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Elemental Blessings #4
Unquiet Land
From the national bestselling author of Jeweled Fire and Royal Airs comes the latest novel in the Elemental Blessings series.
Leah Frothen has returned home. But she can scarcely catch her breath before she is summoned by regent Darien Serlast, the man who made her a spy. Leah is reluctant to take on a new assignment, but Darien has dangled the perfect lure to draw her in…
Leah finds she enjoys the challenges of opening a shop catering to foreign visitors, especially since it affords her the opportunity to get to know Mally, the child she abandoned five years ago.
But when the regent asks her to spy on ambassadors from a visiting nation, Leah soon learns that everyone—her regent, her lover, and even her daughter—have secrets that could save the nation, but might very well break her heart.
Leah Frothen has returned home. But she can scarcely catch her breath before she is summoned by regent Darien Serlast, the man who made her a spy. Leah is reluctant to take on a new assignment, but Darien has dangled the perfect lure to draw her in…
Leah finds she enjoys the challenges of opening a shop catering to foreign visitors, especially since it affords her the opportunity to get to know Mally, the child she abandoned five years ago.
But when the regent asks her to spy on ambassadors from a visiting nation, Leah soon learns that everyone—her regent, her lover, and even her daughter—have secrets that could save the nation, but might very well break her heart.
386 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2016
95 people are currently reading
1101 people want to read
About the author
Sharon Shinn
58 books2,281 followersI’ve been writing stories and poems since I was eight years old. My first poem was about Halloween: "What is tonight? What is tonight?/Try to guess and you’ll guess right." Perhaps this inauspicious beginning explains why it took me till I was in my thirties to sell a novel. It occurred to me early on that it might take some time and a lot of tries before I was able to publish any of my creative writing, so I pursued a degree in journalism at Northwestern University so I’d be able to support myself while I figured out how to write fiction.
I’ve spent most of my journalism career at three trade and association magazines—The Professional Photographer (which, as you might guess, went to studio and industrial photographers), DECOR (which went to frame shop and art gallery owners), and BizEd (which is directed at deans and professors at business schools). My longest stint, seventeen years, was at DECOR. Many people don’t know this, but I’m a CPF (Certified Picture Framer), having passed a very long, technical test to prove I understood the tenets of conservation framing. Now I write about management education and interview some really cool, really smart people from all over the world.
I mostly write my fiction in the evenings and on weekends. It requires a pretty obsessive-compulsive personality to be as prolific as I’ve been in the past ten years and hold down a full-time job. But I do manage to tear myself away from the computer now and then to do something fun. I read as often as I can, across all genres, though I’m most often holding a book that’s fantasy or romance, with the occasional western thrown in. I’m a fan of Cardinals baseball and try to be at the ballpark on opening day. If I had the time, I’d see a movie every day of my life. I love certain TV shows so much that knowing a new episode is going to air that night will make me happy all day. (I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan, but in the past I’ve given my heart to shows all over the map in terms of quality: "Knight Rider," "Remington Steele," "Blake’s 7," "Moonlighting," "The Young Riders," "Cheers," "Hill Street Blues," "X-Files," "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica"...you can probably fill in the gaps. And let’s not forget my very first loves, "The Partridge Family," "Here Come the Brides" and "Alias Smith & Jones.")
I don’t have kids, I don’t want pets, and all my plants die, so I’m really only forced to provide ongoing care for my menagerie of stuffed animals. All my friends are animal lovers, though, and someone once theorized that I keep friends as pets. I’m still trying to decide if that’s true.
I’ve spent most of my journalism career at three trade and association magazines—The Professional Photographer (which, as you might guess, went to studio and industrial photographers), DECOR (which went to frame shop and art gallery owners), and BizEd (which is directed at deans and professors at business schools). My longest stint, seventeen years, was at DECOR. Many people don’t know this, but I’m a CPF (Certified Picture Framer), having passed a very long, technical test to prove I understood the tenets of conservation framing. Now I write about management education and interview some really cool, really smart people from all over the world.
I mostly write my fiction in the evenings and on weekends. It requires a pretty obsessive-compulsive personality to be as prolific as I’ve been in the past ten years and hold down a full-time job. But I do manage to tear myself away from the computer now and then to do something fun. I read as often as I can, across all genres, though I’m most often holding a book that’s fantasy or romance, with the occasional western thrown in. I’m a fan of Cardinals baseball and try to be at the ballpark on opening day. If I had the time, I’d see a movie every day of my life. I love certain TV shows so much that knowing a new episode is going to air that night will make me happy all day. (I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan, but in the past I’ve given my heart to shows all over the map in terms of quality: "Knight Rider," "Remington Steele," "Blake’s 7," "Moonlighting," "The Young Riders," "Cheers," "Hill Street Blues," "X-Files," "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica"...you can probably fill in the gaps. And let’s not forget my very first loves, "The Partridge Family," "Here Come the Brides" and "Alias Smith & Jones.")
I don’t have kids, I don’t want pets, and all my plants die, so I’m really only forced to provide ongoing care for my menagerie of stuffed animals. All my friends are animal lovers, though, and someone once theorized that I keep friends as pets. I’m still trying to decide if that’s true.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 245 reviews
July 25, 2024
Things I liked
- to be back in Chialto, Welce, to draw elemental blessings, to meet again the well-loved cast of characters missing from the previous book „Jewelled Fire”: Zoe, Darien, Annova, the Primes, Jaker & Barlow
- The overall coziness & warmth of Shinn’s worldbuilding. It is refreshing to be able to read fantasy books without armageddon brewing / happening all the time.
- The political intrigue: it was exciting with quite dark & unsettling undertones. The antagonists were really and truly creepy. The leisurely plot development gets really fast-paced in the last third of the book.
- Mally’s charater development. Beside the lovely story arch of Mally’s & Leah’s relationship as mother & daughter, I was sure that Mally will end up playing a major role & was not disappointed. It kind of compensates for her bleaker life when she had to play the shadow-princess role.
Things I did not like that much:
- Leah was the first heroine whose elemental affiliation was not very convincing for me. She is torz, with affiliation for earth, but it was nowhere as clear as the affiliation of Zoe / Josetta / Corene in the previous books.
- The romance was kind of nice, but predictable even with the exciting plot twist at the end.
I hope there shall be a 5th installment of the series with a hunti heroine!
- to be back in Chialto, Welce, to draw elemental blessings, to meet again the well-loved cast of characters missing from the previous book „Jewelled Fire”: Zoe, Darien, Annova, the Primes, Jaker & Barlow
- The overall coziness & warmth of Shinn’s worldbuilding. It is refreshing to be able to read fantasy books without armageddon brewing / happening all the time.
- The political intrigue: it was exciting with quite dark & unsettling undertones. The antagonists were really and truly creepy. The leisurely plot development gets really fast-paced in the last third of the book.
- Mally’s charater development. Beside the lovely story arch of Mally’s & Leah’s relationship as mother & daughter, I was sure that Mally will end up playing a major role & was not disappointed. It kind of compensates for her bleaker life when she had to play the shadow-princess role.
Things I did not like that much:
- Leah was the first heroine whose elemental affiliation was not very convincing for me. She is torz, with affiliation for earth, but it was nowhere as clear as the affiliation of Zoe / Josetta / Corene in the previous books.
- The romance was kind of nice, but predictable even with the exciting plot twist at the end.
I hope there shall be a 5th installment of the series with a hunti heroine!
December 2, 2016
3.5 stars. This is a great fantasy series with a different main character and romance in each book. My favorite is the first book, Troubled Waters, which I highly recommend if you like your fantasies with a little romance. The world-building in this series is unusual.
Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
In Unquiet Land, Sharon Shinn’s fourth book in her ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS fantasy series, the story returns to the country of Welce, the setting for the first two books in this series. Leah, who was introduced to readers in the third book, Jeweled Fire, lived in the country of Malinqua for five years, helping Darien Serlast, the ruler of Welce, by acting as a spy and, for the last few months of her stay, keeping an protective eye on the princess Corene, who was on an extended visit with the ruling family of Malinqua. More to the point, at the time Leah was running away from personal issues in her life: a lover who deserted her when she told him she was pregnant, and her now five year old daughter Mally, whom Leah handed over as a newborn to her uncle Taro (the torz prime) and his wife Virrie before she disappeared from all of their lives.
Now Leah has returned to Welce after five years away, determined to get to know her young daughter that she initially abandoned in her youthful confusion and despair. Leah’s urgently hoping to be able build a relationship with Mally and, at an appropriate time, to tell Mally that she, Leah, is her mother. But Darien isn’t willing to let his trained spy drop out of his employ quite so easily. He offers her a new opportunity to serve the Welce crown, by opening up a shop in Welce’s capital specializing in exotic international goods, catering to visitors from foreign lands who have come to Welce for diplomatic reasons, and hopefully getting to know some of these visitors and learn more about them and their plans. To sweeten the pot, Darien arranges for Mally to come to the city with Virrie for a stay so that Leah can spend some time with her daughter.
Leah’s new international goods shop is an instant success, both financially and politically; she soon meets a very friendly but rather disturbing woman from the delegation from the Karkades, a country that is causing Darien particular concern with its political intriguing. She visits often with Mally, and their relationship begins to grow. And she develops a tentative peace with her former lover Rhan Ardelay (son of the sweela prime).
