Burning Brightly (Valdemar) by Mercedes Lackey

 Valdemar saga (in chronological order of the world, not order of publication):

The Mage Wars
The Last Herald-Mage
Collegium Chronicles

The Herald Spy

Family of Spies 

Back to Valdemar!! Burning Brightly is one of only two standalone novels that aren't part of a trilogy or more in this saga.

(I found a new source about the reading order for Valdemar. Some dude named Mike has an amazing timeline that shows where all the books are in the reading order. I am obsessed with it and also quite pleased that I'm mostly doing things in the chronological order of the world. Lackey is currently writing the Founding of Valdemar trilogy, so I haven't read it because it's in progress still.)

In this book, Lavan (Lan) is the son of successful tradespeople. They have to move from his rural home to the city of Haven and Lan is bored and lonely. His parents send him to a school where he is bullied. As he is being tortured by his classmates, his anger and fright combine to have him start a fire that injures him and kills his classmates. 

Lan's Gift is that of a Firestarter. He is soon Chosen by a Companion (the white horse-like creatures that are not actually horses) and begins his life as a Herald Trainee. But Lan is wracked with guilt over the death of his bullies. While it was not done on purpose and there's even a hilarious scene in which one of his friends walks Lan through the degrees of murder, manslaughter, and then lands on self-defense, Lan knows he's being trained to kill people in a warfare situation and he does not want to be the cause of any other person's death, even if they are his enemy.

Meanwhile, Lan's Herald-mentor is Pol, a Herald whose Gift is that he can do every known Gift to some extent. He's not a great Mindreader, but he can do it. He's doesn't have the most Empathy, but he can certainly change the tone in a room if he wants to. So Pol is the one who has to teach Lan how to control the anger that fuels his Gift. 

The first part of this book was very much like Foundation and I started to get a tiny bit worried that this was just going to be Mags 2.0. But it wasn't. Lackey was going to finish Lan's story in one book and the story did not go in the direction I thought it was going to go. 

Lovely addition to Valdemar. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

:It is not a better world, and we must deal with things as they are.: (page 174)

Lan's Companion is full of these pearls of wisdom.

Pol was dancing on the edge of his energy, though; he was forced to juggle teaching, tutoring Lavan, and meetings with the Select Council, along with whatever incidental tasks came up. He wasn't young anymore, and his body reminded him of that sad fact rather frequently these days. (page 261)

I thought it was interesting that in this YA book one of the main characters was older. I sort of liked it. 

Lan always thought that this was the saddest part of the year, the time when it seemed that winter would never end. The excitement of Midwinter was over; hard-packed snow blanketed the sky. The cold was relentless, leaking in around door- and window-frames, sending unexpected chills down the back. You couldn't escape it, except in bed, and you knew that when you woke up again, you'd be battling it from the time you turned back the covers. (page 265-266)

Preach it, Lan. It IS the worst time of the year.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

From the street, except for a gown or a hat prominently on display in a window, it wouldn't be possible to tell these places from an ordinary house. (page 20-21)

The previous manifestation of the feud had been hats; tall, pointy ones, dripping veils and gold chains, which imperiled everyone around them and forced them to walk with a peculiar, backward-bent posture with the stomach thrust out. (Page 77)