This book is a sequel to Mystic and Rider, which was a pretty fun read. This reminds me why I've enjoyed having my own personal massive library for so long. Books in a series end up getting put in the library, and when new one comes out, I can re-read the earlier ones to get back up to speed before I start the fresh novel. Unfortunately, this novel had no "what has gone before" section, so I was wondering throughout just who all these peeps were. Despite that, it was a fun novel. We have a kingdom with a young female heir, and everyone is involved in political maneuvering to be ready for the old king to die, so they can grab all the power possible. The king has appointed a regent, and the beginning of the story is about his rescue from kidnappers by a group of mystics and a king's rider (see previous title). This group is more or less protegees of the earlier group, but they seem to work well together, in this and other escapades throughout.
Nothing really earth-shattering happens, as far as the entire kingdom is concerned, in this sequel to M&R, but we discover more information about the powers of the mystics, some of the factional struggles become clearer, and there's an awful lot of schemes and assassination attempts made on the regent and the princess, which are thwarted quite nicely by our little group.
So, it's a bit of mindless entertainment, which is not exactly what we've come to expect from Shinn. She always tells a good story, but usually there's some sort of deeper meaning and more poignant internal struggles for her characters. Read the first one in the series, then this one, and you'll be amused for an evening or two. Or, you can wait till the series is complete and do them all in one fell swoop.
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