An enchanting tale of adventure, magic, and courage. 151,000 words long.
Analinde is a powerful elven mage just new into her powers. When her village is attacked by Humans she races to the nearest elvish stronghold to give warning.
Unfortunately, once she reaches safety, things don’t go as planned. Her magic is causing problems, she doesn’t know who she can trust, and no one will tell her anything.
The traitors are just one step behind her and Analinde doesn’t know where to turn. All she wants is for life to go back to normal, but she realizes this is impossible.
Will Analinde pursue the magical potential she sees all around her? Or will she allow herself to be sheltered, protected and kept out of harm’s way?
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and was instantly pulled into it. It did take me a while to finish, but I will elaborate on that in a bit. The author is an absolute sweetheart. I was impressed with the thank you note and the autograph in the book. Now, on to the actual review.
ANALINDE took me a while because of its rich language. It is set in a high fantasy world with the main characters being elves. The language and descriptions weren’t hard to follow, it was just so rich that I had to take my time. Its kind of like eating a seriously amazing chocolate cake. You have a few bites and take your time because the chocolate is rich, but you can’t stop because it is that good.
I love how Bitter described the magic. It was amazing seeing how Analinde grew from a girl still struggling to a girl achieving great feats just to survive. She was an amazing character and I could relate to her. In fact, I usually dislike elves, (even Legolas is an elf that sometimes gets me going) but Analinde was an elf that made me love the world. I don’t care for some of the other characters, mostly the teachers, but I am beginning to like elves (as long as they are Bitter’s elves).
The book is a bit like Harry Potter in that most of it is in the school and the main character has a group of friends helping her in the midst of adults and danger. But, really, that is only one way to describe the book. ANALINDE is very much a coming of age book. The main character is a girl who grows in the end, both in magic and as a person. She isn’t the only character to grow, but as the main character I loved seeing that growth.
This is definitely a series that I will keeping watch for.
Casia's Corner 