The House of The Four Winds (ARC Review)

One Dozen Daughters: The House of The Four Winds | Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory

Published by: Tor Books, August 5th 2014

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, PIRATES!

Pages: 304

Format: Ebook

Source: Tor Books, via Netgalley

Mercedes Lackey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Valdemar series and romantic fantasies like Beauty and the Werewolf and The Fairy Godmother. James Mallory and Lackey have collaborated on six novels. Now, these New York Times and USA Today bestselling collaborators bring romance to the fore with The House of Four Winds.

The rulers of tiny, impoverished Swansgaard have twelve daughters and one son. While the prince’s future is assured, his twelve sisters must find their own fortunes.

Disguising herself as Clarence, a sailor, Princess Clarice intends to work her way to the New World. When the crew rebels, Clarice/Clarence, an expert with rapier and dagger, sides with the handsome navigator, Dominick, and kills the cruel captain.

Dominick leads the now-outlawed crew in search of treasure in the secret pirate haven known as The House of Four Winds. They encounter the sorceress Shamal, who claims Dominick for her own—but Clarice has fallen hard for Dominick and won’t give him up without a fight. 

Full of swashbuckling adventure, buoyant magic, and irrepressible charm, The House of the Four Winds is a lighthearted fantasy romp by a pair of bestselling writers.

Well this was really fun!

I requested The House of The Four Winds because pirates. I am loving pirates at the moment, and I need more books about them, but ordinarily I wouldn't have given a book like this a chance. I didn't quite expect it to be as good as it was. I was a giant moron. (A giant judgey moron)

The House of The Four Winds starts with Clarice, a princess from a small kingdom, having to go out and seek her fortune because her kingdom can't afford dowries for her or her sisters (there are a dozen daughters, money is tight, the baby boy is deemed more important, etc.) Clarice is an awesome swordsman, so she sets off to have swordfighting adventures to make a name for herself. However, she didn't expect to find pirates and conspiracies and an island of magic and slavery.

I LOVED this book. It took me a while to get into it, but once I was in I was hooked. Clarice is an awesome protagonist. She's tough, canny, and dangerous with a sword - everything I love in my fictional ladies. The story itself is awesome as well. There are a few moments where it gets flat, kinda like downtime, but it's filled to the brim with character development and ship life and Dominick.

Dominick is a complete heartthrob. He's honourable, handsome, and courageous. A true sea Captain. I loved seeing his relationship with Clarice (as a male Clarence) grow into friendship and then into love. I also like how Lackey and Mallory totally kept me guessing. I thought he loved Clarence, but I never quite new. It would have been awful for Clarice's feelings not to be reciprocated. But all was well. And my heart went all warm and gooey at the end.

BUT I did have a few problems with it. It's packed full of uncommon words, so much so that at the beginning I was reaching for my dictionary every sentence. It hindered my reading, but I got used to it eventually. It wasn't too bad, but it did bog down the story and a lot of times I felt like a simpler word could have been used (three uncommon words in a sentence, for example, is too far.) But aside from that and a slow beginning, I loved this book.

The House of The Four Winds is full of swashbuckling danger, heart warming romance, and tense secrets. Highly recommend.

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★☆☆

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(from galley:)

"The sea is a thousand roads, and none." 

"And so, the survivors made a castaway's holiday on the deck of their ruined ship and awaited the appearance of the stars, which would truly tell their fate"