Review: Brightly Woven

Title: Brightly Woven

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Author's Website: http://alexandrabracken.com

Pages: 368

Goodreads Description: 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.

I'm so torn when it comes to giving this a book a rating.  On one hand, I enjoyed the book.  It was an interesting story that kept me intrigued most of time.  I finished it in a 24 hour period.  On the other hand, I thought it could have been SO MUCH more!

The story is very confusing at the beginning.  I had a hard time following along.  It wasn't until the third chapter that I started to understand what was happening.  The writing was really disjointed.  The author would jump to the next scene before the scene before it was completely developed.  I kept wanting more to happen in each scene.  Even when the action picked up it was short winded.

I really liked the characters, but I was dying for them to just speak to each other!  There was hardly any dialogue.  They would say two things to each other then the conversation would be over and the story would move on to the next scene.

I think the author had a great idea for the story, but just needed to add more to it.  Keep the action going for a little bit longer, add more suspense to the plot, and let the characters talk more!  If she had done that, the story would have been awesome!

I know that the author is young and this is her first book so I will read other books from her in the future.  I hope that she continues to grow and develop her writing skills.  I definitely think she has the potential to be amazing!

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