The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn

Okay, I don't know about anyone else, but for me, 2009 has seemed like a VERY long year! But, then on the other hand, it seems to be flying by! So, not to really serve any purpose, but since I have blogging friends I thought I would share my rather bad new... I lost my job... It's not a happy scene, let me tell you! It really came from no where and since I have no union at my job, I have to calmly step aside and let them screw me around! So, there you have it, I am unemployed! One more bad thing to add to 2009.

Anyone, on to the review:

Aubrey is a young student, gifted in the fine art of sorcery. So he travels to a faraway land in search of the greatest master of all, the mystical shape-changer Glyrender. From him, Aubrey expects to learn the secret of spells and the mysteries of magic. But there is one magical discovery he never expected--the shape-changer's beautiful wife.

Dear Ms. Shinn,

You are an author that I have enjoyed very much over the last couple years, but I never seem to sit down and read enough of! I should have been attempting to finish up the series by you that I have on the go, but this book has always looked interesting to me, so I decided to read it instead. We are having some rather horrible weather this weekend, so it was the perfect book to hunker down with. It is not a very long book, so I accomplished it in one sitting, but I enjoyed every moment of it!

Aubrey, the hero of the story, did have the potential to be annoying. He is a very bright boy, and he knows it, but he manages to keep his wits about him. I liked that he wasn't rubbing his accomplishments in the readers face. That just gets annoying fast! Aubrey wasn't like that at all, though, so no complaints here. The book was a bit predicable, but that didn't turn out to be such a bad thing. It was a perfect new fairy tale, really! Magic is always fun to read about, I must say, so it was fun to step into this magical world.

I was never really sure what to make of Lilith. As the story progressed, though, and I got to know her a bit better, I began to understand her personality. In the beginning, though, I just determined that she was not exactly as she seemed, but that didn't mean that I completely knew why that was. A very quiet and reserved character, you really did not know what was going to happen next with her. Especially when Aubrey enters the picture. Her husband, while central to the story, was not really around all that much, so the interactions with him were limited.

You do write fantastic stories, though. I am glad that I decided to randomly read a book by you, and I really need to get around to the other books by you sitting on my tbr pile! This book was perfect for my rainy afternoon and I hope that people that read this will pick the book up as well.

Sincerely,

Kelly

My weekend....

So, the reason I have been quiet this weekend is because I am gone away. I am still away, but since the clocks got turned back, it is an hour earlier than I meant to wake up. I had some very good luck with book browsing this weekend. At the book store I got some books that I very rarely see second hand:

Heart of Gold by Sharon Shinn The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn








And, I found two more books by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison.

Keltiad: Tales Of Aeron
1. The Copper Crown (1984)
2. The Throne of Scone (1986)
3. The Silver Branch (1988)

Keltiad: Tales of Arthur
1. The Hawk's Grey Feather (1991)
2. The Oak Above the Kings (1994)
3. The Hedge of Mist (1996)

Keltiad
Blackmantle: A Triumph (1997)

Keltiad: Colloquies of the Ancients
1. The Deer's Cry (1998)

Hm, looks like I have all of Sharon Shinn books now but her two newest ones in The Twelve House trilogy.

Oh, and I FINALLY found The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey!

Jovah's Angel - Sharon Shinn [September/06]

I am going to post my fantasy reviews on "Twisted Kingdom", but I am still going to put the title, a picture, and a link to the post here. More to keep track of what I read in one place than any other reason. Also, any fantasy books I get from Random House, I will review in both places, as this is the blog that Random House is sending the books to.

Anyways, the link: here

Archangel - Sharon Shinn [September/06]

Sharon Shinn is an author that has been on my list for a few months and I just got around to her. I had never heard of her before, it is sort of confining when your reading friends around you don't read fantasy, because then you have no one to tell you about interesting authors. I have the blogging world to thank for this recommendation.

From the back of the book:

And so it came to pass...

Through science, faith and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived of as perfect. Diverse people held together by respect for each other and the prospect of swift punishment if they disobeyed their laws. Fertile land that embraced a variety of climates and seasons. Angels to guard the mortals and mystics to guard the forbidden knowledge. JEHOVAH to watch over them all...

Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained. But an age of corruption has come to the land, threatening that peace and placing the Samarians in grave danger. Their only hope lies in the crowning of a new Archangel. The oracles have chosen for this honor the angel name Gabriel, and further decreed that he must first wed a mortal woman named Rachel.

It is his destiny and hers. And Gabriel is certain that she will greet the news of her betrothal with enthusiasm, and a devotion to duty equal to his own.

Rachel, however, has other ideas...

This was such a good book. It traveled with my mother from Ontario to back here, and it was so worth the trip. Sharon Shinn is not an author that bookstores around here carry, so it was either look in other bookstores or order from Amazon. Now that I have read this book, I want to order the next two off Amazon so I can see what is going to happen next. I normally have one last Amazon order before I go back to school, because I need books to read over the long winter months. So, I can see me getting the two books and reading the five books that make up the Samaria story very soon.

A brief description of the book would start with the fact that the current Archangel is corrupt. He believes that there is no god and starts down a path of defying the god. It starts on the very day that he marries his angelica and all of his 20 year term he does everything he can to go against what others believe to be the truth. His angel clan lives in anarchy, they have no moral background because they do not believe that anything that can happen to them. Enter Gabriel, who has to clean up the mess that the Archangel has put into motion.

Gabriel's life is not easy from the start. It would appear that the Archangel would like nothing more than to stay in power, so he tries and mess things up for Gabriel and Rachel twenty years before they even know their fates. Rachel's whole life has relied on what angels have done to her, she feels like she has never lived the life that she wants because they are always changing things for her. When Gabriel sets out to locate his future angelica and wife, he finds it a very difficult task because she has moved around her whole life. When he does find her, it is in a household where she has been taken as a slave and he offers her freendom.

I must tell you, Gabriel and Rachel fight for most of the novel. Neither of them are very willing to back down to the other, and Rachel is so scared of love that she will fight it at any cost. This means sparks will fly and not always the good kind. Sometimes, you might find her annoying, it is definiately not a two lovers meet, fall in love, and off to bed together sort of book. Some people considered it a romance, and it is. Just not a satisfying romance for some because they fight themselves the whole course of the novel.

I strongly recommend this book! Just writing this review is making my will-power to get the next one a very delicate thing. I finished Archangel last night and was sad, you really get to know these two and I think they are those sort of characters that when you read the last book and understand that there is no more to come, it will be hard to say good bye.

4.5/5

Hey Everyone!

I have a computer again. Yay! My boyfriend gave me his old one. The one I used for the rest of the summer sucked, and it wasn't worth fixing. This one is older, but not so old that it doesn't still run really good. I just have to clean it off... And I can't seem to get any sound, but I will figure that out as I go along. I am just glad I have a computer of my own. We get laptops at university, but they are really crappy and die all the time. This way I have this for back up at all times.

Right now I am reading Archangel by Sharon Shinn. It is a very good book, which I would have finished yesterday if it didn't take forever to set this computer up. The actual putting together wasn't that bad, it was more the hooking up to the internet that I had to battle with. But, other than sound, all is working well. I am going to have to get more Sharon Shinn books, I don't have the two books that come after this one and I really want to read them already!

Anyways, now that I have a computer, you should be hearing from me more.

What's everyone reading now?