A new author: Barbara Friend Ish

I was browsing through the new books at the local library and found The Shadow of the Sun by Barbara Ish.  I had never read anything by this particular author, but I was intrigued by the snippets of the story on the back cover.  It is a basic fantasy book that has some great descriptive writing.  When Barbara describes the places where the story takes you, I can almost see it.  The characters are compelling as is the story.  It is easy to lose yourself in the story and come to when the eyes start to glaze.  One thing I have found that I am not so fond of, there is gaps where there have been battles and the story starts again after the fact.  This may have been a deletion to save space or a concise decision.  It was just very noticeable and a little confusing.