by Rachel Neumeier
And Rachel Neumeier’s House of Shadows is so lovely. Not one for every reader, certainly, but great if you’re the type of person who enjoys slow character development, understated romance, and truly lovely descriptions. Which I do. And I like the fact that it’s not a fairy tale retelling, and yet ha...
rating: 3.5
3.75 out of 5There's a lot to like about this - the world, the culture, the various aspects of magic - but there is also a lot that bothered me as I read. The characters are a mixed bag: some are wonderfully complex, and others had me considering renaming the Mary Sue trope after them specifically (...
Read along with Jessie!House of Shadows wasn't a terrible book. Neumeier wove together her plotlines with a cleaver hand, and some of her female characters broke the fantasy mould and contributed to the storyline instead of simply standing back to allow more room and action for their male counterpa...
Despite the novel's sort of sing-song, fairy tale opening -- In a city of grey stone and mist, between the steep rain-swept mountains and the sea, there lived a merchant with his eight daughters. -- the book settles quickly into a focused fantasy novel, following two of the eight orphaned daughters....
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