Fortune and Fate

It's possible I got old between the other Twelve Houses books and this. I remember the Twelve Houses as charming old-school fantasy novels with great character growth and setting development. Fortune and Fate feels like a fanfic of that: Wen is a character who has been totally present all along, don't you remember she was Justin's BFF? And the Queen loves her so much she won't replace her even though she went missing? So, since she's totally a central character we know and love, here's her story, with ample name-dropping of the (actual) main characters and a side plot about the actual main characters that's completely unrelated. So, yeah, as a Gillengaria novel this fails – and there are more loose threads than I could handle on that end: “there's so much more crime in the Southern lands than there has been, let's investigate.” That ended up being completely dropped. “What if people aren't still loyal to the queen?” Oh well, everyone loves Cammon, so should be fine.

On the other hand, Wen's story was sweet, if predictable. There's room in my life for a cozy old-school fantasy about female warriors.

*3.5 STARS