Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan **Review** [Blog tour day 1]

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan
Series: Fractured Light #1
Pages: 312
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Release date: 8th February 2012
Buy: Book Depository | Amazon UK | Amazon US

Goodreads synopsis:
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.

I really enjoyed reading this. When I first read the synopsis for the book, I was looking around for blog tours to sign up for, and as soon as I read about this one, I knew I had to be a part of it!

The premise for the novel is really unique - definitely not something I've heard of before, or even anything similar. Llona is an Aura, a young woman who conceals the power of Light within her, but does not yet fully understand it. She knows that it's because of her mother's Light that she was hunted down and killed by the Vyken's - a vampire-like race that feed on the Aura's Light in order to free themselves from the confinements of the dark.
This idea is fascinating in itself, but there are so many twists and turns in the plot that I found myself being eventually dragged into the story and held there. I say eventually because it did take a little while for me to get into the story.

The main reason I had to bring the rating down to 4 stars was because of the disjointed feel of the beginning of the novel. The most disjointed thing about the beginning of the story was the first proper conversation between Llona and the mysterious Christian. It felt to me as though there was something missing from the encounter to make it feel properly real. This didn't particularly effect the rest of the book though - once their relationship began to fully develop, it was beautiful. If I could create the perfect man, I think he would certainly share some of Christian's character, particularly his selfless protection of Llona, and his love for her despite the odds being against them, and the rules forbidding it. But I don't want to say too much - you'll have to read the book to find out more.

I think in the next book, I'd like to see Llona's character develop a little more. I felt as though I knew Christian fairly well by the end of the novel, but Llona's character is a little more of a mystery. What I did love about her character though, was her refusal to give up; to be strong, stand her ground and fight, rather than lose the life she was just beginning to build for herself. I really admire strong female heroines, and Llona is no exception to this.
I have a feeling that the second novel will see Llona's character mature and develop even further, so I'm really looking forward to reading more about her, and of course, seeing how the relationship between the two copes.

The novel is beautiful in places, funny in others, utterly dark and (yes, I'll admit it) frightening in others. It conjures such a vibrant mix of emotions that you will be left thinking about it for days after finishing.
This is definitely one I recommend to any fantasy fiction enthusiast, or someone looking for something a little bit different from the norm. A wonderfully exciting read.