Book Review: Summers at Castle Auburn

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Summers at Castle Auburn     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB
Sharon Shinn
Class/Genre:   Fantasy
Ace, May 2001, $14.95, 355 pp.
Trade Paperback

Her father is noble, but her mother is not and besides they never wed. Coriel Halsing spends much of the year under the tutelage of her grandmother who is teaching her to become a herbalist or perhaps a witch depending on your perspective. One season of the year she spends at Castle Auburn home of her sire and her older half-sister.

As she matures, Coriel becomes concerned with her patriarchal family and the royalty's hunt for the Aliora, a fairy-like people that the humans enslave. Soon, instead of the delight she once saw during her youthful summers at the Castle, Coriel observes prejudice and injustice. Still, her teen obsession with the spoiled Prince Bryan has turned to adult admiration and seemingly unrequited love for his levelheaded relative Kent. Realistically alone because of her divided heritage, Coriel wonders what one intrepid but frightened woman can do to make things right.

SUMMERS AT CASTLE AUBURN is an enjoyable medieval romantic fantasy showing why Sharon Shinn is an award-winning author. The tale is filled with action sprinkled with Faerie dust and solid characters. Though romance readers will relish the growing affection between Kent and Coriel, fantasy fans will feel a bit slighted as the Faerie community offers possibilities, but never is explored. Still, Ms Shinn provides her audience with a delightful novel that readers will demand sequels with more than just a paranormal dusting.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner