Friday, May 08, 2009

Forest Born


Hale, Shannon. 2009. Forest Born. (#4 in the Bayern Series) Bloomsbury. 400 pages.

Ma had six sons.

The Bayern series is a fun fantasy series by Shannon Hale. The other books in the series include Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and River Secrets. While each book has a different narrator, they all are set in the same fantasy world--Bayern--and share common themes of young people discovering that they possess magical gifts that connect them with nature and each other. Our heroine in Forest Born is a young girl, Rinna, sister to Razo. As the title hints, Rin is forest born. She loves her home. Loves her family. Loves the trees surrounding her home. Loves communing with the trees. Being near trees--or better yet up in them--gives Rinna inner-peace and serinity. But now that Rinna is getting to be all grown up, and after her first disappointment with love, she's ready for a change. She's ready to embark on her own adventure. She's off with Razo to see how he lives, to meet his friends, and to obtain a place within the household--one of the waiting ladies to the Queen, Isi. But that wouldn't be much of an adventure if Rinna just stayed at the palace would it?

I won't spoil this one for you. Much adventure and danger is to be had. Kingdoms are in peril. (Let's just say that an old enemy resurfaces.) Forest Born is a good fantasy novel (without much romance to it) with a universal theme. Rinna is coming-of-age and she's at the point where she's just beginning to write her own story, to discover who she is and what she wants and needs.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a lovely book... L.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, I'm jealous. Love these books. And I felt like they just got better - Enna Burning was such a thoughful, exciting story.

Debi said...

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! Of course, I still need to read River Secrets...

Confuzzled Shannon said...

I am still on Goose Girl. I love it I just have to find time to listen to it.

Shelley said...

So jealous!!! I'm anxiously awaiting September.

Kailana said...

I am looking forward to this book. I have to read River Secrets first, though. I think I can have that done by September, though!

DesLily said...

I've only read goose girl.. i might have to get more in this series..hmmm.. you are such a bad influence! lol

Ana S. said...

I've been anxiously awaiting your review of this! It sounds like something I'll love as much as the rest of the series :)

Danielle said...

I won an ARC of this off Shannon's blog, so I've read it too :)

And goodness, it's going to be difficult to keep all the spoilers a secret, eh?!

Gavin said...

A new book by Shannon Hale! How exciting. Thanks for the review.

Zibilee said...

This looks like something I would really like. I will have to look into this series. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention!

Anonymous said...

:( I have to wait much longer to read this book, I live in the Netherlands. Grr. :( :(
And the translation will be in 2 jears, Omg, hate it!
I'm going to read it in english!
( I hope i will understand it, my english is soo bad xD)

alyssa7bob said...

I'm so excited for Forest Born to come out! I've read the series about 3 times each and loved it more each time!