While in Malinqua, Leah had spent some time working for Chandran, a merchant from the country of Cozique. After a rough start to their relationship (he poisoned Leah at their first meeting to determine whether she could be trusted before giving her the antidote), they developed a friendship tinged with attraction. They’ve been writing letters, but Leah is surprised when Chandran shows up at her shop one evening, on the run from Malinqua for his own reasons. Their relationship continues to develop, but Chandran has a secret past. When he shares it with Leah, she’s not at all certain that she can accept what he’s done in his prior life.
Unquiet Land juggles Leah’s slowly growing relationship with her daughter, her equally gradual romantic relationship with Chandran, and the political intrigue revolving around the country of the Karkades that begins to entangle Leah and others. The Karkan people have some disturbing habits and philosophies, and when dead and nearly-dead people begin to show up on the streets of the city, Leah suspects that the Karkans are up to no good. And Chandran may know more about this than he’s willing to say.
Unquiet Land is pleasant but very leisurely paced. The three plotlines all have their tensions, but mostly it remains at a simmer, and it isn’t until the last third of the book that the adrenaline kicks in. Leah’s slow-burning romance with Chandran wasn’t particularly appealing to me. Leah’s in her mid-twenties and Chandran is in his mid-forties, a significant age gap. Chandran is also rather hesitant in his manner (for good reasons), and is described as having a “prominent forehead, generous nose, [and] thickly bearded cheeks and chin,” a description that I didn’t find particularly appealing. So I wasn’t really feeling the romance in this book, although it helped when I started mentally picturing Chandran as Joe Manganiello. I can be shallow like that.
Leah’s international store, where much of the action takes place, was a richly imagined, exotic place. Shinn’s descriptions of the items that are sold in this shop are entrancing:
In Welce, individuals are affiliated with a particular element, with their personal qualities and even, in the case of the “prime” person for each element, magical abilities. The three previous books in the ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS series focused on the coru (water/blood) element (Zoe in Troubled Waters), the elay (air/soul) element (Josetta in Royal Airs), and the sweela (fire/mind) element (Corene in Jeweled Fire). In Unquiet Land the focus is on the torz (earth/flesh) element, which Leah, Mally and others in their family share, and the qualities of patience, honesty and endurance associated with that element. It’s an intriguing concept, and I’m hoping Shinn will write at least one more book in this series focusing on a hunti (wood/bone) woman.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Ace, and from NetGalley, in exchange for a review. Thank you so much!
Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
In Unquiet Land, Sharon Shinn’s fourth book in her ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS fantasy series, the story returns to the country of Welce, the setting for the first two books in this series. Leah, who was introduced to readers in the third book, Jeweled Fire, lived in the country of Malinqua for five years, helping Darien Serlast, the ruler of Welce, by acting as a spy and, for the last few months of her stay, keeping an protective eye on the princess Corene, who was on an extended visit with the ruling family of Malinqua. More to the point, at the time Leah was running away from personal issues in her life: a lover who deserted her when she told him she was pregnant, and her now five year old daughter Mally, whom Leah handed over as a newborn to her uncle Taro (the torz prime) and his wife Virrie before she disappeared from all of their lives.
Now Leah has returned to Welce after five years away, determined to get to know her young daughter that she initially abandoned in her youthful confusion and despair. Leah’s urgently hoping to be able build a relationship with Mally and, at an appropriate time, to tell Mally that she, Leah, is her mother. But Darien isn’t willing to let his trained spy drop out of his employ quite so easily. He offers her a new opportunity to serve the Welce crown, by opening up a shop in Welce’s capital specializing in exotic international goods, catering to visitors from foreign lands who have come to Welce for diplomatic reasons, and hopefully getting to know some of these visitors and learn more about them and their plans. To sweeten the pot, Darien arranges for Mally to come to the city with Virrie for a stay so that Leah can spend some time with her daughter.
Leah’s new international goods shop is an instant success, both financially and politically; she soon meets a very friendly but rather disturbing woman from the delegation from the Karkades, a country that is causing Darien particular concern with its political intriguing. She visits often with Mally, and their relationship begins to grow. And she develops a tentative peace with her former lover Rhan Ardelay (son of the sweela prime).
While in Malinqua, Leah had spent some time working for Chandran, a merchant from the country of Cozique. After a rough start to their relationship (he poisoned Leah at their first meeting to determine whether she could be trusted before giving her the antidote), they developed a friendship tinged with attraction. They’ve been writing letters, but Leah is surprised when Chandran shows up at her shop one evening, on the run from Malinqua for his own reasons. Their relationship continues to develop, but Chandran has a secret past. When he shares it with Leah, she’s not at all certain that she can accept what he’s done in his prior life.
Unquiet Land juggles Leah’s slowly growing relationship with her daughter, her equally gradual romantic relationship with Chandran, and the political intrigue revolving around the country of the Karkades that begins to entangle Leah and others. The Karkan people have some disturbing habits and philosophies, and when dead and nearly-dead people begin to show up on the streets of the city, Leah suspects that the Karkans are up to no good. And Chandran may know more about this than he’s willing to say.
Unquiet Land is pleasant but very leisurely paced. The three plotlines all have their tensions, but mostly it remains at a simmer, and it isn’t until the last third of the book that the adrenaline kicks in. Leah’s slow-burning romance with Chandran wasn’t particularly appealing to me. Leah’s in her mid-twenties and Chandran is in his mid-forties, a significant age gap. Chandran is also rather hesitant in his manner (for good reasons), and is described as having a “prominent forehead, generous nose, [and] thickly bearded cheeks and chin,” a description that I didn’t find particularly appealing. So I wasn’t really feeling the romance in this book, although it helped when I started mentally picturing Chandran as Joe Manganiello. I can be shallow like that.
Leah’s international store, where much of the action takes place, was a richly imagined, exotic place. Shinn’s descriptions of the items that are sold in this shop are entrancing:
Gloves made of gray-and-black striped fur, spices that smelled like citrus and cocoa, lengths of wool dyed in royal colors, goblets of blown glass fused to etched silver.Shinn realistically conveys the hard work involved in running a retail shop, as Leah and her friends work night and day to stock the store, deal with difficult customers, and make the venture a success. But the chief strength of Unquiet Land is in its thoughtful exploration of interpersonal relationships of all types ― romantic, familial, friendship, political ― but particularly the redemptive love of a parent for her child, even under fraught circumstances. It’s a touching portrayal of a woman’s personal growth, learning to give and accept love, told with insight and occasional humor.
In Welce, individuals are affiliated with a particular element, with their personal qualities and even, in the case of the “prime” person for each element, magical abilities. The three previous books in the ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS series focused on the coru (water/blood) element (Zoe in Troubled Waters), the elay (air/soul) element (Josetta in Royal Airs), and the sweela (fire/mind) element (Corene in Jeweled Fire). In Unquiet Land the focus is on the torz (earth/flesh) element, which Leah, Mally and others in their family share, and the qualities of patience, honesty and endurance associated with that element. It’s an intriguing concept, and I’m hoping Shinn will write at least one more book in this series focusing on a hunti (wood/bone) woman.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Ace, and from NetGalley, in exchange for a review. Thank you so much!
February 10, 2017
This is the fourth in the 'Elemental Blessings' series; a fact I didn't realize when I picked up the book. I've read more than a dozen of Shinn's other books - but not the three that come before this one. I highly, highly recommend NOT starting here. Nevertheless, I'm giving this 4 stars based on how much I think I would've enjoyed it if I had read the prequels - and I did really enjoy it.
I believe this series would appeal greatly to fans of Robin Hobb. The writing has the same quality- it manages to be gripping and deeply interesting, even when the matters at hand are perhaps not the most momentous. I'd describe it as 'domestic fantasy.'
Our main character is Leah, a young woman who has just returned to her hometown after years abroad, working as a spy. But she's not done working for the Regent - he has a new job for her at home: setting her up as a shopkeeper selling imported goods which hopefully will appeal to foreign dignitaries and other visitors to the city; giving Leah the chance to, of course, keep spying on them. But Leah's first priority is not spycraft - it's the chance to re-connect with the daughter she gave up for fostering as an infant, feeling herself unready to become a mother. Will the girl be willing to get to know her?
Complicating matters is the sudden presence of the father of her daughter - and her not-wholly-explored feelings toward the colleague she left behind in another country.
There is a political plot here, complete with villainous deeds and nefarious characters - but it takes a back seat to the quotidian details of trying to get to know a child, of the inventory of a retail boutique, to the details of how to care for a rather strange pet fish. It's not a rushing-through-it to find out what happens book; it's a book that invites you to immerse yourself in its world. And - I loved doing so. Even if Leah was a bit too goody-goody for words, and if I couldn't really buy the portrayal of every single person from an entire country as morally corrupt. Even if I really have no interest in the difficulties involved in balancing complicated family relationships; and I think that being constantly surrounded by a noisy crowd of people in a busy house is simply dreadful. (Leah has to learn that she doesn't really like living alone, even if she thought she did.)
Still loved it; would be happy to revisit this world any time.
Many thanks to Ace and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinion is solely my own.
I believe this series would appeal greatly to fans of Robin Hobb. The writing has the same quality- it manages to be gripping and deeply interesting, even when the matters at hand are perhaps not the most momentous. I'd describe it as 'domestic fantasy.'
Our main character is Leah, a young woman who has just returned to her hometown after years abroad, working as a spy. But she's not done working for the Regent - he has a new job for her at home: setting her up as a shopkeeper selling imported goods which hopefully will appeal to foreign dignitaries and other visitors to the city; giving Leah the chance to, of course, keep spying on them. But Leah's first priority is not spycraft - it's the chance to re-connect with the daughter she gave up for fostering as an infant, feeling herself unready to become a mother. Will the girl be willing to get to know her?
