Dark Moon Defender

The Twelve Houses, Book 3

By: Sharon Shinn

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The Rider Justin is sent to the small town of Neft, so he can spy on the nearby Lumanen Convent, where the Daughters of the Pale Mother reside. He quickly learns that Coralinda Gisseltess, the leader of the Daughters, is indeed persecuting mystics and the people who shelter them.

Even more quickly, he falls in love with Ellynor, one of the convent novices. But the courtship is perilous in the extreme. Not only does Coralinda hate the king and the king's Riders, but Ellynor is from the Lirrenlands, where women are not allowed to take lovers outside of the close-knit clans. If her brothers find out about Justin, they will insist upon a duel to the death...and if Coralinda finds out that Ellynor is a mystic, Ellynor's own life will be instantly at risk.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Sharon Shinn.

House hunting? Download more in The Twelve Houses series.

©2006 Sharon Shinn (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Shinn....paints their journey with a lyrical grace and deep appreciation of camaraderie reminiscent of Diane Duane at her best." (Publishers Weekly)

Nice shift in readers

Book three in this series focuses on Justin and his personal adventures. I found that while I enjoyed the reader of the prior books, having a male voice for Justin's story was perfect. It was wonderful to watch him fall in love and show a soft side to what I envisioned to be a gruff, burly guy who could easily kill a man as cry over a wounded animal.

Great Series Bad Shift in Narrator

Any additional comments?

I really like this series, and I really liked the narrator of the first two books, and was disappointed with the change. This story is wonderful, and the new narrator isn't bad, but it is not the same.

I’m loving this series

I now own all’s of this series. Two more books to go!! The characters are great.

Dark Moon Defender

Love the series. Each character gets a storyline in subsequent books and interacts with the other characters. Worth listening to!

Loving this latest book

I enjoyed every minute of this 3rd book in the saga, the only distraction was the change in readers. The voices didn’t match the characters as they had previously been presented, sorry.

Go Justin!

Loved this book focused on Justin continuing his process of softening those hard edges. Really enjoyed the male narrator, Joe Barrett! Did a fantastic job with the female voices. Ready to hear more about the Reader in the next book.

good story

female characters voices are not the best but the reader overall does a good job

My favorite so far

I don’t agree with other reviewers I felt that this narrator was far better. I loved the story of Justin.

Good book...not so good narrator

I agree with the other reviewers regarding the narration of this book. I am currently listening to the series again. I think the series is a lot of fun, but it would be so much better if all five books had been narrated by the same person. After listening to the first two books you really come to know the characters by their "voices". I found it hard to follow the story in this book at first because I had to re-learn all of the voices again. I agree that the voices for both Kira and Cammon are terrible.

I highly recommend the whole series of five books because of how much fun they are, just be aware there is quite a change after the first two.

Great book with meh narration.

I loved this book, almost as much as the first two. However, the narration left something to be desired. I adored the first two books, and I understand the reason for the switch to a male narrator for this one, but I would rather have listened to Justin's POV narrated by Jennifer Van Dyck. Barrett's female voices were just terrible, and there were changes in the characters' accents from the first two books. I did get used to Donnal sounding Irish, but when Cammon's accent started fluctuating, I got annoyed and took advantage of my WhisperSync instead. If I hadn't already bought Reader and Raelynx on audio (prior to listening to this one), I probably wouldn't have.