I continue to read this series because I'm interested in the overall storyline and how it's going to resolve, but the prose and repeating sentence structure tends to feel repetitive. Once you notice it, it's hard to unsee and it tends to pull me out of the narrative. ( )

When one of the fief lords lets a Barrani carrying Shadow cross into Elantra from his fief, the Hawklord assigns Kaylin and Severn to do a survey of the fiefs to make sure their borders aren't letting other Shadows through.

Bellusdeo, the only female dragon and a survivor of a world Shadow overwhelmed, is Kaylin's friend and decides to go along. As they are exploring the borderlands they discover an ancient sentient building which was once the Academie which was a major center of learning before the towers were built and the war against Shadow began. But the same fief lord who let Shadow through is trying to take over the Academie and add to his store of power.

Kaylin and her companions including Bellusdeo, the Cohort, and the Arkon who was once a student at that Academie need to find a way to oust the evil fief lord and restore the Academie to health and utility.

This is an excellent entry into the Chronicles of Elantra series filled with complex situations, danger and adventure. Kaylin is a character to root for. The world building is extensive and intriguing. ( )

A pleasing new episode in the Chronicles of Elantra.

Over the last three volumes the pace has picked up with the books covering only a few days; this one, functionally, covers two (with done trailing bits after the resolution adding to elapsed time). Thematically, it's a sibling to its predecessor, part of a general process of restoration of what has fallen into decay. (It's remarkable how inherently conservative this setting is: making things better usually amounts to restoring the old rather than instituting the new perhaps a foregone conclusion where the powers to f the Ancients were do much greater than those of the moderns.

As always, the characters are engaging, the unfolding details reflect acute worldbuilding, and the plot closure is satisfying ( )

Towers, Fiefs and Borderlands. A puzzle!

Once again Kaylin Neya is tasked by the Hawklord to investigate problems occurring in and around the fiefs, along with Bellusdeo and Severn. Shadow is the fear.
This time it's the Borderlands, those spaces on the edge of and between the fiefs. These areas exist "around a central Tower, and the Towers were created to stand sentinel against the fief of Ravellon—the only fief that had neither Tower nor lord... Ravellon was the home of the most dangerous of the Shadows."
Reality doesn't hold in the same way in the Borderlands and shifts of time and location can occur. “The border zone wasn’t solid."
The threat of Shadow to the whole of Elantra is real and the Borderlands might be harboring it. The Dragon Bellusdeo wants to investigate, as does the Dragon Emperor.
Magic follows different rules in these areas. People have disappeared and as the group's search unfolds this becomes a dominating factor. Speculation gives rise to the idea that that the outcaste fief lord of Candallar is involved.
The cohort is still as troubling as always and yet their peculiarities are helpful as Kaylin, her familiar Hope and her companions unwittingly enter into strange places in the Borderlands. What they find is the Acadamia which is not anchored, causing the group giant headaches as they step into what becomes dangerous situations. The Dragon Lord Arkon, a seeker of knowledge, recalls the Academia. It was "a great school, that once existed just outside of the heart of Ravellon." A place where all groups could learn and study. A wellspring of scholarship. A place of nostalgic interest and memories for Arkon.
Now Kaylin as The Chosen will become part of Acadamia's problems and solution.
In some ways anticlimactic in relation to the whole series, and yet the ending was just so fitting!

A Harlequin / Mira ARC via NetGalley ( )