Complicating matters is the sudden presence of the father of her daughter - and her not-wholly-explored feelings toward the colleague she left behind in another country.
There is a political plot here, complete with villainous deeds and nefarious characters - but it takes a back seat to the quotidian details of trying to get to know a child, of the inventory of a retail boutique, to the details of how to care for a rather strange pet fish. It's not a rushing-through-it to find out what happens book; it's a book that invites you to immerse yourself in its world. And - I loved doing so. Even if Leah was a bit too goody-goody for words, and if I couldn't really buy the portrayal of every single person from an entire country as morally corrupt. Even if I really have no interest in the difficulties involved in balancing complicated family relationships; and I think that being constantly surrounded by a noisy crowd of people in a busy house is simply dreadful. (Leah has to learn that she doesn't really like living alone, even if she thought she did.)
Still loved it; would be happy to revisit this world any time.
Many thanks to Ace and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinion is solely my own.
February 24, 2020
February 2020: Good Sharon Shinn is so competent. I don’t think this is as transcendent as Troubled Waters - feels a bit more paint-by-numbers and overly deliberate in a way that the really effortless Shinns don’t - and maybe there’s a little bit of author presence in the manipulation of the plot. Something about the way time moves along feels a little stilted, and I wonder if it’s because of the pacing. (I’m becoming someone more and more concerned with pacing, I think.)
December 2016: This world with its primes and its blessings is so, so great, and I'm so glad this book takes place squarely in the middle of it. And Zoe! And Darien! And Celia! And Mally! (The Odelia stuff works so well!)
The foreshadowing is incredibly obvious, but it turns out I don't care all that much. I do care, though, that Leah feels a little like Zoe 2.0. It's mostly because of her day-to-day life - the store, the court stuff - but she's not as good an embodiment of the elements as everyone else is.
I don't have a lot to say, really. Good Sharon Shinn is like a cozy blanket on a cold day.
December 2016: This world with its primes and its blessings is so, so great, and I'm so glad this book takes place squarely in the middle of it. And Zoe! And Darien! And Celia! And Mally! (The Odelia stuff works so well!)
The foreshadowing is incredibly obvious, but it turns out I don't care all that much. I do care, though, that Leah feels a little like Zoe 2.0. It's mostly because of her day-to-day life - the store, the court stuff - but she's not as good an embodiment of the elements as everyone else is.
I don't have a lot to say, really. Good Sharon Shinn is like a cozy blanket on a cold day.
December 31, 2016
Sharon Shinn is rarely less than a pleasure to read, and Unquiet Land is no exception. Still, I hope this isn't a trend for her writing -- cozy, comfortable books set in immersive worlds, but with little real urgency or stakes. The 4th in her Elemental Blessings series is very much the Persuasion to Troubled Waters' Pride and Prejudice. The main characters are older, calmer, trying to make peace with their pasts and carry on with the present. The ever-competent Leah Frothen whom we met in Jeweled Fire is the main character here: she returns to Welce to the daughter she abandoned at birth and to her family and its political entanglements.
A huge portion of the book is devoted to the mundanities of shopkeeping. Leah once again takes on the role of spy for the regent, and in this role, sets up as a trader of imported goods in order to keep an eye on the internationals causing chaos in the city and in Welce's tricky politics. I enjoyed these parts, actually. Shinn's imagination fills Leah's shop with wonders that make me wish we still had markets filled with handmade goods instead of malls and mass production. Shinn builds fabulously detailed worlds that leap off the page.
But not all that much happens in the first 3/4 of the book, and even when things start happening, I didn't find that I cared all that much. The romance is pleasant enough but 100% sizzle free, especially compared to the fireworks of Troubled Waters, the relationships between Leah and her daughter, former lover, and family are similarly realistic but uninteresting, and the crises tend to fizzle out or resolve themselves with remarkable ease. The Primes have powers that seem...conveniently expansive.
No real surprises in Unquiet Land, just a comfortable visit to a place I've come to like. Which is kind of a shame, because I *loved* the first book.
A huge portion of the book is devoted to the mundanities of shopkeeping. Leah once again takes on the role of spy for the regent, and in this role, sets up as a trader of imported goods in order to keep an eye on the internationals causing chaos in the city and in Welce's tricky politics. I enjoyed these parts, actually. Shinn's imagination fills Leah's shop with wonders that make me wish we still had markets filled with handmade goods instead of malls and mass production. Shinn builds fabulously detailed worlds that leap off the page.
But not all that much happens in the first 3/4 of the book, and even when things start happening, I didn't find that I cared all that much. The romance is pleasant enough but 100% sizzle free, especially compared to the fireworks of Troubled Waters, the relationships between Leah and her daughter, former lover, and family are similarly realistic but uninteresting, and the crises tend to fizzle out or resolve themselves with remarkable ease. The Primes have powers that seem...conveniently expansive.
No real surprises in Unquiet Land, just a comfortable visit to a place I've come to like. Which is kind of a shame, because I *loved* the first book.
November 6, 2025
Leah has spent the last few years as a spy in a foreign land. Now that she is returning home, her one goal is to reconnect with a daughter she left behind.
Leah is greeted with open arms by the friends and most of the family she left behind. They help her by setting her up in business, as a spy once again, giving her a specialty shop in the town’s market place. They also help her by arranging Leah into a position that she can spend time with her young daughter without revealing their relationship. Of course, the dangers of being a spy cross over to her personal life putting those she’s come to love at risk.
Unquiet Land brings us into an enchanting tale of love, family, betrayal and lots of political machinations.
I received this ARC copy of Unquiet Land from Berkley Publishing Group - Ace in exchange for a honest review. This book is set for publication November 1, 2016.
Leah is greeted with open arms by the friends and most of the family she left behind. They help her by setting her up in business, as a spy once again, giving her a specialty shop in the town’s market place. They also help her by arranging Leah into a position that she can spend time with her young daughter without revealing their relationship. Of course, the dangers of being a spy cross over to her personal life putting those she’s come to love at risk.
Unquiet Land brings us into an enchanting tale of love, family, betrayal and lots of political machinations.
I received this ARC copy of Unquiet Land from Berkley Publishing Group - Ace in exchange for a honest review. This book is set for publication November 1, 2016.
March 20, 2017
Unquiet Land is my favorite of the Elemental Blessings series novels since the first, Troubled Waters. I liked the second book fine, but the primary relationship is the romance between Josetta and Rafe; I like the third book as well, but the primary story is of Corene growing into herself.
Unquiet Land picks up where the third book left off, but focuses on someone more or less tangential to the story as we’ve seen it so far: Leah, whom Corene met in the Jeweled Fire. And the primary story is not Leah sorting out her romantic life, though that happens. It involves Leah recovering her relationship with the daughter she abandoned at birth. Abandoned in the sense of leaving the baby with her own highly competent and loving foster parents; this is an issue, but not a gritty, grim kind of Issue.
It turns out that this emphasis worked well for me. Also it brought the overall story back in a satisfying circle to the initial situation you may recall from the first book, dealing with a major loose thread. Remember Mally, the little girl who was used as a double for Princess Odelia? Well, Mally is actually Leah’s daughter, and in this final book of the series, she finally gets a life of her own. About time, too.
So, Unquiet Land.
a) The romance: There’s always a romance in a Sharon Shinn novel, and I liked this one. Chandran is a good male lead. Of course anybody who always draws “honor” as one of his blessing is naturally going to appeal to me. His backstory is interesting, and I must add, if you are going to visit this world, you totally want to land in Welce, NOT in any neighboring country. The people of the Kaskades, ugh, they might be as bad as those creepy Soechin people. So, yeah, Chandran’s getting himself free of his Kaskadian wife, one can only sympathize.
b) The daughter: Sure, Leah has a pretty easy time getting things sorted out with her daughter. But after all, Mally was raised by loving foster parents, even if she was also dragged into the fake-princess thing. The Elemental Blessings series offers warm, fuzzy stories. One doesn’t expect relationships to be too fraught. A little more difficulty or complexity would have probably appealed to me, but the story was fine as it was.
c) Dealing with the bad guys: For a competent person, Darien might have been a little quicker off the mark in dealing with the Kaskadian people. I get that practicality is a concern when you are working out your country’s relationships with its neighbors. It’s not like Shinn didn’t explicitly address the problems Darien is facing. Still, in his place, I would be inclined to post a formal notice that certain crimes, if committed in Welce, are likely to result in perpetrators being hanged if they escape being beaten to death by a mob, and that diplomatic immunity won’t cover these crimes, so Soechin and Kaskadian people need to be aware that they enter the country at their own risk.
I will add again, this *is* a warm and fuzzy Shinn novel, so nothing too awful actually happens in the book. It’s just that the potential for awful is so clear.
For me, Troubled Waters is still the standout, but all four books are delightful and Unquiet Earth was a worthy wrap-up for the series.
Unquiet Land picks up where the third book left off, but focuses on someone more or less tangential to the story as we’ve seen it so far: Leah, whom Corene met in the Jeweled Fire. And the primary story is not Leah sorting out her romantic life, though that happens. It involves Leah recovering her relationship with the daughter she abandoned at birth. Abandoned in the sense of leaving the baby with her own highly competent and loving foster parents; this is an issue, but not a gritty, grim kind of Issue.
It turns out that this emphasis worked well for me. Also it brought the overall story back in a satisfying circle to the initial situation you may recall from the first book, dealing with a major loose thread. Remember Mally, the little girl who was used as a double for Princess Odelia? Well, Mally is actually Leah’s daughter, and in this final book of the series, she finally gets a life of her own. About time, too.
