Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Title: Brightly Woven

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: No

Pages: 354
Copyright: 2010

Publisher: Edmont

Rating: 3 out of 5


Summary: from Goodreads

The day the rains came was like any other, blistering air coating the canyon in a heavy stillness....

Just as the rains come after ten long, dry years, a young wizard, Wayland North, appears, to whisk Sydelle Mirabil away from her desert village. North needs an assistant, and Sydelle is eager to see the country - and to join him on his quest to stop the war that surely will destroy her home. But North has secrets - about himself, about why he chose Sydelle, about his real reasons for the journey. What does he want from her? And why does North's sworn enemy seem fascinated by Sydelle himself?

Through a journey that spans a country, magic and hard-won romance are woven together with precision and brilliant design by a first-time novelist.

Feelings:
Brightly Woven is Alexandra Bracken's debut novel. The back jacket flaps says that she wrote the story as a birthday present for a friend. I thought that was an interesting idea and it was one of the reasons that I picked up the book and didn't put it back on the shelf when I was wandering the library.

I enjoyed the story but there were times where they writing tripped a little. Sydelle is an interesting characters and it is really the characters that draw the reader in and keep them interested. Wayland North the first wizard Sydelle meets isn't your typical wizard nor do his intentions seem trustworthy all the time. However, he does seem to care about others. They characters were dimensional and worth learning about.

I didn't at first realize that this was written in first person which is normally a warning that I'm not going to like the book all that much. That wasn't the case with this story. I think that limiting the story by placing it in first person was necessary. Even a limited third person would have given the reader to much information to soon. Even as it is the reader figures out what is going on long before Sydelle does.

I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy fantasy and like reading debut authors.