Book Review- Brightly Woven

I just finished reading Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken for a 1 ARC Tour.

From Goodgreads:

Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.

In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.

Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.
 
This book was only okay for me.  I found myself dreading having to read it and I never really got into it.  I'm not saying that its a bad book, but it just didn't hold my attention.
 
I found that at times I got confused.  Which lands were which and which goddess they believed in and who was fighting who.  They all got mixed up in my head and I didn't really care enough to go back to try to re-read through it.  A lot of the book seemed to be about religion and politics.  Not my thing.
 
The characters were okay.  Sydelle seemed a little flat to me.  I didn't think that any of her characteristics were something that I really enjoyed.  And I went up and down with how I felt about North.  Sometimes I liked him, and sometimes I found him annoying.
 
This book is set up nicely for a series, but I'm not honestly sure that I'm interested enough to read it, if there is one.  I guess I would need to see what it is about before I would make up my mind.
 
I gave this book a rating of 2.5/5.
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 119
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 88
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 35
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 84
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free from 1 ARC Tours for an honest review.