About the Author

Sharon Shinn is a journalist who works for a trade magazine. Her first novel, The Shapechanger's Wife, was selected by  Locus as the best first fantasy novel of 1995. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer, and was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the Midwest most of her life.

Reviews

At the start of Shinn's exciting fourth Twelve Houses fantasy (after 2006's Dark Moon Defender), King Baryn decides it's time to marry off his daughter, Amalie, given the precarious political situation in Gillengaria. Baryn recruits a group of talented mystics, led by gray-eyed Senneth, to help stabilize the succession. Cammon, a commoner with special powers, watches over Amalie as men pay court, even as he and Amalie fall hopelessly in love. As their relationship flowers, the political situation worsens after Baryn's assassinated. Landowners struggle for power and armed clashes begin, but the real battles play out on a personal level. First, Senneth is kidnapped by a hopeful would-be king, Halchon, whose mere touch takes her magic away. Then, Senneth must confront Halchon's sister (and her longtime nemesis), Coralinda, in an epic showdown that unites the mystics in a struggle for their very right to exist. Intrigue, love and magic weave into Shinn's hallmark romantic, happy-ever-after ending. (Nov.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Summoned to the palace to use his "reading" skills to see into the hearts of the suitors for the hand of the Princess Amalie, the mystic Cammon falls in love with Amalie despite his knowledge that their love is forbidden. When the king's subjects rise in rebellion, however, thoughts turn to survival-for the king and for the woman he loves. Shinn (Archangel) continues her powerful and richly detailed "Twelve Houses" series (Dark Moon Defender) with a tale of dangerous love and open rebellion. Libraries should purchase where the series or the author has a following. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.