Customer Reviews

Wizard's Bridge

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Her village is in trouble from hostile neighbors so Alsa, who has elementary wizardry skills, decides she must save her town. However, though she has latent talent she has no training to focus her flair. Alsa knows her only hope for mentoring comes from the nearby wizard, who lives in a castle on the top of a mountain across a bridge of light particles guarded by a dragon.

Frightened by the rumors she has heard of the hermit wizard, Alsa crosses the bridge and meets face to face the dragon, who sends her onto the castle following her explanation. Inside the castle she meets her host who wears a mask to hide what Alsa assumes is his hideous face from her. The wizard listens to her plea without displaying any emotion. Instead he offers to train her if she bears his child. She agrees. As she learns how to use her talent under the tutelage of a difficult harsh instructor, Alsa falls in love with her teacher and the other castle minion, but believes she will be sent home once she gives birth because though she knows her wizard cares he hides his feelings from himself.

WIZARD'S BRIDGE is a beautiful retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story enhanced by fantasy elements. The lead couple is a delight as both will soon learn that they received much more than their original deal's considerations. The action starts right away when the "Little Mortal" meets the dragon and never slows down until Alsa finally learns the first rule of wizardry on what ingredient casts the most powerful spells. Adult fairy tale fans will want to read this delightful romantic fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

Hoping to turn her talent into power enough to save her people from raiders, Alsa dares cross the wizard's bridge and strike a bargain with its owner. The wizard will train her in his art and she will bear his child. To make the latter easier for her, he wears a handsome mask with such ease she must wonder if the hideous face she first beheld is the lie, or if both are. Despite the difficult monotony of her training and hard taskmaster, Alsa grows to love her new home and all of its occupants, yet believes that the wizard is incapable of returning that feeling, even after she gives birth. When the truth comes, it may be too late and too painful.

**** With all the wonder of Beauty and the Beast, a truly magical tale about the greatest enchantment of all will capture your heart. Truly, it is regretable it finishes so neatly that a sequel seems impossible. The most endearing character is not one of the protagonists, however. The dragon who guards the bridge makes it worth reading to meet him. ****

Wizard's Bridge by Ms McCullough is a lovely romance, but it's also an interesting look at what it means to possess power. When Alsa crosses the Wizard's Bridge and makes a devil's bargain with the wizard for training in the use of magic to save her people, she's naive about the responsibilities that come with her untapped power. The wizard, Korlen learned through painful experience that using his power to interfere in people's lives rarely turns out well. Though he refuses to use magic to save Alsa's people and his warnings about the consequences of her doing so fall on deaf ears, he agrees to train her. In return she promises him a child.

Ms McCullough's world building is simple, but well thought out, and provides a solid background for the difficult path Alsa and Korlen must travel toward love.

I'm not going to do a synopsis of the story. You can read that in the other reviews. I just want to say that I found Wizard's Bridge a delightful tale. It's a fast read, it entertains and it has a wizard and dragon in it. What more could you want?

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

This was a fascinating fantasy romance by the talented Karen McCullough that will carry readers away into another world where dragons live and wizards dream.

Alsa feels the stirrings of wizardry within her and makes a desperate bargain with a reclusive wizard to expand them. She needs to learn to use her magick to aid her village in winning a battle against amassed enemies who could wipe out everything she has ever known. She asks the wizard Korlen to teach her in the ways of magick and in exchange, she will bear him the son he desires, so as to pass his powers on to the next in his line.

Her adventure thus begins when she learns magick is not what she thought, nor is training in her abilities anything she ever would have expected. In the months spent with Korlen, she discovers many hard lessons about his way of life, soon to become hers once her training is complete. Never in a million years though, did either of them expect what the greatest lesson of all would be... that of sacrificing all for love. Can he help her learn what she needs to help her village survive? Can she finally begin to comprehend the choices he has made in his life, and how they will change her forever?

This is a delightful story and Ms. McCullough proves once again why she is a rising star in the world of romance. The world-building is vivid and has so many facets to it that readers will feel as though they are in the village with Alsa and her family, or in the castle where she learns wizardry. Landscapes are so beautiful that one senses the faint stirrings of Breath, the air elemental whom Alsa befriends, and feels the pillowy softness of the rainbow bridge under her feet as she crosses into the wizard's lair.

Most of the characters are skillfully rendered and full of life, from Dragon, the sulky, yet satisfied guardian of the castle and rainbow bridge, to Dortee, the wizard healer, to Adam the precocious child of Korlen and Alsa. Alsa comes across as a brave and selfless young lady willing to do anything to help the village she loves, yet vulnerable enough to cry over the accidental damage she causes in her lessons in magick.

Korlen is a complex individual. He is a loner; having withdrawn from others after something scarred him emotionally in his past, and is afraid to speak of his feelings, even if he's not afraid to show them in other ways. One will love him for his vulnerability at the same time as being frustrated with his refusal to interact with others. The only thing this reviewer would have liked to see regarding him is a look into the events in his past that is alluded to many times throughout the story, but never explained. That is left out and this reviewer can't help but feel that may have made her understand him even more.

In short, this is a very satisfying and quick read that will captivate readers from the first page all the way through to the beautiful happy ending. Karen McCullough is a wonderfully talented up and coming author who is guaranteed to have quite a future in the fantasy romance genre.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2004. All rights reserved.