Sometimes we do a little of both."Ĭoriel Halsing, who goes by Corie, is the illegitimate (yet recognized) daughter of the dead Lord Halsing. "Sometimes we take what we see and make it the model for what we refuse to become. "Sometimes we become what we see," he said.
Now for all of the separate components: plot, character, theme, writing, and worldbuilding. The author, Sharon Shinn (new to me, by the way), is excellent. Throughout this review, I'll be comparing/contrasting this book with The Blue Sword for fun. In the first place, this book reminded me of another fantasy favorite, by Robin McKinley. I don't even know how I learned about it! But it was definitely worth reading and I'm so glad I did. I say this often, but it's true: I had no idea what to expect going into this book. Summers at Castle Auburn was a delightful surprise. This review escaped from me and became really, really long! So if you don't want to read the whole thing, skip down to the end for a TL DR and content warnings. One of it strongest points is the political intrigue, as usual in most Sharon Shinn books – she is so very, very good at creating this kind of tension: who is siding with whom & who is plotting against whom. It would have been more credible if she had been given some time to come to terms with her feelings & spend some time with the guy developing their until then non-existent relationship a bit before getting married & living happily ever after.ĭespite the negative points raised above, I found this a lovely book, an intriguing & an easy read.
It distrubed me a bit how blind the heroine kept herself to the very end & then WHAM she knew right away that she had been in love with the guy all along and married him almost on the spot & the book ends suddenly. It would have been nice to learn a bit more about the Aliora race & their world and the POVs of Elisandra & Jaxon would have given more depth & layers to the book.Ĭoncerning the love interests: it was fairly clear from one third of the book who will end up with whom. She was OK, but not too likeable & her sister Elisandra definitely stole the show from her at the end spectacularly (WOW, she is one cool customer & no mistake). It does not help that Corrie is barely 14 at the beginning & 18 at the end: her world is pretty limited & occasionally annoyingly shallow. This makes the scope of the story too narrow considering the number of storylines (Coriel’s, her sister Elisandra’s, her uncle Jaxon’s, the crown prince’s, the Aliora’s, etc). But two decades later, I found the story a bit flat, mainly due to the fact that the only POV is that of the heroine, Coriel. If I had read this book in my teens, I would have given it 5 starts, no doubt.
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