This Fifth Installment of the Twelve Houses series has turned out to be my favourite, though I loved Books 1-4 before. This book, this book .... It was the perfect read for me: I loved every page. I wanted to finish it in one reading and yet I kept stopping so that I didn't finish. :) It ended too soon anyway.It was actually a makeover story and I am a sucker for makeover stories.Former King's Rider Wen, leaving Ghosenhall after King Baryn's death and trying to deal with her demons (survivor's g...

I think this is my favorite of all the books in the Twelve Houses series, which is unfortunate because I had to slog my way through several I didn't much enjoy to get to it. Fortune and Fate nicely inverts several of the usual romance genre tropes -- instead of the hero being a brooding ball of angst over a mistake in his past, here the heroine suffers from some pretty serious survivor's guilt. Additionally, it is the hero who is the nurturing, empathetic one, who waits for the heroine to get he...

I am a huge Sharon Shinn fan. Archangel is one of my very favorite comfort reads and so is Mystic and Rider--the first in Shinn's Twelve Houses series. Her characters become friends so quickly I forget what life was like before I read them. That's why the Twelve Houses series is so much fun. It follows a disparate group of six travelers who, despite differences of rank, temperament, and fundamental beliefs, become first allies and later friends. Shinn tracks this six of them through four book...

Awesome end to a great series! These are Adult fantasy, adventure, romance books that are fun, fast paced and an all around great read! These are some of my go to reread books when I just want something I know I love and want to just enjoy. Read the whole series many times. Another good one is the Truth series by Dawn Cook

I've liked Shinn's books in the past, for the most part. Some more than others, of course. But this one felt like she just wasn't ready to let the world go. I can understand that. So often, fantasy stories end with the huge conflict. There is no sense of what comes later; the rebuild, reassembling of lives, fortunes and nations. This novel does do that a bit, which is interesting.But. You can call me a prude (and you wouldn't be the first, and you won't be the last), this trend of increasing the...

I wasn’t sure if reading this book would be worth my time since it didn’t follow one of the main 6 but I am so glad I read it! Wen’s story was so good and we still get to have a reunion with our old friends and hear what life is like in Gillengaria two years after the war! I really enjoyed it and think it is worth the read!

This is one of my favorite fantasy novels. I love it and have read it at least three times. The protagonist Wen is on the run from her private demons. Two years ago, she was a King’s Rider, a respected member of the elite palace guard, until a disaster struck: during her watch, the king was assassinated. Despite being gravely wounded while protecting the king, Wen feels that she had failed in her duty. Afflicted by the survivor’s guilt, she abandoned the Riders and her own self-respect. Now, she...

This is the last book of Twelve Houses series by Shinn sensei and I am so sad my adventure with all the characters has ended. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.The audible version of this book has an introduction by Shinn sensei in which she states that this is actually one story made into separate books. I didn't appreciate what she said until I've read all the books in the series.I thought in first book the characters and the plot weren't developed as much as her other books. I am sorry and

For some reason, although I have some really good and expected new books and manga around, I really needed a comfort re-read this week and Fortune and Fate really fit the bill.The Donato Giancola cover looks a lot like I would imagine Willa/Wen to look like, although you really need to ignore the way she draws the sword ^^.Except for the first Twelve Houses volume this is my favourite of the books in the series - I like Senneth and Tayse's love story best - because it happens after all the big r...

Wen has cut herself off from everything she ever knew and resigned herself to wandering and performing acts of kindness for strangers as penance for the sin she feels she has committed. However, a chance encounter lands in a situation that could really use her unique skills, but is Wen herself ready for the feelings and issues from her past the situation will force her to face?I am currently experiencing a number of feelings brought on by this book and I don't think I am dealing too well. First

Sigh. I guess I went into Fortune and Fate with high expectations, and was kind of disappointed. While I was reading Reader and Raelynx I knew that Wen would be the main character of Fortune and Fate, so I tried to pay a little more attention to her in R&R, and was kind of curious to see what her story would hold. This story picks up two years after the final war in R&R, following Wen on her journey of self-discovery. She has passed her time saving anyone she comes across on her aimless travels....

I've been a fan of Shinn for a while now, but she definitely has this habit of staying where she's comfortable, and, as a result, she usually ends up grinding each of her long-running series into the ground. She did it with the Samaria books, and now she's done it with the Tweleve Houses. Fortune and Fate departs from the "original crew" of characters that forged the bonds of friendship in Mystic and Rider (because all their stories have already been resolved with true love and marriage) and for...

This book is my favourite of the series despite having much less political and kingdom wide goings on. I loved the story of Wen, hurting and healing, and I fell in love with Fortune and all it's inhabitants. This was very character driven, but at times I wished the other 6 characters from the series would bugger off so we could get back to Wen and Jasper. I truly get why other people call this the weakest in the series. To me, it has a quiet sneak up-on-you charm.

It's possible I got old between the other Twelve Houses books and this. I remember the Twelve Houses as charming old-school fantasy novels with great character growth and setting development. Fortune and Fate feels like a fanfic of that: Wen is a character who has been totally present all along, don't you remember she was Justin's BFF? And the Queen loves her so much she won't replace her even though she went missing? So, since she's totally a central character we know and love, here's her story...

At first I didn't like this one because it wasn't about one of the main characters. But as I got into it it has become my second favorite, just a smidgen behind Reader (#4). It's a beautiful story of redemption and love.

