Summers at Castle Auburn

By Sharon Shinn
Read: Again and again, starting in 2002, now April 2010
Rating: LOVE

I love, love, love this book. It is one of the first Shinn books I ever read, and it was serendipitous the way I found it. We were on vacation in California, and the only redeeming quality of the crappy little town we left San Francisco for was that it had several bookstores. Auburn was sitting on an otherwise empty shelf, near the stairs, as though someone had changed their mind and left it there. Fools!

Corie is a most unusual medieval maiden. She is the bastard daughter of a village woman and a lord, who her mother seduced when he passed through town. Mom’s interest in man and child was never strong, so she left the daughter with her own mother and wandered off. Grandmother is a herb witch, and she set out to raise the child as her apprentice. When Corie was about six, another nobleman rode into town, with news that her father had died and he, Jaxon, was her uncle. He was charged by his brother to see that Corie receives a share of her noble heritage. And so, Jaxon strikes a bargain with the old woman–every summer he escorts Corie to Castle Auburn, where her father’s widow and her half-sister live.

Corie loves her sister Elisandra, and thinks she leads a charmed life. Elisandra has been engaged to the gorgeous Prince Bryan virtually since birth. Even Corie has a tremendous crush on him, but she’s sure that Elisandra and Bryan are meant to be, even if he does flirt a bit. Corie has no illusions about her place in life, and she fully intends to be a witch herself. Everyone at Auburn is certain she will marry a lord of some sort–and it becomes clear that some people have planned for this all along.

Lets see, castles, princes, betrothals, what are we missing? Fairies and death, of course! And we have both in spades! Prince Byran has a food taster. Corie deals in herbs both beneficial and dangerous. And Jaxon knows a fruit that can kill you if you eat too many of the seeds. He’s also a fairy hunter–the aliora are valuable slaves for humans, and Jaxon makes a fortune from it. Part of the aliora magic is to make people feel better, so Corie grows up accepting and loving them without questioning the how or why of their presence, until she reached her teens.

So, yes, it’s a coming of age story for Corie. Shinn does a really excellent job of limiting the book to what Corie perceives. There is a retrospective narrator, but she doesn’t make many ominous pronouncements. Important details are included without judgment, letting the information build slowly over time.

And the One True Pairing(s) STILL confound me! I didn’t see it coming the first time, I didn’t see it coming the second time, and this time I picked up on the same cues and I still can’t see how I should’ve seen it coming!

It’s kind of brilliant.

Obviously, Corie has a crush on Bryan, who is engaged to Elisandra. Elisandra never shows any particular fondness for him. The other two men in the story are awesome. Kent is Bryan’s cousin, next in line for the throne. He is a great friend to Elisandra, and Corie often wonders if there’s more to it. Roderick is a guardsman who’s rising quickly through the ranks, and Corie’s got a crush on him, too. Great selection, no?

I feel that the aliora subplot is a tch underdeveloped, but, again, it’s Corie’s story. They’re a device, and I see them as a device, which means that the device is failing.

But my god I love this book. It’s an old friend. And I am fighting really, really right not to jump straight on to Ella Enchanted. They are similar animals, and also very different.

When Sharon Shinn is on form, she is AMAZING.