Book Review: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan
(Fractured Light, #1)
Release Date: February 7, 2012
Publisher: Sweetwater Books; 312 pages

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.

This was my first ever book I got to read via netgalley, so I was really excited. I first heard about FRACTURED LIGHT on a contest with goodreads, I believe? Since then, I’ve really wanted to read it. The description sounded interesting and the cover made me that much more interested in reading it. I had to read this on my computer because I didn’t have a kindle at the time but let me tell you, once I started reading this, it didn’t matter. I finished it in a matter of hours…I just couldn’t stop reading it. (It seems like I say that a lot, doesn’t it?) But it’s the truth – there are so many books that I read that just draw me in and don’t want to let me go.

This book is about good versus evil, a very typical thing, right? We meet Llona (which I just LOVE this name, by the way) who has lost both her mother and her father so she now lives with her Uncle who is only about ten years older than her, so he’s more like an older brother. Llona is an Aura, just like her mother. Aura’s carry the light and they’re only female. The darkness, or evil, that hunts Aura’s to kill them are called Vyken’s – which also killed her parents. But now there’s one haunting her…

Llona is so different from any other Aura, including her mother. Aura’s don’t fight and they never have the urge to fight but Llona wants to fight, she feels it in her blood. She wants to learn how to use the light as a weapon. The amount of willpower and fight Llona has is very encouraging. Woman empowerment. :) I’ve read a lot of YA books and I have to say, she would be one of my top role models, if I had to choose.

Christian, a new boy at school suddenly becomes someone of interest not just for the reader but for Llona. But so does the brand new math teacher Mr. Steele who is not only gorgeous but has an English that makes him that much more attractive. There isn’t a whole lot of ‘romance’ in this book but there is plenty of flirting and just when you think its going to get them somewhere, it doesn’t. Who am I talking about? Christian or Mr. Steele? Well – read it to find out. ;)

Llona’s best friend is May and I adore, adore, ADORE May. She’s different, like Llona (but not like Llona) and that’s how they bond but she’s also the opposite of Llona. Where Llona is trying to be invisible in school, May knows and talks to just about every single person there. I think I like her because she’s the complete opposite of me. She’s someone I want as my friend. So outgoing and such a people’s person but there’s more to May than meets the eye!

Who would I recommend this to? Any reader who loves all kinds of YA Fantasy novels. This is definitely right up your alley. Though, the one negative thing I will say about it is at parts, it’s a little predictable. Though, even if you can guess something, there’s going to be something else thrown at you so you’re not disappointed you saw it coming. I never was disappointed and I really thought I was.