I have put off reading this for a while. I really love Briggs but I'm not so into high fantasy and her early books looked very high fantasy. I was wrong though. Raven's Shadow is fantasy but not so intense that I don't like it. Her writing was solid and the story good. The thing I liked the most though was that a mother was the hero. She is a typically strong Brigg's character. What is interesting though is that, as I said, she's a mother. I really liked how that was done. I was on the fence about a mother being the hero but she did a great job. A family was the focus of the action and they work together throughout the story. I am excited to read the next book. Especially now that Briggs has announced that she will not be putting out two books a year and going back to her one a year routine I needed something to get my fix!