I don't know what makes Sharon Shinn's stories so compelling. The plot could probably be resumed in three phrases and the romantic development is so lacking in drama the book barely deserves the "romantic novel" title. And yet, I kept coming back to "Fortune and Fate" and I finished it in less than four days...

I just started listening to my new audiobook of Mystic and Rider, the first book in this series. It included a brief introduction by Sharon Shinn herself, in which she states that she conceived of this five-book series as a single story, and that the central theme is friendship. This description fits the feeling I got as I read the series’ final volume, Fortune and Fate. After being disappointed twice by Shinn’s other work (Heart of Gold and Wrapt in Crystal), it feels so good to fall back in lo...

This was my least favorite of the Twelve Houses books. I re-read the previous four leading up to this, and when placed back to back like that their similarities began to wear on me. Four romances with class distinctions as their primary conflict got tiresome, especially when so few people actually seemed to care about the class issue in any other setting. Perhaps it is true, what the British say, that Americans simply do not understand class the way people with a history of an aristocracy do --

I'm a little shocked that I didn't like this novel. Normally, I love Shinn and I think she's a great fantasy writer. Ultimately, I think that this novel failed for me because the main character, Wen, just didn't have a very compelling "demon" chasing after her. She didn't die protecting the king? So what? Neither did many of her fellow riders, but she still seems to respect them... The simplicity of her self-torture simply makes Wen appear childish. In addition to that, her interaction with the

Sharon Shinn is always a good storyteller, but it seems that she has eeked every bit of creativity she can out of her Twelve Houses series/Gillengaria world. As the fifth book in the series, we have seen it all before. The book has two subplots woven together: Wen, the de-moralized King's Rider struggles to find inner peace after failing in her duty to King Baryn in the last novel. Meanwhile, the original cast of six from the previous four books travel on a tour of the southern houses to drum up...

This latest book from Sharon Shinn in her Twelve Houses series tells the tale of Wen, A king's Rider who did not die when her liege was killed and leaves the Riders to help other people in need. She aids Katyrn, the seremarra of one of the portions of the kingdom that was in revolt. Later she rescues Bryce and his sister. Bryce, who is ten is a reader and Wen decides that his talent can be of use to Kathryn's holding. Wen is eventually hired by the Guardian of Kathryn, to head the household guar...

God. I loved it. Loved loved loved it. Loved this unusual pairing. I wanted something a bit *more* from Jasper, but I loved him nonetheless. Loved Karryn's transformation, Wen's capabilities, and Jasper's background. (older, lit-nerdy widower with a grown daughter and minimal interest in regency, but does it anyway cause he's cool). That dancing scene in the hall, yum. The last few pages, yum. Lots to like, some things I didn't: Senneth's character was uncharacteristically petulant, Tayse could'...

This book was my favorite of the series, although it concentrates more on the story of Wen, a former Kings Rider who was unable to save her King from Assassination. Despite her near fatal wounds, she suffers survivors remorse and wanders the kingdom with a guilt she can't shake, seeking people she can help to save. Thus it is in Fortune, with the band of people Wen has saved and how she comes to finding acceptance and love in Jasper and more importantly acceptance of herself. I can truly say tha...

I felt that the series really ended with Reader and Raelynx. I felt that book had the big climax and the danger in this book was more trite. I didn't really care about Wen and had not connected to her in the other books. I always enjoy hearing about the main six characters but I felt that they were just added in to give them something to do. The conflict was not really there.

Skimmed, heavily skimmed through Wen's portions. Mostly read to learn about what was happening with the original 6. While good to know, it didn't satiate my need to the continuation of their story and I should have just left myself with the ending in book 4.

The series should have ended with the fourth book.

SPOILER ALERT. Continuing on my Shinn binge, had to finish the series! I wondered what the fifth book could bring, aside from perhaps Donal's pov, which sadly we never get because he's all about Kirra. This series has been a matter of a disparate band of people on the King's mission, and the partners they picked up in the process of saving the Kingdom. Senneth seemed to be the main pov in the first novel, and it was she who liberated themystic Cammon who made the sixth partner of the sextet, but...

Here's another audio-book-while-working re-read for 2001...Fortune and Fate is easily my favorite book in the novels of the Twelve Houses, which amuses me greatly because when I first learned it was going to be written, I was annoyed. The story is done! The protagonist is something we didn't even learn about until the fourth book of the series! Grawr!So I remember going in hesitantly and finding myself immediately in love with Wen and her brokenness, and then being flummoxed and delighted by Jas...

3.5? Not sure how to rate this one but I did enjoy it, though I read it unconventionally and see a few places Shinn could have elaborated more on. To be honest, I didn't really like how the book was formatted but I do get it. The issue is how the skip between Wen's story and Senneth's group was set up; because by the time Shinn reintroduced Senneth's group, I was already invested in Wen's story so I found it jaunting and a bit annoying. If it skipped POV earlier, I would have accepted it more re...

In my opinion, this was the weakest of the Twelve Houses series. My personality did not connect with Wen at all so the book was not as enjoyable as the first three. Book 1, 2, and 3 are definite favorites that I will read over and over. Book 4 is in the middle. Here is why. Fortune and Fate was very well written and had great development of characters. However, nothing really happened in this book. There wasn't a lot of action. The first three books are full of action, romance, and adventure. Th...