A review by strangecandy
The Waking Land by Callie Bates

5.0

What a gorgeous book! I'm in love! Everything about this book was engaging and unique and kept me spellbound all the way through the story.
The story is about a girl, the Lady Elanna Valtai, who has been held hostage for 12 or so years to ensure her fathers loyalty to the crown. She was taken when she was five years old and has few memories of her parents and has been raised and educated with the royal children of the family. Therefore she has an incorrect education in the real history of her parents and countries history. She has been studying botany for some time as she has a gift for growing things. Lloyce, the kings heir to the throne hates Elanna, and when the king suddenly becomes ill by a poisoned mushroom that she was studying she becomes framed for his murder. Elanna loved the king like a father and would never had anything to do with his murder.
She also know that she has a bond with the secret circles of stones found throughout the country, when she puts a drop of her blood on the stone once a year she hears and sees things that most others cannot. Once she is safely brought back to her homeland she feels an immediate bond with the land itself and finds out that her magic (that was outlawed in her previous home) makes her the Caveadear, the waker of the lands. A position that has been vacant for nearly 200 years. As she grows to learn more about her family and people she becomes torn on her family that raised her and the one she was born to lead.
I am really looking forward to the next book in the series.