The House of the Four Winds

One Dozen Daughters, Book 1

By: Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory

Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times bestselling coauthors, a charming romantic fantasy

Mercedes Lackey is the New York Times best-selling author of the Valdemar series and romantic fantasies like Beauty and the Werewolf and The Fairy Godmother. Now these New York Times and USA Today bestselling collaborators bring romance to the fore with The House of the 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, Princess Clarice intends to sail 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 the 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.

©2014 Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Entertaining

Not a bad story- however I feel like parts of this story were cut short where there should have been more depth.

Can't wait for next in series

The story was good albeit a bit predictable but I really did enjoy the characters and I am looking forward to the next in the series. The narrator can make or break a story and this one makes it. With one of the many annoying voice women narrators or flat voiced men, I may not have liked it near as much. A good listen.

Entertaining voyage

A woman dressed as a thrill seeking swordsman (woman). It's a story that's been done before and we all know the ending but the voyage sure is damn fun! The narrator does such a good job you forget about the reader and just get to enjoy the yarn. What a yarn it is sorcerers, ghost ships, treasure maps, sword fights, and secrets lots and lots of secrets.

Great fantasy, a bit predictable

Very good narration. Just felt the story was going to be longer, and found the ending incomplete. A bit predictable. Love the characters, names and magic of it.

a great pirate story without the gory details

A great read, and listen, Mercedes Lackey always write a great tale. Can't wait for the next book in this series to come out.

Adventure of the oldest sister

Would you listen to The House of the Four Winds again? Why?

yes, I enjoyed the plot and the different voices

What other book might you compare The House of the Four Winds to and why?

Any book by Mercedes Lackey. Her story characters show wit and stredngth.

What about Emily Sutton-Smith’s performance did you like?

Her different voices especially the villianess.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The final battle, it made me cheer.

Any additional comments?

no

Loved this book

I am always looking for books that will capture both mine and my 13 yr old son's attention and this was it.

Ready for the next installation in this series!

An engaging tale with a good plot line. Glimpses of the character's pasts and snippets of conversation leave me wanting to know more about other characters! I enjoy a story more when the narrator gives different pitch and voice to various characters which was well done here.

Promising but disappointed

I was expecting so much more in this promising start of a series, that never happened. Mercedes Lackey is a fine writer, yet I only discovered this many years after publication. I enjoyed the opening and much later on the ending. It just didn't live up to expectations, and I was never very interested in the maritime-centric activity.

Solid story, but this one is popcorn

This series has an amazing potential for diversity, which is both its greatest strength and its biggest flaw, but more on this later.

Basically, it appears that each book in the series will deal with one individual of the twelve royal daughters of a small pocket country. The overall setting is at its core our world in the early 1700s, but magic, called thaumaturgy, is recognized as a natural science. This first book focuses on Clarice, the eldest of the Dozen Daughters, who accepts her parents' offer of training in any occupation by choosing to become a swordmaster. The fundamental difficulty of this path is that she must first seek adventure, making a name for herself, to attract students to the school she will eventually open. Thus she goes to the new world, runs afoul of many pirates and an evil sorceress, and ends up falling in love in an entirely predictable fashion.

There is serious foreshadowing of future books in her description of her sisters. This represents the strength of the series, since no two books will be describing similar personalities. Unfortunately, this is also the greatest weakness. I actually want another Clarice book or two more than I want the story of any of the other sisters. On the other hand, there is no reason in the current publishing environment for one or more of the sisters to be granted a full trilogy. In my mind, this may be the best course for the series.

If you enjoy "The Fire Rose" or the Five Hundred Kingdoms books, you will find this book highly addictive. It is nothing special but to quote The Fire Rose, sometimes you're in the mood for an extremely sweet confection.