Skip to main content

Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn

This is the fourth book in Shinn's Twelve Houses series. Each volume focuses on one of the six companions and this one follows the youngest--Cammon. The boy who reads souls. Heretofore, Cammon has been something of a delightful enigma. The scruffy little brother with a good heart, not an ounce of tact, and the ability to gauge a person's true intentions. In this volume, he comes into his own and it was a treat to be one up on the rest of the characters for once. To actually be inside his head. Cammon is still Cammon, but we do get a little more information on his background and abilities as a reader. When he is chosen to assess the true intentions of Princess Amalie's suitors, the inevitable humorous and dangerous consequences follow. In fact, this was the most predictable of the four novels so far. Although I was surprised (and perfectly delighted) with how much of it was Senneth's story. She is my favorite character and, in the end, all the books are about Senneth, the people she gathers around her, and the ways in which she binds them together. As in Mystic & Rider, her sheer strength took my breath away. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that we get so much of Senneth in this book as it becomes clearer and clearer as the story goes on how much Cammon relies on her. How, even when he disagrees with her logic, she has come to fill a space in his life that was empty until she walked into the tavern and freed him with a swipe of her knife. As always, Shinn's strength is her dialogue and her strong characters. They leap, gleefully and disreputably, off the page, making me wish I knew them. Wish I could talk with them and watch their faces. Become familiar and chummy with them. Until I was one of them. One of the six. No, seven now. That's the sign of a good book. That's the reason I'll read anything she writes. That, and finally having the satisfaction of watching Tayse cleave Halchon Gisseltess in half without blinking an eye. The good news: Ms. Shinn is in negotiations to write a fifth installment in the series. All is right with the world.

Comments

  1. I got chills reading your summary...I didn't know it was out. I can't wait to read it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh...it makes me want to read it all over again. sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have to let me know when you get a hold of it, Liz. You'll love it.

    Liza, what do you think is an appropriate time to wait before rereading it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tayse is a roll model.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It will be in my hands by the end of the week. I was going to start the Bridei chronicles, but it might have to wait.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ahhhhhh....I loved it. My kids have been neglected, and my house is a mess, but all is right with the world....or at least Gilengaria.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Indeed. I'm so glad you liked it. Favorite part(s)? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Where to begin... The first time Amalie reads Cammon's thoughts. The night when everyone comes in Amalie's tent and realizes that Cammon and Amalie are "together." The first time Amalie sets the Raelynx on her would be suitor. When Amalie refuses to marry anyone but Cammon....sigh. I could go on and on. I thought she wrapped it up very nicely while still leaving a small window of opportunity for another book if need be. I got closure, but still want more.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Angie's 2025 Must Be Mine

  As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2025: And we're still waiting for covers on these, but I'm just as excited for each of them: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower Wish You Were Here by Jess K. Hardy Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey Father Material by Alexis Hall Alchemised by SenLinYu Breakout Year by K.D. Casey What titles are on your list?

The Year Fic Saved Me

Once upon a time, January came for us and proclaimed itself supremely uninterested in taking prisoners. Under the sustained assault, there were simply too many avenues of stress tearing into my brain. On one side of the field stood so many books (as they have always been there for me) ready to be read—to help. And on the other side loomed a distressing number of chasms inside me desperate to find solace and reprieve. But the two could not meet. No matter how many peace talks I attempted to broker.  In February, in a move so unprecedented that I can only describe it as a lifeline thrown down into the deepest of the chasms, my exhausted mind decided it would be a good idea to finally give fanfiction a whirl. Now, there's no getting around the fact that for someone who has read as many novels that involve fic in some way or another as I have—seriously, novels that began as fic, novels written by authors who got their start writing fic, novels about characters who write/illustrate/love...

Review | Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

It really is a pretty cover. And dragons. I love them so.  It's been far too long since I've read a book in which dragons played any kind of primary character role. They do here, and they are probably my favorite aspect of this book. But more on that later. It's probably worth noting that I, like the rest of the world, was aware of Fourth Wing and the collective losing of BookTok's mind over it. I mean, it was kind of thrilling to hear that you couldn't find a copy anywhere—in the sense that I love it when books are being consumed and loved. And when that happens in such a way that it takes publishing by surprise (for lack of a better way to phrase it) so much so that they have to scramble to print more. So I did the sensible thing and bought the ebook. And then I proceeded to do the not-so-sensible-but-extremely-Angie thing and not read it. There was a cross-country move tucked in there somewhere between the buying and the reading, but more on that at a later date...