So, Unquiet Land.
a) The romance: There’s always a romance in a Sharon Shinn novel, and I liked this one. Chandran is a good male lead. Of course anybody who always draws “honor” as one of his blessing is naturally going to appeal to me. His backstory is interesting, and I must add, if you are going to visit this world, you totally want to land in Welce, NOT in any neighboring country. The people of the Kaskades, ugh, they might be as bad as those creepy Soechin people. So, yeah, Chandran’s getting himself free of his Kaskadian wife, one can only sympathize.
b) The daughter: Sure, Leah has a pretty easy time getting things sorted out with her daughter. But after all, Mally was raised by loving foster parents, even if she was also dragged into the fake-princess thing. The Elemental Blessings series offers warm, fuzzy stories. One doesn’t expect relationships to be too fraught. A little more difficulty or complexity would have probably appealed to me, but the story was fine as it was.
c) Dealing with the bad guys: For a competent person, Darien might have been a little quicker off the mark in dealing with the Kaskadian people. I get that practicality is a concern when you are working out your country’s relationships with its neighbors. It’s not like Shinn didn’t explicitly address the problems Darien is facing. Still, in his place, I would be inclined to post a formal notice that certain crimes, if committed in Welce, are likely to result in perpetrators being hanged if they escape being beaten to death by a mob, and that diplomatic immunity won’t cover these crimes, so Soechin and Kaskadian people need to be aware that they enter the country at their own risk.
I will add again, this *is* a warm and fuzzy Shinn novel, so nothing too awful actually happens in the book. It’s just that the potential for awful is so clear.
For me, Troubled Waters is still the standout, but all four books are delightful and Unquiet Earth was a worthy wrap-up for the series.
July 26, 2019
Ahoy there me mateys! I absolutely love Sharon Shinn and featured her works in me Broadside No. 2. I just finished the Elemental Blessings series and me 16th book by her. The author's website describes the world of these books as:
Now when I went to read the last book in the series, unquiet land, I of course mixed up title names and ended up getting book one from the library. I started reading. It felt familiar. I realized me mistake, didn't care, and reread book one. I still loved it and it actually was nice to refresh me memory on the world and characters. This book soldified that I still want to know what me blessings are. Of course having read book one, I felt the details of the series come flooding back and quickly got book four to finish the series.
The last book in the quartet deals with Leah, who was me favourite character from the third book. Leah has returned to the land of her birth and wants to make amends for her past failures. But it seems her role of spy is not over just yet . . .
I don’t want to give away more than that and have to admit that the blurbs for books two through four are rather spoilery. What I can say is that book four was by far me favourite of the series. I adore Leah as a character. I adored the slow burn relationship. I enjoyed the spy plot. I guessed some of the plot points but I didn’t care. And how those plot points played out was fantastic. I think that ultimately this book was the strongest of the series by far. I enjoyed seeing the ramifications of the previous books’ politics play out. And I have to admit that though I don’t love shopping, I would love to visit the markets and Leah’s store!
I actually wouldn’t mind more Blessings books. It be a difficult decision about whether this series or her young adult safe-keepers series be me favourite. The good news is that there be a couple of standalones I have yet to get to. I be excited!
If ye be interested in any of Sharon Shinn’s works, I suggest ye hoist those sails and visit her amazing website. Literally one of the best author websites I have ever seen. Arrrrr!
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
Everyone in the country of Welce is affiliated with one of the five elements: air, water, fire, wood, and earth. Each element is associated with eight blessings, and every individual is graced at birth with three of these blessings, which offer them guidance and direction for their entire lives. Unless they cannot read the message behind their blessings…unless they reject their blessings…unless the blessing coins they draw are mysterious and blank…
Now when I went to read the last book in the series, unquiet land, I of course mixed up title names and ended up getting book one from the library. I started reading. It felt familiar. I realized me mistake, didn't care, and reread book one. I still loved it and it actually was nice to refresh me memory on the world and characters. This book soldified that I still want to know what me blessings are. Of course having read book one, I felt the details of the series come flooding back and quickly got book four to finish the series.
The last book in the quartet deals with Leah, who was me favourite character from the third book. Leah has returned to the land of her birth and wants to make amends for her past failures. But it seems her role of spy is not over just yet . . .
I don’t want to give away more than that and have to admit that the blurbs for books two through four are rather spoilery. What I can say is that book four was by far me favourite of the series. I adore Leah as a character. I adored the slow burn relationship. I enjoyed the spy plot. I guessed some of the plot points but I didn’t care. And how those plot points played out was fantastic. I think that ultimately this book was the strongest of the series by far. I enjoyed seeing the ramifications of the previous books’ politics play out. And I have to admit that though I don’t love shopping, I would love to visit the markets and Leah’s store!
I actually wouldn’t mind more Blessings books. It be a difficult decision about whether this series or her young adult safe-keepers series be me favourite. The good news is that there be a couple of standalones I have yet to get to. I be excited!
If ye be interested in any of Sharon Shinn’s works, I suggest ye hoist those sails and visit her amazing website. Literally one of the best author websites I have ever seen. Arrrrr!
Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
December 21, 2016
Maybe closer to 4.5 stars, though I don't generally do half-star ratings. Leah's story, anticipated in book 3, is compelling; I like the theme of atonement that runs through it, both in the actual sense and in the warped version of the Karkans. And Chandran is probably my favorite of the heroes that isn't Darien Serlast. He is, however, central to the reason it's not a five-star book:
I liked Mally best. Shinn does a good job of depicting a small child and her way of thinking. It also wasn't terribly obvious that Mally and there was some clever misdirection going on there. And I like the promise of the future, in which Leah's family grows beyond her immediate self. Rhan Ardelay, for a miracle, says something wise about how he and Leah and Mally may not be a household, but they're still family. Now I'm eager to see what Shinn does for the next book.
I liked Mally best. Shinn does a good job of depicting a small child and her way of thinking. It also wasn't terribly obvious that Mally and there was some clever misdirection going on there. And I like the promise of the future, in which Leah's family grows beyond her immediate self. Rhan Ardelay, for a miracle, says something wise about how he and Leah and Mally may not be a household, but they're still family. Now I'm eager to see what Shinn does for the next book.
September 24, 2016
This is some great light-hearted, wish-fulfilling, romantic fantasy. The story has moments of darkness, political intrigue, and light conflict, but it's mostly reassuring and domestic, with colorful, familial characters at its center. It reminded me strongly of Anne Bishop's Others series (the main character even spends a ton of time setting up and running a shop!), so I may seek out the three earlier novels, which I've never read. (Yeah, more to add to my endless running to-do list!)
December 9, 2016
4.5
Another excellent instalment of this series. It grew much darker than I usually expect from Shinn, but this only added depth to the very satisfactory ending (which you know you're going to get from Shinn!).
Another excellent instalment of this series. It grew much darker than I usually expect from Shinn, but this only added depth to the very satisfactory ending (which you know you're going to get from Shinn!).
November 15, 2020
This is the latest in the excellent Elemental Blessings series by Sharon Shinn. The series features women from the Shinn-created nation of Welce, in which people have elemental-based affiliations. These heroines are always interesting, and quite strong, but in very different ways. There is always a mystery (or several), great interaction between characters, soul-searching and personal growth, a good dose of romance, and a deep connection with the elemental blessings theme.
The world she has created and developed is intriguing, hopeful, and believable. Characters, both main and supporting, heroic and villainous, are varied, memorable and complex. The emotional development of Corene over the books, in particular, is delicately and skillfully done. All of the heroines face personal and public challenges, and experience great personal growth without losing the core of their personalities.
The first three books in the series introduced Zoe, Josetta and Corene. In the fourth book, Leah returns home after living abroad collecting information for the regent of Welce. The main reason for her return is her daughter, whom she left in her family's care (read: ran away from). Of the four, this book is, to me, the darkest, but that mirrors the tone of the difficulties that Leah experiences as she tries to balance returning to her home, reconnecting with family and friends, meeting and growing her relationship with her daughter, and dealing with a very complicated romantic relationship. That she ran away from her daughter is not a light subject, and Shinn does not let Leah off the hook with a quick and easy resolution.
I love this series because the stories are a perfect balance of world building, strong characters, mystery, romance, adventure, and coming of age.
**eARC Netgalley**
The world she has created and developed is intriguing, hopeful, and believable. Characters, both main and supporting, heroic and villainous, are varied, memorable and complex. The emotional development of Corene over the books, in particular, is delicately and skillfully done. All of the heroines face personal and public challenges, and experience great personal growth without losing the core of their personalities.
The first three books in the series introduced Zoe, Josetta and Corene. In the fourth book, Leah returns home after living abroad collecting information for the regent of Welce. The main reason for her return is her daughter, whom she left in her family's care (read: ran away from). Of the four, this book is, to me, the darkest, but that mirrors the tone of the difficulties that Leah experiences as she tries to balance returning to her home, reconnecting with family and friends, meeting and growing her relationship with her daughter, and dealing with a very complicated romantic relationship. That she ran away from her daughter is not a light subject, and Shinn does not let Leah off the hook with a quick and easy resolution.
I love this series because the stories are a perfect balance of world building, strong characters, mystery, romance, adventure, and coming of age.
**eARC Netgalley**
April 28, 2019
Leah is a spy for the kingdom of Welch. Five years ago she fled her homeland--a scared girl rejected by the man she loved and certain she could not raise the baby girl she left in the arms of her own childhood guardians. But a reckoning is coming.
