{Character Post + Giveaway} of Cephrael's Hand by Melissa McPhail

Today on Seeing Night Reviews we have author Melissa McPhail here to talk about her Fantasy novel Cephrael's Hand. She talks about her chataver Alyneri and is also giving away a copy of her book! Everyone please welcome Melissa McPhail!

Character Post: Alyneri d'Giverny

Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog, Kristen.  Since my novel, Cephrael’s Hand, is an epic fantasy, it follows several viewpoint characters who are intimately connected, yet who seem unrelated when the story begins. 

In this post, I wanted to talk a little about my character Alyneri d’Giverny. 

A member of the blessed Adept race, Alyneri was born with the ability to tap into the lifeforce that roams her world and use it to work the unique patterns that compel the energies of life, healing men of most any ill.  This skill makes her valuable to her king, yet because her father was a foreign prince, she faces ostracism at every turn.  Eighteen now and alone in the world, Alyneri is headstrong and determined to serve the King of Dannym well, despite the many obstacles she faces in navigating his dangerous and thorny court.  

Her life thus far has been fraught with tragedy.  Her princely father died when she was ten, and her duchess mother three years later. The King of Dannym placed her in his protection, but her unusual looks keep her from fitting in with Dannym’s porcelain nobility.  She feels terribly alone in the world and wants most desperately to find adventure while traveling the realm in pursuit of her craft.  Yet her king needs her, and Alyneri ever faces a bleak future, chained into service to a throne amid a kingdom of viperous nobles who would just as soon destroy her as use her to their own ends.

She reflects at one point in the story: "She’d tried living among her mother’s northern friends, but without the Lady Melisande to dignify Alyneri’s presence, they’d looked upon her like a rather exotic and unusual dandelion: idly interesting, a topic of speculation to be certain, but still, ultimately, a weed."

As Cephrael’s Hand unfolds, Alyneri finds hope when she’s asked to join her king’s only surviving son on a vengeful quest to hunt down the man responsible for his blood-brother’s death.  Yet while Prince Ean’s quest offers escape from Dannym’s spiteful nobility, Alyneri’s heart feels no safer in Ean’s companionship.  They were childhood sweethearts before tragedy plucked them from sheltered lives and cast them instead onto treacherous paths, and she'd long ago vowed to stop loving Ean val Lorian, but the handsome prince remains lodged in her heart despite all her fervent attempts.   

Alyneri must reconcile her feelings for Ean with her fears of being forever tied to the throne of a kingdom that despises her.  As the river of their quest tumbles into a deadly waters, she finally finds the adventure she’s craved, but at what price?

Author Bio:  Melissa McPhail is a classically trained pianist, violinist and composer, a Vinyasa yoga instructor, and an avid Fantasy reader. With as background in philosophy and comparative religion, she is passionate about the Fantasy genre because of its inherent philosophical explorations.

Melissa lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, their twin daughters and two very large cats. Cephrael's Hand is the first novel in her series A Pattern of Shadow and Light.  Book Two, The Dagger of Adendigaeth, is scheduled for release in October 2012.

Links: Amazon |  Goodreads | Twitter

1 print copy or epub of Cephrael's Hand

a Rafflecopter giveaway