Forest Born

Rin is the youngest and most beloved child of her Ma. To Ma, for the most part she could do no wrong, but one day, Rin was talking to one of her young nieces and started demanding things of the girl. The young girl had no choice but to comply and that made her cry. Uncertain as to why she was demanding things of this girl, Rin feels even worse when Ma came home to find her demanding things and scolded her. This made her feel terrible and Rin did the one thing she knew she could do, she went to the trees, and hugged one until she could feel the tree's calm flowing into her soul. Rin never spoke of this to anyone, but she carried it on her inside, never knowing what any of it meant, but knowing one thing for sure, she wasn't a very nice person and she could never let the demanding part of her demand things from others again. As she grew older, Rin grew more and more uncomfortable in her forest home, to the point that she started running every day just to get away from the uncomfortable feeling. When her brother Razo and his girlfriend, Dasha, come for a visit they sense that Rin needs a change and convince her to return to the city with them, where Rin can be a ladies maid for the Queen and maybe retrieve some peace for her soul. But life in the city isn't going to be all roses, as Rin finds out soon enough, will she be able to find her peace anyway?

 Shannon Hale is one of my very favorite authors! Her books are so great, I love her characters, the female ones are such strong, amazing women. They seem able to conquer any foe. I love that they are clean, I never have to worry about what my daughter is reading when she's reading a Shannon Hale book, even if I've never read it myself. I can't say that this book was the favorite of the ones that I've read, but I enjoyed the story line. You can read this one as a stand alone book, but it's actually the last of The Books of Bayern and some of the things that are talked about would have made more sense if I'd read the books in order. 

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