The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier

The beginning of Bridei's Chronicles (which I understand has a total of 4 books, 1 yet to be written) and tells the story of Bridei's life from when he was very young and taken as a foster child by the Druid Broichan.

This is set in Fifth Century Scotland and bridei is being brought up by Broichan to be the King of Fortriu, unknown to Bridei at such a young age, and the desriptions of the Druidic rituals were really good and give you a wonderful picture of how life was back then.

One early morning a young Bridei wakes to find a small child on his doorstep, this is not just any child but, a child of the good folk, the fey child Tuala is taken in by Bridei on that midwinter morning and is not taken well by everyone Bridei is with. |However, it is Bridei's belief that the child was given to him by the Shining One (the Goddess) and decides to care for her.

With Bridei and Tuala becoming the central characters to the story, and both are wonderful and very likeable characters, I especially loved the character of Tuala her story was so fantastic and you could not help but, feel for her at how she wasd treated by Broichan.

To say anymore about this story would ruin it for anyone who wants to read this book, and would I recommend it? Well, Trudi Canavan's Priestess of the White was easily my favourite read of this year but, this has overtaken it.

So well told as with everything Juliet writes, reading some reviews a lot of people will always compare this to the Sevenwaters Trilogy, which remains my favourite series but, this is different to that and based around the time of the Picts, personally for me it was as good as Sevenwaters, Juliet is one of my favourite authors and I just loved this!