She returns home, determined to reconnect. Even if the only thing she is brave enough to take care of at first is an exotic fish purchased in the marketplace. When the regent asks her to set up a shop in order to foster relations with diplomats from a pair of hostile kingdoms, she plunges headfirst into the project. This she understands: how to coax and coerce, lie and risk her life in order to gather information. In this, she has no fear.
But can she find the courage to share her heart? With the young girl she abandoned so many years ago? Or the man who followed Leah home--the one whose past seems even more fraught with danger and regret than Leah's own?
Sharon Shinn's Elemental Blessings series is 100% up my aisle. Magic. Royal intrigue. Strong character and relationship development. Unquiet Land has been one of my favorite books of the series thus far. The plot clicks along as Leah plunges herself deeper and deeper into danger--the two parts of her world on an inevitable collision course from the very first chapter. Enjoy.
She returns home, determined to reconnect. Even if the only thing she is brave enough to take care of at first is an exotic fish purchased in the marketplace. When the regent asks her to set up a shop in order to foster relations with diplomats from a pair of hostile kingdoms, she plunges headfirst into the project. This she understands: how to coax and coerce, lie and risk her life in order to gather information. In this, she has no fear.
But can she find the courage to share her heart? With the young girl she abandoned so many years ago? Or the man who followed Leah home--the one whose past seems even more fraught with danger and regret than Leah's own?
Sharon Shinn's Elemental Blessings series is 100% up my aisle. Magic. Royal intrigue. Strong character and relationship development. Unquiet Land has been one of my favorite books of the series thus far. The plot clicks along as Leah plunges herself deeper and deeper into danger--the two parts of her world on an inevitable collision course from the very first chapter. Enjoy.
August 31, 2018
This is really good. I tried to read it slowly, but I failed. It's back in a familiar land with the familiar characters and it is really good.
(Maybe a little too dramatic at the end, but that might be something that improves on re-read.)
Audiobook reread March 2017
(It was still too dramatic.)
Audiobook reread August 2018
Hey, the drama gets better the third time through.
(Maybe a little too dramatic at the end, but that might be something that improves on re-read.)
Audiobook reread March 2017
(It was still too dramatic.)
Audiobook reread August 2018
Hey, the drama gets better the third time through.
August 21, 2017
Unquiet Land, continues the story of Leah Frothen, who was introduced as a supporting character in Jeweled Fire. Unquiet Land very much fit my mood and was quickly and enjoyably devoured. While better than Jeweled Fire, Unquiet Land in no way lived up to the first book in the series. The romance aspect was more explicit, with a bit too much agonizing about whether she deserved to trust/love her man. The evil deeds committed by the villains are a bit more explicit than I prefer. In addition, I felt like Ms. Shinn recycled too many plot elements from previous books.
In the kingdom of Welce, they believe that all people are affiliated with one of the five elemental groups Coru (water/blood), Elay (air/soul), Sweela (fire/mind), Torz (earth/flesh) or Hunti (wood/bone). These affiliations come with personality inclinations embodied in the associated blessings. Welce is headed by a king, but his rule is supported by the approval of the 5 Elemental Primes, one for each affiliation. We've now had books centered around Coru (Zoe Ardelay in Troubled Waters), Elay (Josetta in Royal Airs), Sweela (Corene in Jeweled Fire), and Torz (Leah Frothen in Unquiet Land). Goodreads doesn’t (yet) list a #5 in the series, and the only characters that comes to mind as having a Hunti affiliation are the Regent, Darien Serlast and his Aunt Mirti the Hunti Prime. But I’m hoping that Ms. Shinn will find a Hunti young woman to feature so this series can continue for at least one more book and we can enjoy a complete set of elements.
In the kingdom of Welce, they believe that all people are affiliated with one of the five elemental groups Coru (water/blood), Elay (air/soul), Sweela (fire/mind), Torz (earth/flesh) or Hunti (wood/bone). These affiliations come with personality inclinations embodied in the associated blessings. Welce is headed by a king, but his rule is supported by the approval of the 5 Elemental Primes, one for each affiliation. We've now had books centered around Coru (Zoe Ardelay in Troubled Waters), Elay (Josetta in Royal Airs), Sweela (Corene in Jeweled Fire), and Torz (Leah Frothen in Unquiet Land). Goodreads doesn’t (yet) list a #5 in the series, and the only characters that comes to mind as having a Hunti affiliation are the Regent, Darien Serlast and his Aunt Mirti the Hunti Prime. But I’m hoping that Ms. Shinn will find a Hunti young woman to feature so this series can continue for at least one more book and we can enjoy a complete set of elements.
July 11, 2022
2.5 stars....I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted, sadly.
This last book left me a bit conflicted: on one hand I really enjoyed following Leah as she works as a spy for Darien and rekindles her relationship with Mally....but I found myself being overly annoyed with various elements of the book:
-how unrealistic Mally is as both a character and five years old girl: she has the wisdom and placidity of an 80 years old crone (she immediately forgives and accept Leah as her mother and has no qualms with being her emotional support) and I'm still confused how Shinny made her so attuned with magic when the earth Prime is still alive and in charge!
-the lazy writing when it comes to Leah, starting with her affinity (so far, Shinny did a good job with showing how her main characters represent their affiliations, but with Leah that groundwork didn't feel as good) and going into her struggles:as soon as she encounters a problem, the solution is immediately and painlessly delivered by the author...no struggles, no turmoils...nothing.
-the romance was the flattest of the series...god, I missed Zoe and Darien's chemistry so damn much, 4 books and only one managed to deliver a semblance of a good romance subplot.
I liked how mature the bond between Leah and Chandran felt, but for the life of me I just couldn't get invested in them...even when some shocking twists were revealed...just nothing.
The overarching plot was once again what kept me going, I really like how the antagonist of this book felt like a really evil threat and getting a glimpse of their motives was quite entertaining for the twisted part of my brain.
All in all, this series wasn't so bad, I definitely don't think it was a waste of time and I immensely enjoyed the world building and depth with which the main characters were built.
This last book left me a bit conflicted: on one hand I really enjoyed following Leah as she works as a spy for Darien and rekindles her relationship with Mally....but I found myself being overly annoyed with various elements of the book:
-how unrealistic Mally is as both a character and five years old girl: she has the wisdom and placidity of an 80 years old crone (she immediately forgives and accept Leah as her mother and has no qualms with being her emotional support) and I'm still confused how Shinny made her so attuned with magic when the earth Prime is still alive and in charge!
-the lazy writing when it comes to Leah, starting with her affinity (so far, Shinny did a good job with showing how her main characters represent their affiliations, but with Leah that groundwork didn't feel as good) and going into her struggles:as soon as she encounters a problem, the solution is immediately and painlessly delivered by the author...no struggles, no turmoils...nothing.
-the romance was the flattest of the series...god, I missed Zoe and Darien's chemistry so damn much, 4 books and only one managed to deliver a semblance of a good romance subplot.
I liked how mature the bond between Leah and Chandran felt, but for the life of me I just couldn't get invested in them...even when some shocking twists were revealed...just nothing.
The overarching plot was once again what kept me going, I really like how the antagonist of this book felt like a really evil threat and getting a glimpse of their motives was quite entertaining for the twisted part of my brain.
All in all, this series wasn't so bad, I definitely don't think it was a waste of time and I immensely enjoyed the world building and depth with which the main characters were built.
October 1, 2016
3 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
Leah, once a foreign spy in Malinqua, has come home to Welce, dominated by the Five Families and the magic powers of the primes. She plans to reunite with the daughter she once abandoned, but also misses the close friend she made while away. When the Welce regent asks her to keep an eye on some foreign visitors, Leah finds herself drawn back into intrigue and danger.
I like Sharon Shinn's work in part because she's an unabashed romantic, and interesting romance just isn't that common in fantasy (Mary Stewart and Melanie Rawn aside). Unfortunately, her stories sometimes stray too far from romantic (characters with strong feelings) and into commercial romance (unlikely coincidences, happy endings). Worst of all, those detours often carry strong tones of sexism. I stopped following her work closely midway through the Twelve Houses series, but when I saw Unquiet Land, I thought I'd give the new Elemental Blessings series a try. Plus, I happened to meet Shinn a while back, and she just seems nice - one of the intangibles that do sometimes affect a reader's perception.
There's always a danger coming into a series in progress. There's a lot of backstory, the worldbuilding is already done, and it can be hard to pick up on relationships. Shinn makes a fair attempt (albeit sometimes with infodumps) at setting things up here, but it's a complex world - lots of names and networks, to say nothing of the magic system. While the story was readable from the start, I had a clear feeling of being behind, and of missing elements that would have been clear to longer-term readers. A lot of what I took to be rehash of prior books was boring even for me as a newcomer. I can't recommend starting here, but then I'd say that about almost any ongoing series.
The writing is, as always good - the prose is smooth, the characters are engaging, etc. Unfortunately, the book draws on some of Shinn's worst impulses. There's a distinct lack of credibility to the plot, and a concomitant smoothing over of details. For example, Leah's cover for her activities in Welce is as a shopkeeper. She's backed by apparently limitless funds, and promoted by prominent figures, but her shop is nonetheless astonishingly successful. She virtually never has a slow day, despite the fact that we know her suppliers also supply other stores in town. It might not have bothered me, but for the fact that so much of the action takes place in the shop, and that we constantly hear how it's making money hand over fist, despite there being no clear demand or market gap.
