2011 Book Log #46: The Thirteenth House, by Sharon Shinn

[annathepiper]

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I read Sharon Shinn’s first book in her Twelve Houses series, I found it a bit shaky in its initial chapters, at least till it got its feet under it. I was very pleased to discover that I had no such problem with Book 2, The Thirteenth House.

This book continues the adventures of the overall cast of characters established in Mystic and Rider as they pursue the greater plot arc of anti-magic sentiment sweeping their kingdom and threatening to plunge them all into outright war. However, the focus shifts now from Senneth and Tayse over to the shapeshifter Kirra, whose participation in the rescue of their king’s kidnapped regent, Lord Romar, leads to a stormy affair with said regent. The catch: Romar is married, and Kirra is impersonating her own half-sister. Between that and Kirra’s need to keep her true identify and her talents secret, the affair is perilous to them both. Kirra’s soon swamped in intrigue–and comes under the threat of the ringleaders of the growing potential rebellion.

Overall I liked this book quite a bit, despite the fact that as a character, Kirra is definitely more flawed than Senneth. She’s impulsive to a fault, and at first this is frustrating. Yet she did well riding the line between “I want to smack her for her choices” and “I am nonetheless sympathizing with her”, and she shows some admirable development when faced with the consequences of her actions. (Even as she’s ultimately forced into a difficult and ethically shady choice indeed, about which I shall not elaborate, because spoilers.)

I did also like Romar, and was relieved to see that Shinn did not go the too-easy route of making his wife unlikeable. Some readers may find the fact that Kirra’s carrying on with a married man ethically shady all by itself; if you’re one of those readers, this book won’t be for you. But for what it’s worth, I did appreciate that Shinn didn’t make it easy on either character.

On the bigger level of the overall story arc, I liked the advancements in this one quite a bit. After I finished this one off as a library checkout, I went ahead and committed to buying the series, and I’ll look forward to finishing them off. For this one, four stars.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[morgie.livejournal.com]

Heh. This book I had to keep on putting down, then restarting, due to the romance going on. I kept on suspecting other things going on, but it's really hard to say what, due to keeping spoilers out.

I do need to restart the series, but I'm in the middle of others at the moment. And have no moola. ;)

[annathepiper]

I've got the rest of the series waiting and hopefully will be able to get to them soon, but who knows, with the size of my To Read pile!

And yeah, the nature of this particular romance kept twigging even me a bit! Less so that Romar was married and more that the affair was being conducted behind his wife's back; I'm fine with poly relationships, but not so much with the lack of knowledge or consent of all parties involved! But I have generally liked all of Shinn's work, so I kept with this one for the sake of the overall story arc.

[morgie.livejournal.com]

My problem was more the mental whiplash - felt almost like mindgames.

[annathepiper]

I can see that too!