Review: Brightly Woven

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Publication date: March 23, 2010
Publisher: Egmont

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.

How cute is Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken? MEGA-cute. And so much fun! I picked it up after reading an ARC of The Darkest Minds, also by Bracken. I loved The Darkest Minds (review to come closer to release date) and had to pick up her previous work. I'm so glad I did!

I found the author's writing to be quite...convincing. Does that make sense? Hmm, let me explain: Bracken succeeded at poking my heart, making me grow feelings for the main characters, and having me become obsessed with Sydelle's and North's romantic developments. Sometimes it felt like I was reading a gossip magazine following Sydelle and North. Those two have so many ups and downs, yo. I NEEDED to know what was going to happen with them and when. Good job, Bracken. You got me invested (obsessed).

This is a romance. Or at least that's how it came across to me. Brightly Woven may be a fantasy book, but I wouldn't recommend it to all fantasy fans. If you love your fantasy with world building, this is not the book for you. I will admit, I found the lack of location description to be disappointing and I felt the book location hopped a lot. Sometimes I felt like I missed precious time between North and Sydelle while they were travelling:

North: "We need to get to "Blah blah" in two weeks. We're losing precious time!"
END OF CHAPTER
START OF NEXT CHAPTER
Sydelle: "Yay, we're here!"

Please excuse my poor, horribly made-up example. My point: what happened during those two weeks? I kind of want to know! I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like the transitions could have been a bit smoother. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book. This is a fantastic recommend for fans of Shannon Hale. I also loved that the book is pretty clean and is a great option for those 10-11 year olds who want to read YA, but aren't quite ready yet.