Reddit mentions of Silverdream & Bloodfire (The Chronicles of Elydir Book 1)

I read and amazing and profound book called Silverdream & Bloodfire by Brenda Wynn.

For example, here are a few reviews:

"Silverdream & Bloodfire is a novel that straddles two worlds. In the beginning, the world most familiar to you and I is ascendent. We understand its troubles, its turmoils, the petty jealousies that lead swine like Professor Stevenson to behave like the bastard he does. He is a bastard but he is a fully realized character. Without having it spelled out for us, we understand why he does what he does, why he is mean and manipulative to a gifted student such as Amanda Jennings. Amanda, for her part, is another person whose life we know has been troubled and that she has triumphed over the adversity that actually makes her the hero of this story, the hero who has followed her own Hero’s Journey. She is a marvelous, sympathetic, likable character.

At first, the alternate world that shares the page with Amanda’s world is foreign, strange, other. The words it uses are strange. The customs, animals and cares are new and different. But, as the story works its magic to a significant and radical switch, another sort of miraculous transformation. The other world, the world of Kantis and T’Kerr and of a being called Eliazon becomes the normal one. As a reader living in these two worlds, we feel the urgent need to get back to the world where thoughts are effortlessly transferred and where it all makes sense to us. The world of the strange has become our home—making this book one of the most amazing tour de forces I have ever read.

Please understand: I am not normally a reader of fantasy. But perhaps the trial by fire I endured reading “Game of Thrones” prepared me for this journey. I have found myself reading this page turner with an urgency that surprises me. Please understand. I am a reader who reads a dozen books at the same time. Yet, this book has kept me coming back until, at about the half way point, I could not put it down and read in a rush to the end.
One of the greatest achievements in this book is the character called Elydir, a place of unique geography, strange animals, delightful plants and foods, of creatures and everything.

The depth and breadth of this world Elydir is magnificent and in this novel the wonders never seem to cease—each being deeply and profoundly characterized, from Oxen-Ren to the late surprise that is Mirytet and her world. From the depth of the characterization to the final delivery of ultimate story, I am in awe at the power that is wielded in the novel Silverdream & Bloodfire.

The penultimate “warpath” was a surprise and deeply satisfying. The thrilling ending was perfect and profound, forcing Amen-Jen to face her worst fear. Simply perfect."

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"I love to read and will pick up just about anything. I'm so glad I picked up this book. Amanda is a great character that I immediately took a liking to and began cheering for. She is a determined young lady who knows what she wants and is willing to overcome obstacles to obtain her goals, including overcoming her wheelchair. She has a challenge with her professor, who for some reason is a horribly cranky, escalating to mean, man, with some underlying scheme that he's trying to run. Amanda is takes on a special project for a parapsychology course and rents a mysterious old house. There are puzzles to be solved and magic afoot. This leads Amanda to an unknown world, and sends one of that world's citizen's, Kelvan, to our world. Enter a wonderful dragon (I want a devoted pet and protector like Eliazon), a mentor who is a grand socerer, trouble kingdoms that are being oppressed by an evil, self-proclaimed emporer and his witch, and many other wonderful characters and the tale took me for a lovely ride. I moved between the two worlds as Amanda figures out the ways of Elydir and Kelvan tried to cope with our world or microwaves and washing machines. Kelvan was thought to be the warrior to save his world, but when he goes to our world and Amanda comes to their's, it become apparent that Amanda is the warrior Elydir has been waiting for. While Amanda was accustomed to fighting for what she wanted, being informed she was the warrior who was going to save Elydir was quite a shock, and not something she readily accepts. I don't want to say too much and give away the lovely story. If you enjoy a good read, regardless of the genre, you'll likely enjoy this story. I'm looking forward to book 2 so I can find out more about all these wonderful characters and how they resolve their various challenges, small things like getting back to their own worlds, why is Professor Stevenson such an angry, manipulative man, does Amanda end up with Jack or Larry, or do she and Kelvan end up together? Ahhhh, so many possibilities."

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Silverdream & Bloodfire: Book I of The Chronicles of Elydir is a smashing start of a new series chronicling the exploits of Amanda Jennings, a wheelchair-bound college girl who has decided to do some research about a late 19th Century paranormal researcher by the name of Dr. James Harcort. She rents his long-abandoned but still furnished and functioning house where she discovers more than she bargained for.
They say write what you know. In this case, for Brenda Wynn, it's who you know. The interesting thing about the character of Amanda Jennings being in a wheel chair is that the author is also wheelchair bound, and has been since childhood. She really knows this character inside and out, and that's what draws in the reader. Like the author, Amanda is an upbeat person who doesn't let anything, or anybody, stand in the way of what she wants to do.
In the house, Amanda discovers encoded journals written by Harcort. After she learns how to decode the material, she finds many of them are strange rituals. She tries one called Silverdream. At the same time, in a world known as Elydir, Prince Kelvan is going through a test ritual known as the Bloodfire. There always has to be a vehicle for the hero-in this case, the heroine-to get from the real world to the fantasy world. In this case, during the rituals both Amanda and Kelvan find themselves switching places, transported to worlds neither of them ever imagined.
While the story is told primarily from Amanda's point of view, there are chapters devoted to how Kelvan is faring in his new world. Not well, as it turns out. Now he is in the wheel chair and Amanda can walk.
Initially, there is an interesting shift in Amanda's self-assured nature. Who can blame her? She finds herself in a world of hostile people whose prince has just disappeared into who-knows-where and in his place is this blonde-haired stranger.
The Serrans were counting on Prince Kelvan to be the Coritus, the chosen one who would lead them to victory over the evil Emperor Aton. Instead they have a young girl they call Amen-Jen. They are not happy at all, and Amanda is frightened and unsure of herself. Reluctantly, the Serrans decide that the Gods have brought her to them as the real Coritus. Of course, Kelvan's mother, the Queen, isn't too happy about this turn of events and is ever plotting against Amen-Jen, the interloper.
Soon, with her newfound ability to walk, along with an ally of the High Priest Kantis and a red dragon named Eliazon, Amanda's confidence begins to return; however, with reservations. As the Serrans and the other kingdoms of Elydir push her to do their bidding, she fears for her life as she is in constant danger from spies of Emperor Aton, from a horrid witch named Hagah, from Serrans who believed she is a usurper who killed their prince, and from a duplicitous shape-shifter who plays all sides of the coin, even the edge.
Will Amanda/Amen-Jen be able to overcome her unsettling new life? Will she actually try to help the Serrans and their allies get rid of Aton? Will she ever be able to return to her own world and her own life? And, does she really want to?
There is more than one dimension to this story. In fact there are several. Throughout the story, the author reminds the reader that there is a moral dilemma at play. If Amanda/Amen-Jen can accomplish this mission for the people of Elydir, the high priest has promised everyone, including Amen-Jen, that he will get Kelvan back and return her to her world. Yet, if she returns, she knows that she will never be able to ride through the skies on a dragon; that she will be back in her wheel chair; that she will, once again, never be able to walk.
And, it's not only herself she has to consider. If she doesn't return, Kelvan is doomed to life in a wheel chair; to living in a world he doesn't understand, with people who don't have his best interests at heart, and with the knowledge that he will never again see his family, loved ones and the people of Serra.
Silverdream & Bloodfire is the first book of an epic trilogy that is sure to stand along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and become a fantasy classic.