Ratings2
Average rating2.5
As the national bestselling Shifting Circle series continues, a woman must choose between hiding her nature—and risking her heart... For Karadel, being a shape-shifter has always been a reality she couldn’t escape. Even though she’s built a safe life as a rural veterinarian, with a close-knit network of shifter and human friends who would do anything for her, she can’t help but wish for a chance at being normal. When she’s not dealing with her shifts or caring for her animal patients, she attempts to develop a drug that will help shifters control their changes—a drug that might even allow them to remain human forever. But her comfortable life is threatened by two events: She meets an ordinary man who touches her heart, and her best friend is forced to shift publicly with deadly consequences. Now Karadel must decide whom to trust: her old friends or her new love.
Featured Series
3 primary booksShifting Circle is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Sharon Shinn.
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Three books into Sharon Shinn's shapeshifter series and I am meh about the whole thing. While The Turning Season isn't the train wreck that the first book Shape of Desire was, it is not anywhere close to my favorite book by the author either. Shinn is gifted at world-building, whether it's the unique role of the angels in the Samaria series, or the gifts bestowed on the characters in Troubled Waters and its sequel Royal Airs. Shinn is competent but not remarkable at characterization and dialogue. So I found The Turning Season to be enjoyable but slow, with very little action until the last fifty pages. The heroine, Karadel, was resourceful and compassionate. I liked the fact that she didn't pine away for either of the men who expressed interest in her, but I didn't believe that she felt much passion for them either.
As I've noted in previous reviews of this series, I appreciate the fact that Shinn portrays shapeshifters as something besides the uber-strong sexy alpha gods and goddesses that populate many romance novels. These shapeshifters don't always have control over their transformations, and life for them is short and dangerous. But that's not enough to hang an entire series on when the setting is so bland. I hope Shinn returns to her fantasy worlds and leaves this one behind.