Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

• Reading Level: Young Adult
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: EgmontUSA; Reprint edition (June 28, 2011)
• Buy The Book: Amazon

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.

This book was AWESOMESAUCE! I loved the characters, the settings, the romance, all of it! This is definitely going to be added to my long list of favorites. I really especially liked how there were lots of different scenes, all in different places, it makes it more interesting to me when the author is explaining the scenes constantly. I also liked how the author didn't just instantly make the characters fall in love, they gradually discovered new things about each other and got closer before they fell in love. They only kissed like, twice or three times in the book, which made me happy, I like romance, but not excessive kissing. 

I didn't not like this, but it still made me angry how North yells at Syd and gets mad at her sometimes when he's had too much drink. I didn't dislike much about this book, just North's random outbursts made me a bit angry at him. 

My favorite character is probably Sydelle, because she is independent, strong, but also passionate about what she does, and also very kind, intelligent and helpful to those in need. I also think North was a pretty good character, he was misunderstood, but still kind and protective. The perfect hot guy of the story lol. My other favorite character of the story was Owain, North's friend. He's like, this big, teddy bear type guy who helps Syd and North with their quest. I got the feeling that he wasn't much for romance, because he started talking about his girl, Vesta, and it turns out she's a horse. 

My least favorite characters were probably Queen Eglantine, The Sorceress Imperial, and Dorwan, a rogue wizard and North's sworn enemy. I usually have a thing for the bad guys, because they're cool, they have better weapons or it turns out that they have a heart... not this time. The villains were cruel, they didn't have very good weapons or anything, and they just didn't captivate me like they usually do. 

I think this is a more fantasy-ish book, and real-life lovers might like it, but it has a lot of magic in it. Guys might like this, but it does have romance and mushy, sappy parts. I also believe that everybody should read this book, it is awesomesauce, epic, and it will knock your socks off!