Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn

I am a big fan of Ms. Shinn. I love her Samaria series, the Kingdom books, and several of her stand-alone novels. The Thirteenth House books, set in the kingdom of Gillengaria, were slower to grow on me. However, this fourth book in the series, Reader and Raelynx, is really quite good. Gillengaria is a troubled land - the "mystics," who can use magic, are being persecuted by the members of a cult of the Moon Goddess. The king is struggling to keep the land together with treachery on all sides. This volume features Cammon the mystic, who I always thought should turn out to be gay (although Shinn doesn't generally write gay characters), as he falls in love with the sheltered Princess Amalie, who has some secrets of her own.

Although I enjoyed Mystic and Rider, I was not very excited by The Thirteenth House or Dark Moon Defender. If you felt the same way, take heart! This book more than makes up for the last two. Many plotlines are resolved in this novel. It could have reasonably been the conclusion to the series, although apparently Shinn plans to write at least one more book on a bit character in this one. The prose is better than Shinn's very good average. The characters we've come to know and admire in the previous books are beginning to form a tribe. And the ending was very satisfying, both in terms of the plotline of the series and what we learn about magic through the course of the book. Four stars.

If you're new to Sharon Shinn, I especially recommend Archangel or Wrapt in Crystal. If you know her work but not the Gillengaria books, Mystic and Rider is the place to start.