Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.
As Ms. Kennedy continues to expand the world she has created with The Twelve Kingdoms and The Uncharted Realms, we take two characters who’ve had minor roles in previous books and bring them together.
Zyr is one of the Tala and twin brother to Zynda (heroine from The Shift of the Tide). They have be involved in a bit of fun sibling rivalry from the beginning. Zyr’s first form was pretty spectacular in that it was mythical creature called a gríobhth (Zynda’s was a hummingbird). They also tried to have the most number of forms. But Zyr isn’t happy that Zynda is trying to take the final form, which is a dragon, as he doesn’t want to lose her into that form. But Zyr is a total flirt. He also works to teach the children to help them with shifting.
Karyn af Hardie is Kral’s ex-wife (hero from The Edge of the Blade). She was raised to be the perfect Dasnarian woman. She knew her marriage to Kral was nothing more than a political thing. He was not allowed to have any legitimate children who could challenge his brother or his brother’s heir for the throne. So, she was to stay a virgin her whole life. Then she asked for an annulment, to which the king granted and sentenced her to death for it. Then she escaped Dasnaria and back to Annfwn.
Now, Karyn and Zyr have been paired together by Andromeda, queen of Annfwn, to figure out these “map sticks”. They are basically little pieces of driftwood sticks that form a map which can be carried by flying Tala in their claws. Karyn rides him in his gríobhth form as they search for a hidden kingdom. Things get really tense when they are attacked the Deyrr, which has been going on for several books now.
I can’t say much more without giving out spoilers. Let’s just say things do get a bit dark in this story (when compared to the previous books in this series, but not quite as dark as the first book in the The Chronicles of Dasnaria series, Prisoner of the Crown). There is quite a bit of action. The romance is slow to start, as Karyn really wants to hold on to her virginity until marriage and Zyr has a hard time of thinking of monogamy (which he points out to her in the beginning). But things do finally go the right way in the end.
I continue to really love this fantasy romance series. It has great romances from a variety of different types of characters (warriors, princesses, kings, shifters, flirts, and more) from several different types of backgrounds. It really makes for interesting interactions with the cultural differences of all these different characters.It is also interesting to see into the heads of some of the characters, like how Karyn keeps thinking about Dasnaria and how she should react based on the Dasnarian rules, forgetting that she is bound by those rules anymore.
“I apologize,” I replied. These Tala with their lack of rank and titles—how did anyone know how to address anyone? I knew I’d never be able to call him baldly by his name. It also seemed equally as impolite to just truncate my apology like that. I truly longed for Dasnaria’s clear rules for behavior.
“Don’t apologize so much either,” he bit out, and I swallowed a sigh. Zynda had said the same. Even Thalia had remarked on it. I couldn’t say anything without apologizing again, so I stood there, waiting for him to lose his patience with me entirely, which usually didn’t take long, —I couldn’t imagine how he could be a teacher—so he’d quit blocking my path and let me go have my breakfast. “Where are you going so early anyway?” he asked, when the silence stretched out too long.
I could ask him the same. “I’m going down to the market to buy tea and a sweet roll,” I replied, adding a silent Lord Zyr to make myself feel better and satisfy the voice of my etiquette tutor in my head.
“I’m hungry, too. I’ll join you.”
I would have liked to protest, but I could hardly contradict the command. So I glumly followed along when he turned and headed back the way he’d come. He slowed, so I slowed, too. When he stopped, I stopped, peering at him peripherally to determine what the problem might be.
“Why are you trailing along behind me—something wrong with your feet?” he asked, looking me up and down.
“In Dasnaria, it’s proper for a woman to—”
“Well, you’re not in Dasnaria, are you? I don’t see any hulking brutes in armor like giant beetles anywhere around here, stinking up the place, do you?”
I had to suppress a giggle at the image, it shocked me so. “No,” I replied carefully. “We are in Annfwn.”
**Book was provided to me by the author. This review is my opinion and was not requested or provoked in anyway by the author.