REVIEW: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

 

Author: Rachel McClellan

Pages: 312

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Sweetwater Books

Amazon: Fractured Light

Release Date: 8th February 2012

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

In this breathtaking and romantic adventure, Rachel McClellan delivers a truly mesmerizing story that will keep you guessing to the very end. 

REVIEW: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Fractured Light was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for Cedar Fort/Sweetwater  Publishing.

17 year-old Llona Reese is what is known as an Aura and able to manipulate light and harness its energy, she has lived with her uncle since the death of both of her parents and has avoided moving to Lucent Academy where others of her kind reside and where her aunty sits in as a council member.

Llona’s energy is at its strongest when the moon is at its fullest, her abilities and strengths are enhanced during this time and she weakens as the light does. Being an aura has its positives and negatives and Llona is finding out through a number of incidences that it may be time for her to move yet again.

Where the Aura’s are good, the bad guys in this novel are Vyken’s and seek out the power of the Aura’s. I found the history of each to be unique, and certainly fascinating and creative in comparison to what I have read in Young Adult novels more recently.

Christian Knight has been tasked to protect Llona, he has been assigned as her guardian despite both of their ages and the fact she doesn’t attend Lucent; it is more for precaution but when strange things begin to happen around Llona it appears the Vyken who killed her mother could possibly be after her.

Llona’s personality and behavior goes against everything an Aura believes in and as the story progresses she begins to find out the reasoning behind this and some truths are revealed. She seemed to live a lonely existence so I am pleased that as the story went along she seemed to gain confidence and more of a social standing. I liked her as a character, she had strength and determination.

The romance aspect of the book is not in the forefront of this novel; it is there but doesn’t take away from the main storyline. I enjoy a good romance but I am pleased the developing relationship between Llona and Christian was slow to happen and believable, I am curious to see how it pans out, I really enjoy the forbidden, banned love trope.

We get a good glimpse at each of the secondary characters, I especially liked May; Llona’s sort of best friend and I’m eager to see how her abilities progress. Matt was also really sweet and I enjoyed the close bond she shared with Uncle Jake.

The pacing for me was at times choppy, it started off slow but would then pick up; and vice versa, it lacked consistency. I enjoyed the suspense and action scenes, they really kept me engrossed and entertained.

I enjoyed Ms McClellan’s writing, it was engaging and enjoyable and her plot solid although could have been executed a little differently. I am eager to read the next book in the series, the ending certainly left me intrigued.