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"The Bonemender" by Holly Bennett
- Author:
- Holly Bennett
- Publisher:
- Custer, Washington: Orca Book Publishers, 2005
- Reviewed by:
- Holly Sanhuber, Muskego Public Library
Resigned to spinsterhood, and content, Gabrielle lives a settled life
at her father's castle in the town of Verdeau, and practices her gift
of hand-healing. "She let her eyes close, her breathing even and
slow. With her mind still and focused, Gabrielle sent her awareness
flowing down to the swollen, torn tissues. Her hand tingled as the
warm light flowed through her. The world around dimmed, until there
was nothing but the small body under her hand, the light and the
healing." Change is signaled by the advent of Feolan of the Elves of
Stonewater, and his badly injured friend. Over the lengthy time of
recovery, the healer and the ambassador come to care for each other. With difficulty, Gabrielle bids Feolan goodbye. Her short human
lifespan and Feolan's long-lived Elven existence will not suit. The
calm sunny mood of the book's beginning is slowly turned to foreboding,
shown in the escalation of tension and the dread preparations leading
to war. The threatened invasion of the Greffaires brings the lovers
together again, and both are honed in the fires of war. Readers feel
for the oppressed populace of the Greffaires, and know not everyone
hungers for war. "It was an appalling country. Feolan had never
before conceived of a place where oppression was the common condition
of life, but in
Gref Oris nearly everyone, it seemed, walked
in fear. Only soldiers and the richest nobles traveled and spoke
freely. Everyone else labored under the emperor's fist." The
mystery surrounding Gabrielle's birth is happily resolved, and the
lovers' reunion brings hope and healing to the book's conclusion. There is enough adventure to maintain reader interest, as Feolan goes
under cover in the enemy stronghold, and they capture Gabrielle, but
the war is not seen in terms of adventure. The losses of war are not
sensationalized; nor are they ignored. A sequel, Bonemender's Oath
, is planned.
