Reader and Raelynx (Twelve Houses Series #4) by Sharon Shinn

From the Publisher

The final confrontation is here: the fourth book in the stunning fantasy series.

In a world of secret sorceries and forbidden desires, the mystic Cammon must put aside his personal feelings for Princess Amalie and help her find a suitor, until he discovers that he needs to protect her from her own powers.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Shinn's exciting fourth Twelve Houses fantasy (after 2006's Dark Moon Defender), King Baryn decides it's time to marry off his daughter, Amalie, given the precarious political situation in Gillengaria. Baryn recruits a group of talented mystics, led by gray-eyed Senneth, to help stabilize the succession. Cammon, a commoner with special powers, watches over Amalie as men pay court, even as he and Amalie fall hopelessly in love. As their relationship flowers, the political situation worsens after Baryn's assassinated. Landowners struggle for power and armed clashes begin, but the real battles play out on a personal level. First, Senneth is kidnapped by a hopeful would-be king, Halchon, whose mere touch takes her magic away. Then, Senneth must confront Halchon's sister (and her longtime nemesis), Coralinda, in an epic showdown that unites the mystics in a struggle for their very right to exist. Intrigue, love and magic weave into Shinn's hallmark romantic, happy-ever-after ending. (Nov.)

Jackie Cassada - Library Journal

Summoned to the palace to use his "reading" skills to see into the hearts of the suitors for the hand of the Princess Amalie, the mystic Cammon falls in love with Amalie despite his knowledge that their love is forbidden. When the king's subjects rise in rebellion, however, thoughts turn to survival-for the king and for the woman he loves. Shinn (Archangel) continues her powerful and richly detailed "Twelve Houses" series (Dark Moon Defender) with a tale of dangerous love and open rebellion. Libraries should purchase where the series or the author has a following.

Kirkus Reviews

Shinn (Dark Moon Defender, 2006, etc.) neatly and delightfully wraps up a four-volume romantic-fantasy series in which six comrades bearing exceptional magical and/or martial abilities fall in love with entirely unsuitable partners against the backdrop of a looming civil war. As rebellious nobles and the devotees of a magic-hating religious cult prepare to topple King Baryn from the throne of Gillengaria, he and his advisors decide to secure the line of succession by marrying off his daughter, 19-year-old Princess Amalie. To confirm that Amalie's suitors are truly well-intentioned, the king enlists the help of Cammon, an extraordinarily powerful reader of thoughts and emotions. The more time Cammon spends with Amalie, the more he's convinced that Amalie is a magically gifted mystic herself, a danger in a land where mystics are at best mistrusted and at worst brutally slaughtered. But Cammon's concern for Amalie is more than merely patriotic-the common-born young man is falling in love with Amalie, and she with him. Although the novel's entirely appropriate resolution seems foreordained, there are plenty of great twists, thrilling action sequences and long-awaited comeuppances along the way. A chocolate truffle of a novel: richly indulgent, darkly sweet and utterly satisfying.

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