River Secrets
River Secrets (The Books of Bayern, #3)by Shannon Hale
Razo has never been anything but ordinary. He's not very fast or tall or strong, so when he's invited to join an elite mission escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern's great enemy, he's sure it's only out of pity. But as Razo finds potential allies among the Tiran, including the beautiful Lady Dasha, he realizes it may be up to him to stop a murderer and get the Bayern army safely home again. (goodreads.com)
I don't think any of these Books of Bayern will live up to the first - Goose Girl. I was so enchanted by that book I was eager to read the others once I discovered that they existed. Last year at Christmas I treated myself to the Bayern box set and I am finally getting to the end of those three books. I didn't enjoy River Secrets as much as GG, but I did like it better than Enna Burning.The good parts of River Secrets were Razo and Dasha. The bad, well, I thought the story wasn't as enchanting, but then again it's about two countries ready to go to war and the egg shells that were being walked on as they learned to live together. I did like the humour in this story, Razo has always been the sort of comic relief guy so it was sort of fun to give him his own story. I was on the edge of "too much of Razo isn't a good thing" the entire time. He never really crossed that line though and I loved watching him develop his self confidence and self esteem.No one ever takes Razo seriously and he often gets over looked, which ends up being to his advantage. What I liked though, was that the Captain of the guard actually listened to Razo and sought his opinion and help in matters. Razo has always been the joke of the story and this made me feel like the character would have more substance and I was right.Razo is probably one of my favourite characters in the world of Bayern. I always like the comic relief and he doesn't take himself seriously therefore making him a much more palatable character than say, Enna. I thought Enna was a whiny self-centered girl. I didn't change my opinion much in this story, though she wasn't the focus and in fact as a side character she was quite flat.I've got one more story to read in the Bayern world and I am about to start it now!Books of Bayern