The emotional angles are predictable. That's largely alright, because the characters are strong and interesting to follow. It's all too simple, though. Shinn creates obstacles, but they're easily overcome, and there's no great tension to them. With one exception, there's never really a credible chance that things will go wrong. In part, that's because, despite what would seem some pretty bad choices in life, everybody loves Leah, and they all love each other. It's happy all the time in Welce.
That may be because for virtually all of the book, we only see the wealthy. There are a few poor wretches thrown in for color, but there is apparently no middle class in Welce's capital city. There are slums, and there are the mansions of the nobility. No one else really exists. 'As unpretentious a group as anyone could have hoped' doesn't seem to notice that it's gathered in a large mansion at a meal laid out by servants. Rather than focusing us on the story Shinn wants to tell about Leah and her friends (who happen to be wealthy and powerful), the approach undermines the credibility of the society.
The early portion of the book is also fairly heavy on politics. While writers like Katherine Kurtz have done well by this, I just don't find fictional politics interesting. In broad strokes, it's fine - it sets forces in play - but the fine details of who's married to whom, and how it affect the succession are generally dull, and that's true here. That dullness extends to inheritance in the world's otherwise workable magic system.
The world itself is a vague nod toward steampunk, with neon thrown in (though not explained and not very credible). It is, unfortunately, also seemingly based on traditional gender roles. A key element of the story is that two parents abandoned their child and now want to reclaim it, but it's taken for granted that the mother is the one to decide how. There's a nominal equality, but it's all women doing the shopping, and mostly men doing the protecting.
One of the most interesting elements is the Karkans, who have an unpredictable moral code. I hope that it's explored in more detail in other books, because here it gets relatively short shrift. Frustratingly, it's also inconsistently applied - a key confrontation simply doesn't take into account everything we and the book's supposedly smart characters have learned about the Karkans.
In short, this is a smooth but not satisfying read - well-written but shallow. I won't be digging deeper into the series.
Leah, once a foreign spy in Malinqua, has come home to Welce, dominated by the Five Families and the magic powers of the primes. She plans to reunite with the daughter she once abandoned, but also misses the close friend she made while away. When the Welce regent asks her to keep an eye on some foreign visitors, Leah finds herself drawn back into intrigue and danger.
I like Sharon Shinn's work in part because she's an unabashed romantic, and interesting romance just isn't that common in fantasy (Mary Stewart and Melanie Rawn aside). Unfortunately, her stories sometimes stray too far from romantic (characters with strong feelings) and into commercial romance (unlikely coincidences, happy endings). Worst of all, those detours often carry strong tones of sexism. I stopped following her work closely midway through the Twelve Houses series, but when I saw Unquiet Land, I thought I'd give the new Elemental Blessings series a try. Plus, I happened to meet Shinn a while back, and she just seems nice - one of the intangibles that do sometimes affect a reader's perception.
There's always a danger coming into a series in progress. There's a lot of backstory, the worldbuilding is already done, and it can be hard to pick up on relationships. Shinn makes a fair attempt (albeit sometimes with infodumps) at setting things up here, but it's a complex world - lots of names and networks, to say nothing of the magic system. While the story was readable from the start, I had a clear feeling of being behind, and of missing elements that would have been clear to longer-term readers. A lot of what I took to be rehash of prior books was boring even for me as a newcomer. I can't recommend starting here, but then I'd say that about almost any ongoing series.
The writing is, as always good - the prose is smooth, the characters are engaging, etc. Unfortunately, the book draws on some of Shinn's worst impulses. There's a distinct lack of credibility to the plot, and a concomitant smoothing over of details. For example, Leah's cover for her activities in Welce is as a shopkeeper. She's backed by apparently limitless funds, and promoted by prominent figures, but her shop is nonetheless astonishingly successful. She virtually never has a slow day, despite the fact that we know her suppliers also supply other stores in town. It might not have bothered me, but for the fact that so much of the action takes place in the shop, and that we constantly hear how it's making money hand over fist, despite there being no clear demand or market gap.
The emotional angles are predictable. That's largely alright, because the characters are strong and interesting to follow. It's all too simple, though. Shinn creates obstacles, but they're easily overcome, and there's no great tension to them. With one exception, there's never really a credible chance that things will go wrong. In part, that's because, despite what would seem some pretty bad choices in life, everybody loves Leah, and they all love each other. It's happy all the time in Welce.
That may be because for virtually all of the book, we only see the wealthy. There are a few poor wretches thrown in for color, but there is apparently no middle class in Welce's capital city. There are slums, and there are the mansions of the nobility. No one else really exists. 'As unpretentious a group as anyone could have hoped' doesn't seem to notice that it's gathered in a large mansion at a meal laid out by servants. Rather than focusing us on the story Shinn wants to tell about Leah and her friends (who happen to be wealthy and powerful), the approach undermines the credibility of the society.
The early portion of the book is also fairly heavy on politics. While writers like Katherine Kurtz have done well by this, I just don't find fictional politics interesting. In broad strokes, it's fine - it sets forces in play - but the fine details of who's married to whom, and how it affect the succession are generally dull, and that's true here. That dullness extends to inheritance in the world's otherwise workable magic system.
The world itself is a vague nod toward steampunk, with neon thrown in (though not explained and not very credible). It is, unfortunately, also seemingly based on traditional gender roles. A key element of the story is that two parents abandoned their child and now want to reclaim it, but it's taken for granted that the mother is the one to decide how. There's a nominal equality, but it's all women doing the shopping, and mostly men doing the protecting.
One of the most interesting elements is the Karkans, who have an unpredictable moral code. I hope that it's explored in more detail in other books, because here it gets relatively short shrift. Frustratingly, it's also inconsistently applied - a key confrontation simply doesn't take into account everything we and the book's supposedly smart characters have learned about the Karkans.
In short, this is a smooth but not satisfying read - well-written but shallow. I won't be digging deeper into the series.
January 9, 2018
Rating: 4.5 Stars
December 28, 2016
I saw almost everything in the plot coming a mile off, but I have enjoyed every book in this series, and Shinn hits a particular comfort-read groove.
June 2, 2025
3.5 stars
November 8, 2016
The first book in the series remains my absolute favorite, but this is a strong outing.
In this one we have Leah Frothen as the main character. We first met Leah in Jeweled Fire when she was living abroad as a spy for the crown.
But Leah has a much more interesting past. In Welce, the fictional land where the series takes place, there is a system of magic, a culture that depends of harmonious numbers, a belief that people align with certain elements, a custom of pulling blessings (a preset list of traits and philosophies) to help guide actions & decisions, describe personalities and sometimes help predict future possibilities. In the previous books Welce had undergone a bit of a seismic shift as there was a not quite harmonious change to the rulers of the kingdom. The last remaining natural pretender to the throne was the Princess Odelia. To keep her safe the regent appointed a "decoy" princess to sometimes masquerade as Odelia. The two littel girls looked enough alike that people oftenn did not know which was the real princess. The other little girl is named Mally. An apparent orphan child who no one (supposedly) knew of her origins.
But this isn't true obviously. Mally is Leah's daughter, ther esult of an unwise liaison when she was younger. But Leah is older and wiser and is ready to come home, be embraced by her family ad finally claim her daughter.
This is a really nice piece of the story. There is no intrigue with this, no long drawn out custody battles, no sinister relatives lurking in the shadows. In fact everyone is in full agreement that Leah should tell Mally and are just waiting for her to do it at the right time.
The intrigue of the story comes from a delegation of visiting foreigners from a country called Karkan. They are in Welce trying to broker a treaty with Darien Serlast, the Regent soon to be crowned king. The Karkans are a country in name only as they have been conquered and under the authority of the Malinquans. They want to ally with Welce to get their independence back. But they are a rather debauched type of people who have an interesting code of morality. They believe that any cruelty (no matter how cruel and some of it is awful) can be offset by acts of atonement. The bigger the act of atonement or generosity the greater the justification of whatever act of awfulness they wish to perpetrate. I could not live in a place like that... good lord. Anyway Darien sets up Leah to spy on them.
This brings them into Leah's circle and it is through her that we meet these characters and learn about their proclivities. And of course, it is not long before they are doing shady shit in Welce. But Darien and Zoe and the rest of the Primes of the five families are not having it. This all comes to a head in a big, noisy, climactic showdown.
Of course this would not be a Shinn book if the fantasy elements came with a nice dose of romance. Leah's partner from the previous book, Chandrin makes his way to Welce and they start up a real relationship. Chandrin is an interesting guy with lots of secrets that add to the intrigue.
The book ends on a very upbeat and happy note that will satisfy fans of Shinn and those who just like a fantasy with a nice helping of court intrigue and romance to boot.
I listened to this on audio and the entire series has the same narrator, Jennifer Van Dyck, who has done quite a few of Shinn's books. I really like her as a narrator, but I have to say I wasn't at all thrilled with her voice for Chandrin. She made everything he said sounded labored and slow. It really affects how you perceive the character.
In this one we have Leah Frothen as the main character. We first met Leah in Jeweled Fire when she was living abroad as a spy for the crown.
But Leah has a much more interesting past. In Welce, the fictional land where the series takes place, there is a system of magic, a culture that depends of harmonious numbers, a belief that people align with certain elements, a custom of pulling blessings (a preset list of traits and philosophies) to help guide actions & decisions, describe personalities and sometimes help predict future possibilities. In the previous books Welce had undergone a bit of a seismic shift as there was a not quite harmonious change to the rulers of the kingdom. The last remaining natural pretender to the throne was the Princess Odelia. To keep her safe the regent appointed a "decoy" princess to sometimes masquerade as Odelia. The two littel girls looked enough alike that people oftenn did not know which was the real princess. The other little girl is named Mally. An apparent orphan child who no one (supposedly) knew of her origins.
