Kathy * Bookworm Nation's Reviews > Summers at Castle Auburn

This is a wonderful story of a girl named Corie. Corie is the illegitimate daughter of a lord. After he passes away her uncle Jaxon decides to take care of her. He works out an agreement with her grandmother that she will spend the summer at Castle Auburn and the rest of the year with her grandmother learning “witchcraft” (really, she is just a healer). Most of the story takes place at the castle though, where her “grooming” takes place in hopes that she will have a politically placed marriage. It almost has a feel of The Bachelorette, at the beginning of the story there are a few different men that might end up being “the one”. The book was beautifully written and very easy to get into. The story was great and I was happy to have found it. If you enjoyed The Goose Girl or Seer and the Sword then you will like this book.

Updated 04/30/10
I love our heroine Corie (Coriel), she starts off as a young naïve fourteen year-old, but is also very kind and adventurous. As she grows older she starts to see her world in a different light, seeing people she’s known her whole life for who they really are. She spends the majority of the year with her grandmother in a small village learning “witchcraft” (just medicine really) and her summers at Castle Auburn, with her half sister Elisandra. I loved the relationship between the two sisters. Regardless of their backgrounds they deeply cared for one another. I also really liked Corie’s love interest (LI) and my only complaint was that I wanted MORE time between them, especially near the very end. Her LI was very likable, for me from the beginning. He was a great friend to Corie throughout the book, and you could tell that he was totally crazy about her. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if they would ever end up together.

Aside from the main characters, the story was also very entertaining. I liked the plot and you never really know what was going to happen next. There were some twists near the end that were exciting and while I was very happy with how everything ended up, I wasn’t ready for the story to end. The story ends well, but I would love it if Shinn set a new novel in Auburn.