The Dream-Maker’s Magic By Sharon Shinn   Release Date: Buy it Today! Viking Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase at Powell’s. Find independent bookstores near you.

When Kellen Carmichael was born, she was a boy. Or at least that is what her mother believes. Her mother swears that through her fever and illness, she still saw her baby for a moment, and that baby was a boy. By the time she got home two weeks later and was recovered enough to care for the baby, she discovered that instead she had a daughter. Kellen has been living with her mother’s delusions ever since. Convinced that her daughter would change back into a son, her mother made her dress as a boy and act like one. While Kellen and everyone around here knew she wasn’t really a boy, Kellen still slipped into the lifestyle to please her mother and keep down the mayhem at home. Even when a Truth-Teller informs her mother that Kellen has always been a girl, her mother will not let go of that glimpse on the birthing bed.

And so Kellen lives a life where she never quite fits in, not accepted as a boy, and too rough for the other girls. When she is finally made to go to school at the age of eleven, she meets another outsider, Gryffin, whose legs were tangled at birth and are of little use to him now without crutches. The two develop a quick friendship, both seeing past how the world views them. This friendship helps Kellen see who she really is, and she meets others who accept her for herself. Life is perfect for a time, as she’s allowed to wear skirts, work at an inn with people who care about her, and be with her best friend Gryffin everyday.

All that changes when the magic of the Dream-Maker chooses Gryffin for its new host, and suddenly Kellen is no longer sure of her place in the world, nor who she might become.

The third book in a loosely connected trilogy by Sharon Shinn, The Dream-Maker’s Magic should be fine to read on its own. In fact, I read the second book, The Truth-Teller’s Tale, before I read the first one, The Safe-Keeper’s Secret. All three books take place in the same kingdom and the major characters of previous books are mentioned or make short appearances in this one, but the tale is wholly centered in this book. The world has an interesting magic in it. Instead of sorcerers or such, the only magic in the world is that of secrets, truths, and dreams. Most people live without much magic in their life, but the Dream-Maker exists to help people’s dreams come true. The Dream-Maker always has a painful past (physically or emotionally), and it seems that the pain makes the magic stronger. They don’t control whose dreams come true, but dreams and hopes are often fulfilled when a Dream-Maker is around. There are also Safe-Keepers and Truth-Tellers, who make larger appearances in the other books, but the Safe-Keepers keep whatever secrets they are told until it is the right time to unveil them, while Truth-Tellers can only tell the truth, though it may not be the truth people want to hear. I love this element of simple magic, and the way all three books focus on village life and the characters involved.

I smiled through this whole book–it’s just so cute and uplifting. Even when the most horrible things happen, when everything seems to be going wrong for Kellen or Gryffin, you just know that this pain will make the rewards at the end all the better. One reason I choose this book right now was that their Christmas, called Wintermoon, plays a large role in the book, and the themes of birth and growth are certainly prominent in this season. Wintermoon is a clever creation of the author, used through all three books, and features a large bonfire that a family makes in their back yard. The people then make wreaths and attach symbolic items that represent their wishes for the next year. Such items might be a gold coin for wealth or fruit for prosperity. Mostly the importance is in what it means to the person hanging the item.

Another element to the books that I love is how realistic all the characters felt to me. I enjoyed their victories and felt disappointed by their downfalls. The characters were captivating and central to the book, moving the story along. Even the minor characters had motivations and backstories, and wove in and out of the story in interesting ways. Also, every character has a part to play in the story, and their part is used throughout the book. A character that appears at the beginning is almost guaranteed to get more story line later, as their life overlaps with that of another. Like the lawyer who overlaps with a young woman staying at the inn who needs to contest her parent’s will. He’s fallen on hard times and needs a way back into the world of the court, and she needs the legal help. Later, after he has made a name for himself, Kellen can call on him when she gets to Wodenberry and her new boss needs similar aid. Like in real life, there is a network of characters, and they help each other out, never knowing who might be able to really make a dream come true.

