The Bonemender

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

In this engaging fantasy, Lady Gabrielle Des Chкnes, the 27-year-old
daughter of King Jerome of Verdeau, is a bonemender, someone who can
heal with the mind. Her skill is tested when Danaпs, a visiting scout
from the Elves of Stonewater, is grievously gored by a boar. During
Danaпs’s recuperative period, Gabrielle becomes attracted to his
travelling companion, Féolan, and her feelings are reciprocated.
However, the couple’s love seemingly cannot end in marriage.
Gabrielle, being human, could anticipate but five or six more decades of
life, while Féolan, an elf, could live another five or six centuries.
The elves’ purpose in coming to Verdeau was to warn the king that the
Gref Orisé, the people beyond the mountain range, were preparing for a
spring invasion of the four kingdoms sharing the Krylian peninsula.

Much of the book’s action then revolves about the nations’
preparations for the impending war, plus Féolan’s foray into enemy
territory where, in disguise, he enlists in the Gref Orisé army to
gather intelligence. As expected of the fantasy genre, the outnumbered
good guys win, but not before some tragedy and near-tragedy occurs. The
romance finds positive resolution when Gabrielle, having been told she
was a foundling, learns she is half-elfen as her murdered birth parents
were a human and an elf, a situation that will provide her with an
extended life span. The war’s action is sufficiently overlaid on the
continuing romance so that the book should attract young teens of both
genders. Recommended.