From Publishers Weekly
The latest enchantment from Crawford Award winner Shinn (The Shape Changer's Wife and the Samaria trilogy) combines romantic spice, a dash of faerie and a pinch of intrigue to create a hybrid souffl‚ that is delicious, if not filling. Lowborn Corie, the impressionable young heroine, spends her summers with her highborn sister, Elisandra, at Castle Auburn and the rest of the year in a village apprenticed to a "wise woman" witch/herbalist called Grandmother. Corie accompanies her Uncle Jaxon on a hunt for the Aliora, faerielike creatures who serve as unwilling slaves to the humans inhabiting this quasi-medieval world. Also along for the ride is Elisandra's future husband, Prince Bryan of Auburn, a vain 16-year-old adored by most girls (including Corie) and loathed by most men. As Corie ages, she gets over her crush on the increasingly narcissistic and self-indulgent young prince. The relationship between the sisters deepens along with the plot lines revolving around Jaxon's obsession with the Aliora and their queen, Rowena, whose flickering presence suggests other, darker story lines that Shinn might have investigated to produce a less predictable confection. The love story between the hunter and the hunted is more electrifying than the sisters' romances. What makes Bryan change is never explored fully, just as his constant bad-boy image is never explained. While the story moves quickly in Shinn's seasoned hands, her fans may be left hungry for more substantive fare. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As the illegitimate daughter of a royal lord, young Corie has the best of two worlds. She spends idyllic summers at Castle Auburn, home of her father's family, and the rest of the year with her maternal grandmother, learning the healer's craft. At the castle, Corie is groomed by her uncle for an eventual political alliance through marriage, though she is too dazzled by her handsome cousin Bryan, heir to the throne, to notice. As the summers pass, however, Bryan shows his true colors. The brash, arrogant youth matures into a cruel and self-centered man; a man unfit to be king, some say. At the same time, Corie's eyes open to the misery of the magical aliora, whom she loves, but who are hunted for sport and enslaved by the nobility. Thus, at 17, amid a hotbed of family and political unrest, Corie comes of age, risking all that she loves for what she believes in her heart to be right. Her choices, and the woman she becomes, will change Castle Auburn forever. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
If you like fairy tale-type fantasies, you owe it to yourself to read Sharon Shinn's Summers at Castle Auburn. The story centers around Coriel, a na￯﾿ﾽve bastard child with noble bloodlines who spends most of the year learning about herbs and potions while living with her grandmother, a hedge witch, in a country cottage. Her summers are spent with her half-sister Elisandra at Castle Auburn.

Life at the castle is idyllic for the two young girls. Coriel's days are filled with horseback riding, playing with her sister, dressing up in beautiful gowns and flirting with boys. Coriel even gets to go on an extended "hunting party" with her uncle Jaxon and a group of young men. The expedition is to the Faelyn River to hunt for aliora, which are fairy-like creatures with strange powers. The hunting party doesn't capture any aliora, but Coriel does witness a strange, secret meeting between her uncle and a beautiful aliora named Rowena.

As Coriel and Elisandra get older, the sad realities of noble life become more intensified. Elisandra, it seems, is to be married to Prince Byran, an egotistical womanizer who loves hunting wildlife -- including the harmless aliora. And Coriel realizes that she has been groomed for the exact same fate. She is a pawn to be married off to nobility.

Reading this book was an absolute joy. Shinn has not only created an intriguing world of wild contrasts, but also a handful of characters that you can't help but root for. And, as usual with fairy tales, the ending is a happy one -- although I'll guarantee that you'll be just as surprised as I was when I read the last chapter. This is a great book for fantasy fans of all ages, but considering the age of the protagonist and her ordeals, I think it's a perfect book for teenage girls. (Paul Goat Allen)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

As a child, Coriel Halsing spent many glorious summers at Castle Auburn with her half-sister-and fell in love with a handsome prince who could never be hers. But now that she is a young woman, she begins to see the dark side of this magical place...

The most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley. (Peter S. Beagle)

Taut, inventive, often mesmerizing. (Kirkus Reviews)

Provocative...I was truly, deeply delighted. (Anne McCaffrey)

Author Bio: Sharon Shinn won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer and was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The latest enchantment from Crawford Award winner Shinn (The Shape Changer's Wife and the Samaria trilogy) combines romantic spice, a dash of faerie and a pinch of intrigue to create a hybrid souffl that is delicious, if not filling. Lowborn Corie, the impressionable young heroine, spends her summers with her highborn sister, Elisandra, at Castle Auburn and the rest of the year in a village apprenticed to a "wise woman" witch/herbalist called Grandmother. Corie accompanies her Uncle Jaxon on a hunt for the Aliora, faerielike creatures who serve as unwilling slaves to the humans inhabiting this quasi-medieval world. Also along for the ride is Elisandra's future husband, Prince Bryan of Auburn, a vain 16-year-old adored by most girls (including Corie) and loathed by most men. As Corie ages, she gets over her crush on the increasingly narcissistic and self-indulgent young prince. The relationship between the sisters deepens along with the plot lines revolving around Jaxon's obsession with the Aliora and their queen, Rowena, whose flickering presence suggests other, darker story lines that Shinn might have investigated to produce a less predictable confection. The love story between the hunter and the hunted is more electrifying than the sisters' romances. What makes Bryan change is never explored fully, just as his constant bad-boy image is never explained. While the story moves quickly in Shinn's seasoned hands, her fans may be left hungry for more substantive fare. (Apr. 10) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA

This fabulous romantic fantasy is far more romance, or perhaps fairy tale, than fantasy but should please fans of all three genres. The illegitimate daughter of a Halsing lord, Coriel spends her summers at the royal place with her half sister, the betrothed of the crown prince, and a wide range of royals, commoners, and aliora slaves—a fairylike race with empathic magic. Coriel spends the remainder of each year in the country, far from palace intrigues, learning herbal magic from her grandmother. During the four years of this novel, Coriel grows in her understanding of magic, politics, people, and love. Eventually all will be resolved in this extended fairy tale, with the princesses and slaves finding freedom and Coriel acquiring wisdom far beyond the knowledge of herbs. This book is basic enough to read to younger children, if only they would sit still for the whole tale. The romance, however, is tantalizing enough to appease most serial romance fans. The fantasy is subtle, with the aliora and the acceptance of herbal magics the only characteristics that distinguish this volume from a medieval romance. It is enough, though, to keep fantasy fans from fearing that they are reading such a romance in disguise. Shinn lives up to her status as an award-winning author capable of making the real world disappear within the pages of her tale. Summers is recommended for all libraries where teens are reading romance serials, romantic fantasy, historical fiction, or pure fantasy. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2001, Ace, 355p, $14.95 Trade pb. Ages 12 to Adult. Reviewer: Beth Karpas SOURCE: VOYA, August 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 3)

KLIATT