Book Review: Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Title: Brightly Woven
Series/Sequel? No
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Genre(s): Fantasy, Adventure, Old-Fashioned Fiction
Age Level: YA (12-14)
Page Count: 354 (Hardcover)
POV: 1st Person (female)

Summary from back of book: 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? 

Review: So, I wasn't originally planning on reviewing this book. But I have to. Because it was just... perfect.

I'm not saying the plot was perfect, or the characters were perfect. It was more the AMOUNT of everything that was perfect. The AMOUNT of tension. The AMOUNT of romance. The AMOUNT of action. The AMOUNT of fantasy/magic. It all came together in such a way that... I didn't want the story to end. I didn't want to have to leave this world, or these characters.

The characters were awesome, by the way. All of them. They were so unique in their personalities and their mannerisms and... EVERYTHING that I felt like I knew them. North was hilarious, Sydelle was kind, yet kick-butt and brave, the Sorceress Imperial was mean... they were all just such wonderful characters!

I found the magic/fantasy part of this book fascinating as well. North's cloaks, and the different talismans were things I haven't really seen before in books, and it was interesting how they had an effect on the type of magic each wizard could do. The beliefs in the different goddesses and how that influenced the story and the characters were interesting as well. And to what Sydelle could do... well, I don't want to put in spoilers, but I never saw it coming!

Really, a lot of the twists that happened in this book, I didn't see coming. But in a good way.

If you liked the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon) but want something shorter and easier to read, I would suggest this for you. You won't regret it!

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