As readers of this blog already know, I am a huge Sharon Shinn fan. Archangel is one of my very favorite comfort reads and so is Mystic and Rider --the first in Shinn's Twelve Houses series . Her characters become friends so quickly I forget what life was like before I read them. That's why the Twelve Houses series is so much fun. It follows a disparate group of six travelers who, despite differences of rank, temperament, and fundamental beliefs, become first allies and later friends. Shinn tracks this six of them through four books, eventually wrapping up each thread of the overarching story. Or so we thought. Fortune and Fate is a companion novel to the Twelve Houses series. An unexpected and delightfully welcome fifth volume. Wen was a King's Rider, one of fifty elite guards dedicated to protecting the king with their lives if necessary. Until the king died. On her watch. Shortly after, Wen resigned her post and rode out of the capital city forever. Two years ...