But this isn't true obviously. Mally is Leah's daughter, ther esult of an unwise liaison when she was younger. But Leah is older and wiser and is ready to come home, be embraced by her family ad finally claim her daughter.
This is a really nice piece of the story. There is no intrigue with this, no long drawn out custody battles, no sinister relatives lurking in the shadows. In fact everyone is in full agreement that Leah should tell Mally and are just waiting for her to do it at the right time.
The intrigue of the story comes from a delegation of visiting foreigners from a country called Karkan. They are in Welce trying to broker a treaty with Darien Serlast, the Regent soon to be crowned king. The Karkans are a country in name only as they have been conquered and under the authority of the Malinquans. They want to ally with Welce to get their independence back. But they are a rather debauched type of people who have an interesting code of morality. They believe that any cruelty (no matter how cruel and some of it is awful) can be offset by acts of atonement. The bigger the act of atonement or generosity the greater the justification of whatever act of awfulness they wish to perpetrate. I could not live in a place like that... good lord. Anyway Darien sets up Leah to spy on them.
This brings them into Leah's circle and it is through her that we meet these characters and learn about their proclivities. And of course, it is not long before they are doing shady shit in Welce. But Darien and Zoe and the rest of the Primes of the five families are not having it. This all comes to a head in a big, noisy, climactic showdown.
Of course this would not be a Shinn book if the fantasy elements came with a nice dose of romance. Leah's partner from the previous book, Chandrin makes his way to Welce and they start up a real relationship. Chandrin is an interesting guy with lots of secrets that add to the intrigue.
The book ends on a very upbeat and happy note that will satisfy fans of Shinn and those who just like a fantasy with a nice helping of court intrigue and romance to boot.
I listened to this on audio and the entire series has the same narrator, Jennifer Van Dyck, who has done quite a few of Shinn's books. I really like her as a narrator, but I have to say I wasn't at all thrilled with her voice for Chandrin. She made everything he said sounded labored and slow. It really affects how you perceive the character.
December 8, 2016
I enjoyed this book as a continuation of the elemental blessings series, but it didn't really stand out to me the way the previous ones did.
Partially, I found that Shinn seems to have less of a grasp on what constitutes Torz (or what makes Torz interesting) than she does for the other elements. So there wasn't that same sense of a character playing out her identity in the same fashion.
Partially, I thought Leah had it WAY too easy becoming a mother again. There's fantasy and then there's fantasy. Celia was a reasonably believable child. But Mally...it played into this fantasy of children as fulfilling for parents. Which, don't get me wrong, they absolutely are, but they are also people. Mally makes Leah feel better, never worse. She shows no resentment for her mother's absence, which is mind boggling. And I'm absolutely on board with Leah's behavior; she did everything right. But right actions still have consequences and I feel like we got none of those.
And then there's Chandran. Who I liked less and less as the book went on.
Partially, I found that Shinn seems to have less of a grasp on what constitutes Torz (or what makes Torz interesting) than she does for the other elements. So there wasn't that same sense of a character playing out her identity in the same fashion.
Partially, I thought Leah had it WAY too easy becoming a mother again. There's fantasy and then there's fantasy. Celia was a reasonably believable child. But Mally...it played into this fantasy of children as fulfilling for parents. Which, don't get me wrong, they absolutely are, but they are also people. Mally makes Leah feel better, never worse. She shows no resentment for her mother's absence, which is mind boggling. And I'm absolutely on board with Leah's behavior; she did everything right. But right actions still have consequences and I feel like we got none of those.
And then there's Chandran. Who I liked less and less as the book went on.
September 15, 2018
thought I'd read one of the two books before this, but no, only the Water book. But there are recaps aplenty here I assume. Again we have romance mixed with politics. The villains' plot was pretty thoroughly presaged (although the solution surprised me)The romance seems typical. What I did like here was how the main character managed her extended relationships, having a large found family as well as blood family. I felt a dearth of major truths here, though.
March 15, 2020
Perversely perhaps I ended up liking this significantly less than Troubled Waters and Jeweled Fire. I should have liked Leah better than Corene, and this has more mature, reflective characters, but I like what I like and this plot lost me at suspension of disbelief. In the previous books the conflict felt natural, no outright moustache-twirling villainy but just human beings, some more selfish and some less, who wanted different things. Here instead we have a lot of drama (melodrama, really) due to a cryptically shockingly different society which just is presented as outright evil and inescrutable. The Karkans are a full protagonist (unlike the Dhonshon or Soechins in previous books, who were on the blackground), and it is all so over the top I ended up frequently rolling my eyes.
Incidentaly surely there will be a 5th book, with a hunti character. Who? Could Natalie be hunti?
Incidentaly surely there will be a 5th book, with a hunti character. Who? Could Natalie be hunti?
January 23, 2022
Excellent. This is the most enjoyable fantasy series I’ve read in years. I’m sad that there don’t seem to be any more books in the works. If you like complex, character-driven stories with excellent world building, give this a series try. I think I need to create a category on Goodreads of books I hugged when I finished reading them. This one definitely fits in that category.
May 13, 2022
Presented as the last of the series (for now), this is probably the most straight-forward of the books. Bringing forward characters from the earlier books and rejoining the political madness of the main city, it was nice to be back on familiar ground. That said, the bad guys were not very complex, and the mysteries were easily solved long before they were revealed.
The climax was exciting, and the resolve was a bit too easy, but it's all good. I wish that the author will return to this world soon.
The climax was exciting, and the resolve was a bit too easy, but it's all good. I wish that the author will return to this world soon.
November 7, 2016
3.5
Originally posted at Vampire Book Club
Leah Frothen has been away from home for five years. In a surge of not knowing what she wanted out of her life, she fled her home country of Welce leaving her newborn daughter to be raised by relatives. Leah found herself in the country of Malinqua working as a shop girl, but also as a spy for the Welchin regent.
Now, Leah is in a place in her life where she’s ready to return home, hoping to finally claim the daughter she left behind. Beyond that, her plans for the future are still up in the air. When a group of foreign dignitaries visit Welce in hopes of signing a treaty of alliance, Leah is pulled into the spying game once again. The regent has agreed to back Leah in opening a new shop, and in return Leah will keep her eyes and ears open to the goings on around Welce. As suspicions are soon proved valid, the secrets of all those Leah calls friend and family start to come to the surface, and she begins to wonder about the secrets she herself keeps.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced, high-action kind of read, Unquiet Land is not for you. The plot is slower to develop with the intrigue of spying really taking second stage to Leah’s story.
I felt like Unquiet Land was mainly a character study. We see this character that five years ago had no qualms about leaving her newborn daughter, fleeing to a place, and assuming an identity in which she could alienate herself from others around her. Fast-forwarding, Leah has grown up and is ready to take on her responsibilities and realizes that, if nothing else, she wants to be a mother to her daughter. The complexity of family is another major theme throughout the story as Leah integrates herself back within her family and friends. I kind of applaud Sharon Shinn for writing a character that wasn’t afraid to say ‘I wasn’t able to be what you needed then, but I am now’. The story is further driven by Leah trying to figure out what she wants out of her future, building upon her new role as mother, and how all her decisions have to circle back to what’s best for her daughter.
I rather enjoyed the day-to-day mundaneness of Leah setting up and running her shop. It reminded me of Anne Bishop’s The Others series in that regard. Just the descriptions of the various items were interesting to me.
What I would have loved more of within the story was the magical aspect. The Welchin’s believe in the power of five elements (air, wood, fire, water, earth – elay, hunti, sweela, coru, torz respectively), and when you’re born you are blessed by one of these elements. Each element has a prime and it’s the prime that is able to actually control the element, plus offshoots of said element (i.e. the coru prime works with water, but they also have an affinity with blood). While members of Leah’s friends/extended family are prime, Leah herself is not. I can forgive the lack of magic, however, seeing as how including too much of something that Leah isn’t privy to would detract from her story.
Overall, I enjoyed the somewhat simplistic storyline, a woman coming home again, ready to embrace her responsibilities and her future.
Originally posted at Vampire Book Club
Leah Frothen has been away from home for five years. In a surge of not knowing what she wanted out of her life, she fled her home country of Welce leaving her newborn daughter to be raised by relatives. Leah found herself in the country of Malinqua working as a shop girl, but also as a spy for the Welchin regent.
Now, Leah is in a place in her life where she’s ready to return home, hoping to finally claim the daughter she left behind. Beyond that, her plans for the future are still up in the air. When a group of foreign dignitaries visit Welce in hopes of signing a treaty of alliance, Leah is pulled into the spying game once again. The regent has agreed to back Leah in opening a new shop, and in return Leah will keep her eyes and ears open to the goings on around Welce. As suspicions are soon proved valid, the secrets of all those Leah calls friend and family start to come to the surface, and she begins to wonder about the secrets she herself keeps.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced, high-action kind of read, Unquiet Land is not for you. The plot is slower to develop with the intrigue of spying really taking second stage to Leah’s story.
I felt like Unquiet Land was mainly a character study. We see this character that five years ago had no qualms about leaving her newborn daughter, fleeing to a place, and assuming an identity in which she could alienate herself from others around her. Fast-forwarding, Leah has grown up and is ready to take on her responsibilities and realizes that, if nothing else, she wants to be a mother to her daughter. The complexity of family is another major theme throughout the story as Leah integrates herself back within her family and friends. I kind of applaud Sharon Shinn for writing a character that wasn’t afraid to say ‘I wasn’t able to be what you needed then, but I am now’. The story is further driven by Leah trying to figure out what she wants out of her future, building upon her new role as mother, and how all her decisions have to circle back to what’s best for her daughter.
