4.5 ( )

4.5 ( )

Mara was a pretty tough cookie, considering she had no idea who she really was until her mother was killed - persecuted for being a witch. Mara is sent off into the forest all on her own to try to escape the villainous sheriff with only a dagger to protect herself. Luckily, her uncle sent men to locate her and bring her back to Valenia where she would be safe. But was there more danger inside the fortress than out?

There were a lot of plot twists but the characters' emotions weren't as moving as they could have been. For example, Mara didn't seem to have a very strong reaction to her mother being burned alive, but then went totally ballistic when confronting the person responsible and getting her revenge. There weren't many scenes in the book that struck deep chords, even though some terrible things occurred, but that isn't always a bad thing. It wasn't emotionally exhausting. It moved delicately over tragedy and despicable deeds but kept you engaged enough to continue reading. I wanted to find out what would happen to Malcolm- I loved to hate him.

The scenery described was beautiful, and I could picture Valenia in my mind. The setting was real and the powers of the light were fascinating. Either you controlled it, or it controlled you. I followed along and enjoyed the story waiting to find out if Malcolm would win or if Corbin and Mara would find a happy ending. Mara and Corbin think they finally have Malcolm under control, but do they?

I was drawn to the beautiful cover of this book. It is outside the realm of what I generally read but it held my attention. I was swaying a little bit over the rating but was won over with the ending - the reappearance of Malcolm's mother - and what she had to teach him that makes you wonder what's next for the dias and so I give it four stars. ( )