The issue of gender identity is another theme in the book, with Kellen existing between two very set worlds of “female duties” and “male duties,” while Gryffin cannot act as a traditional male because of the weakness of his legs. Both characters also deal with their place in society and their relationship with each other, and it was nice to see a book where neither of the characters acted quite as stereotypically male or female. I especially liked the fact that Shinn gives good reasoning behind why the characters act outside their normal gender roles, since often in fantasy books the females only take on male qualities because “they don’t like the current social structure.” It also seems like in female-centric YA books, the love interest is often rather stereotypically male–he’s strong, defensive, a fighter, powerful, etc. Gryffin can’t act in a lot of these stereotypical ways, yet he still obviously cares for Kellen and their relationship can still work out.

Ratings Reasons:

Action 2 – While the writing is relatively fast paced, there isn’t really a lot of “plot”. Everything centers around the characters and around Kellen’s struggle to find her identity.

Romance 5 – I loved the relationship in this book. The fact that we see these two characters interacting over five years really helps to establish exactly why they love each other. There were also quite a few side romances in the book.

Characters 5 – Since this is a character-centric book, the characters had better be good, and they are. Everyone is developed, and you feel something for all the different characters. Shinn also makes good use of recurring characters and weaving their stories into Kellen’s.

Overall 5 – This is such a happy book. Horrible things can happen, yet you know that by the end, everyone will get exactly what they deserve. It’s simply a good read that will put a smile on your face. Reading it a second time, I caught a lot of things that I hadn’t been expecting the first time through as little plot threads weave throughout the book, almost invisibly at times.

Extras:

Sharon Shinn has written quite a few adult and young adult fantasy books (and a few Sci-Fi novel), all of which tend to keep the characters and romance at the center of the story. Some have a bit more plot than this one, but in all of her books you can expect to have a smile on your face and meet interesting characters. Romance is almost always predictable, as is the rest of the plot, yet she throws interesting twists into the story so that you don’t always know *how* something is going to happen. The other books that go along with The Dream-Maker’s Magic are The Safe-Keeper’s Secret and The Truth-Teller’s Tale. Her other young adult book is Summers at Castle Auburn, which is a about the bastard daughter of a lord who spends each of her summers at her father’s home, and is a similarly well done character-driven book about a girl’s search for identity in a world she does not really belong in. Shinn’s most famous books are the Samaria novels, which are about angels, and start with Archangel. My roommate read these books and really enjoyed them, despite the fact that she’s not a big fan of fantasy romance. Shinn’s newest books are another trilogy, Mystic and Rider, The Thirteenth House, and Dark Moon Defender.

Finding a website for or about Sharon Shinn is pretty hard. She doesn’t seem to have an official site (except for a pretty blah one put together by Viking), and the only unofficial site I could find doesn’t have any recent updates. Still, the unofficial site at least has information and a list of links to reviews about her past books.

While looking for the non-existent sites about her, I did come across something that’s rather fun to play around with. Literature-Map lets you choose an author or book, and it points out other books/authors that readers of what you choose might like. It’s a fun way to discover new authors to try out.

In the spirit of Christmas, and since I pointed out that the Wintermoon celebration was part of why I chose this book to review right now, I found a great site with Christmas celebrations from around the world. This site also has lots of great information about Winter Solstice celebrations in different religions. Actually, that last link is a pretty interesting website overall, talking about different religions and how similar many are, and also how various religions view many “hot” topics, like gay marriages, stem cell research, and corporal punishment. Fantasy books take from real life, and this site would be a great resource for any fantasy writers out there.

Parents: 13+ There wasn’t really much that might be difficult for the reader to understand, but there is child abuse and discussion of menstruation. I think that a girl older than thirteen will enjoy this book the most, or at least after they have started to hit puberty and are dealing with those issues.

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