I rather enjoyed the day-to-day mundaneness of Leah setting up and running her shop. It reminded me of Anne Bishop’s The Others series in that regard. Just the descriptions of the various items were interesting to me.
What I would have loved more of within the story was the magical aspect. The Welchin’s believe in the power of five elements (air, wood, fire, water, earth – elay, hunti, sweela, coru, torz respectively), and when you’re born you are blessed by one of these elements. Each element has a prime and it’s the prime that is able to actually control the element, plus offshoots of said element (i.e. the coru prime works with water, but they also have an affinity with blood). While members of Leah’s friends/extended family are prime, Leah herself is not. I can forgive the lack of magic, however, seeing as how including too much of something that Leah isn’t privy to would detract from her story.
Overall, I enjoyed the somewhat simplistic storyline, a woman coming home again, ready to embrace her responsibilities and her future.
April 9, 2017
I liked this novel – I like everything by this writer – but it’s not her best work. In fact, the story seems an afterthought to Shinn’s latest series. It utilizes many of the characters I have encountered in the prior books.
The protagonist, Leah, also appeared before, in Jeweled Fire. There, she played a supporting role. Here, she is given a chance to shine, but sadly, her shine is a mere sparkle.
After 5 years of spying for the Regent in a foreign country, Leah returns home and tries to find a place to belong. She has a young daughter, Mally, whom she abandoned 5 years ago. Mally doesn’t even know Leah is her mother. Leah also has a former lover, but she is still resentful for his rejection 5 years ago. It seems, everything of importance in Leah’s life happened 5 years ago, but the story in this book happens now, 5 years later. Now, Leah tries to establish a new connection with Mally. Now, Leah tries to fit into the society she abandoned 5 years ago. Now, Leah tries to find a new purpose in life and a new love.
Leah’s story is quiet, as is Leah herself, and her new love grows gradually. There is no insta-lust there but lots of doubts. One of Leah’s doubts actually turned me against this book and its heroine. Her new love interest, Chandran, confesses to her early in this novel that a decade ago he killed his wife. She was a monster, or so he says, but he still feels guilty for taking her life.
After his confession, Leah is reluctant to trust him completely. She is dithering, afraid to jump full-tilt into the affair. Even though she is clearly in love with him, and he with her, she is stringing Chandran along, keeps him dangling.
The more I read about Chandran in the tale, the more I liked the guy. He is one of those men who doesn’t shy away from hard decisions but does what he feels right and then accepts the consequences, no matter how painful. He is a rare thing – a man with integrity.
As the book progresses, the facts unfold, showing us that his former wife really was an evil bitch and deserved what she got. And still Leah holds back. Then, close to the end of the book, she gets in trouble. Her life is in mortal danger. Chandran is not in a position to help; he isn’t aware of the danger she faces, but her friend, a female soldier, jumps in and kills her enemy.
Afterwards, Leah doesn’t hesitate to feel grateful to her friend, doesn’t withhold her trust and affection the same way she has been doing with Chandran for the entire length of the book. In this case, killing is a good thing, right? If someone kills protecting her, that’s okay. But Chandran killed protecting someone else, in a situation unknown to Leah, so different standards must apply. The entire conditional approval of killing rubbed me raw and it poisoned the whole story.
Other than that one serious objection, I enjoyed this book.
The protagonist, Leah, also appeared before, in Jeweled Fire. There, she played a supporting role. Here, she is given a chance to shine, but sadly, her shine is a mere sparkle.
After 5 years of spying for the Regent in a foreign country, Leah returns home and tries to find a place to belong. She has a young daughter, Mally, whom she abandoned 5 years ago. Mally doesn’t even know Leah is her mother. Leah also has a former lover, but she is still resentful for his rejection 5 years ago. It seems, everything of importance in Leah’s life happened 5 years ago, but the story in this book happens now, 5 years later. Now, Leah tries to establish a new connection with Mally. Now, Leah tries to fit into the society she abandoned 5 years ago. Now, Leah tries to find a new purpose in life and a new love.
Leah’s story is quiet, as is Leah herself, and her new love grows gradually. There is no insta-lust there but lots of doubts. One of Leah’s doubts actually turned me against this book and its heroine. Her new love interest, Chandran, confesses to her early in this novel that a decade ago he killed his wife. She was a monster, or so he says, but he still feels guilty for taking her life.
After his confession, Leah is reluctant to trust him completely. She is dithering, afraid to jump full-tilt into the affair. Even though she is clearly in love with him, and he with her, she is stringing Chandran along, keeps him dangling.
The more I read about Chandran in the tale, the more I liked the guy. He is one of those men who doesn’t shy away from hard decisions but does what he feels right and then accepts the consequences, no matter how painful. He is a rare thing – a man with integrity.
As the book progresses, the facts unfold, showing us that his former wife really was an evil bitch and deserved what she got. And still Leah holds back. Then, close to the end of the book, she gets in trouble. Her life is in mortal danger. Chandran is not in a position to help; he isn’t aware of the danger she faces, but her friend, a female soldier, jumps in and kills her enemy.
Afterwards, Leah doesn’t hesitate to feel grateful to her friend, doesn’t withhold her trust and affection the same way she has been doing with Chandran for the entire length of the book. In this case, killing is a good thing, right? If someone kills protecting her, that’s okay. But Chandran killed protecting someone else, in a situation unknown to Leah, so different standards must apply. The entire conditional approval of killing rubbed me raw and it poisoned the whole story.
Other than that one serious objection, I enjoyed this book.
November 4, 2016
refreshingly sane
which applies to Sharon Shinn books in general, to this one in particular, and to the culture of Welce. All have a deeply rooted groundedness to them and it's refreshing, given a diet of so much in life and literature that is volatile, unbalanced and often wildly neurotic. Reading Shinn is like spending time at a really good spa or meditation center. Her books are nor going to wring you dry or send your heart galloping, but they do invoke a range of emotions and leave you wishing you could live in Welce, meet the Primes, go to a temple to draw your blessings and visit the Plaza of Women. They leave you homesick and centered in the best parts of yourself.
This book does all of that. I gave it four stars instead of five only because it's a bit safe, it doesn't pierce quite deeply enough. Maybe that's because the danger gets resolved a bit easily or because people live who were expected to die, so there's a sense of tragedy being cheated somehow? At any rate, this series isn't emotionally as strong or complex as Shinn's Twelve Houses series, but it has a lot of peace, homegrown charm and steadfastness to offer a reader who appreciates those qualities.
Caution: until this book, I'd have said this series would be appropriate for a young teenager to read (though perfectly enjoyable for adults). There are scenes of not very explicit lovemaking in this story, however, so if you're looking for books for someone teenaged or younger, this particular entry in the series may not be suitable.
which applies to Sharon Shinn books in general, to this one in particular, and to the culture of Welce. All have a deeply rooted groundedness to them and it's refreshing, given a diet of so much in life and literature that is volatile, unbalanced and often wildly neurotic. Reading Shinn is like spending time at a really good spa or meditation center. Her books are nor going to wring you dry or send your heart galloping, but they do invoke a range of emotions and leave you wishing you could live in Welce, meet the Primes, go to a temple to draw your blessings and visit the Plaza of Women. They leave you homesick and centered in the best parts of yourself.
This book does all of that. I gave it four stars instead of five only because it's a bit safe, it doesn't pierce quite deeply enough. Maybe that's because the danger gets resolved a bit easily or because people live who were expected to die, so there's a sense of tragedy being cheated somehow? At any rate, this series isn't emotionally as strong or complex as Shinn's Twelve Houses series, but it has a lot of peace, homegrown charm and steadfastness to offer a reader who appreciates those qualities.
Caution: until this book, I'd have said this series would be appropriate for a young teenager to read (though perfectly enjoyable for adults). There are scenes of not very explicit lovemaking in this story, however, so if you're looking for books for someone teenaged or younger, this particular entry in the series may not be suitable.
November 16, 2016
Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite authors, however, "Unquiet Land" fell short of the mark for me. The pacing and plot were clunky. The first half of the book was filled with far too many info dumps for readers who hadn't read the other books in the series. Many of the protagonist's actions and thoughts - especially in the intense last few chapters - seemed unrealistic. The ending smacked of deus ex machina. The resolution was rushed, improbable, and altogether too tidy. For example, Seka's motives needed to be fleshed out, and Mally's fear isn't a great reason for why she can do things that have zero precedent in their world.
I think the real problem is that this book has too many big things going on - Leah is falling in love, spying for her regent, attempting to win back her daughter, and trying to stop a serious crime. Shinn juggles all these plot lines, but doesn't really have the space to do justice to all of them. I felt like the end of the book was filled with a lot of summaries of scenes instead of actual scenes. Little progress is made in the first half of the book, which feels very slow paced, and then suddenly things happen far too quickly, and improbably, in the second half. All these big issues felt like they were rushed in to tidy, happy resolutions.
I think the real problem is that this book has too many big things going on - Leah is falling in love, spying for her regent, attempting to win back her daughter, and trying to stop a serious crime. Shinn juggles all these plot lines, but doesn't really have the space to do justice to all of them. I felt like the end of the book was filled with a lot of summaries of scenes instead of actual scenes. Little progress is made in the first half of the book, which feels very slow paced, and then suddenly things happen far too quickly, and improbably, in the second half. All these big issues felt like they were rushed in to tidy, happy resolutions.
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