Review of Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Title: Brightly Woven
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Pages: 368
Publication Date: March 23rd, 2010

Back Cover

Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.

In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.

Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.


First Lines

"The day the rains finally came was like any other, with blistering air coating the canyon in a heavy stillness. By late afternoon, the only thing more suffocating than the air was the dust kicked up by our feet.”



My Thoughts

(For more information on Post Amazing Book Depression, check out this post by Tara of 25 Hour Books!)

Warning. Major gush fest ahead.

For those of you who are book bloggers (or just avid readers), I'm sure you know what I'm talking about when I say this: Have you ever read a book that causes your heart to break when you turn the last page because it's over? What about one that has you wanting to call your best friend at 3 in the morning in order to tell her all about it? Well, guys, I'm happy to say that Brightly Woven did all this for me and more.

First of all, I couldn't believe that this was Alexandra Bracken's first novel. It's so incredibly well-written--the characters, the writing style, the plot--everything ties together beautifully. I can't even begin to express how impressed I was with this book!

The world Bracken created was vivid and unique, as were the characters. The plot moved at the perfect pace, hinting at things but not making them overwhelmingly obvious. I had a lot of trouble putting the book down, and I read it in just a few hours!

This is going to be a shorter review than usual, because I don't have much to say other than this: if you've ever loved fantasy, romance, action, or just a good book in general, you need to give this one a shot in the near future.

As of now, there's no sequel planned, and while Brightly Woven definitely can stand on its own, I would love to see this turn into a series. Hmmm....looks like it's time for me to start pestering Egmont...



In a Sentence

Brightly Woven is an absolutely stunning debut novel that you should read ASAP!


Links

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