complex. Her actions are always fuelled by love. Yes she does reckless things but there’s a motivation and a goal she wants to achieve. I love her way more than I did her sister.
Dante is the dark night you didn’t know you needed until falls he upon you with those intense eyes, and cockiness. He´s hot and he knows it and flaunts it like there’s no tomorrow. He´s Dark and sexy but he’s also a mystery, one I wanted to unravel which is the reason I couldn’t out this book down.
This couple is so spicy that I often forgot how young they truly are.
The game this time around its quite different form last time, the stakes are higher than ever, the lines between truth and game aren´t standing anymore and it becomes quite entertaining to theorize on the outcome of the pieces on the board.
This book is full of surprises, some I saw coming a mile away others took me completely off guard. I really enjoyed the pace and the character development and being able to see a little about the last players and how they are doing after the last game. Yes, there’s some Scarlett and Julian on this one.
I can’t say more without spoiling so I’ll leave you with this.
In Legendary no one is who you think, no one tells the truth and the only character that does isn’t the one you think it is. Everything is a clue but none of them work as you think they do
It’s no secret, I’m a massive fan of this series. I absolutely adored this sequel, and I finished it in two-day’s time! Highly recommend this series!
I loved this book more than the first one and I will of course continue on with the series!!!!!
Even before reading the second book I was so excited to read from Tella’s perspective because she is the reckless sister of the story and someone who is like that will have many things happening and it did.
I just hope there won’t be a love triangle though in the third book because that would suck but I honestly did not care for the romance just as I did in the first book but I was very invested in the plot. Thankfully though the cliffhanger was not as bad as the first one which makes me more patient for my Library give it to me.
I am so excited to see what will happen in the last book, Finale, and who’s perspective are we gonna follow. Scarlett or Tella, or both?
I seriously want to cry and I’ve no certain idea why! Perhaps it’s because I loved this book so much! Maybe they’re tears wanting to fall for Tella whom I really, really want to wrap up in a hug!! I thought I had her pegged during the conclusion of Caraval. I knew she’d be complicated. But I had no idea as to what laid within her heart or plagued her mind. And boy was I certain that Scarlett was my favorite! This. Changed. Everything!!! This series embodies every element and every emotion that readers dream of!! This is that once in a lifetime story that takes your dreams and let’s them soar!! I can’t imagine readers not wanting to explore this world, to get lost caught up in this richly layered plot. I had no idea that this would become my new obsession!!! I couldn’t possibly choose a favorite character now!! The two sisters have individual struggles and they have each done their best to shield the other from harm. They both have such beautiful hearts! I am quite taken with Dante!! I’m very eager to see what he has planned in Finale!! I know that it’ll be ah-mazing!!! I’m forevermore a stalker of Ms. Garber because she is brilliant and her imagination is stellar and so uniquely her own!!!
When I though the series couldn’t get any better… BOOM. IT. JUST. DID. In short- I loved it.
I loved the first book, Caravel, but this was also just as good! You never know what’s going to happen, and wonderful characters. Mix of romance, magic, surprises, fantasy, and making sacrifices to save those you love.