To Read, Perchance to Dream: Book Review and Blog Tour - Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

Welcome to the Fractured Light Blog Tour with author Rachel McClellan.

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.

As part of the Fractured Light Book Tour, the publisher, Cedar Fort furnished me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Cedar Fort and Netgalley!

Fractured Light is a good first novel from author Rachel McClellan. She uses paranormal power - managing light and its energy - in a refreshing new way. Her villains, the Vyken, are a nice twist on the age old tale of the vampire.

A few things detracted a bit from the story. The first part of the book was rather slow, not a lot was going on. The plot point of the main character being an orphan whose parents were killed by the creature who is now stalking her, is overused nowadays, in my opinion. J.K. Rowling did it successfully over 14 years ago, I think it's time for a new idea. Also, the characters of the uncle and aunt were a little flat.

Things did pick up in the story, making the reading much more exciting. The suspense built by the Vyken visitations was excellently done. It had me checking my room and I'm no Aura!

The relationship between Llona and her guardian was very sweet and kept me rooting for them to be together. I especially appreciated the friendship between Llona and May, they both had to overcome their loner instincts to trust and truly care for each other. Ms. McClellan did a great job introducing several characters without making it confusing for the reader. This kept it from being so easy to pick out the Vyken and ruining the suspense she so cleverly built. I did figure it out, but I was never totally sure, thanks to her writing skills.

Fractured Light is an overall entertaining young adult paranormal book. It's definitely worth the time reading it. It's due to be published in February 2012, but go ahead and preorder it. Then you can stand in line with me waiting for the sequel in 2013!