Summers at Castle Auburn

By: Sharon Shinn

Narrated by: Gabrielle Baker

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

As a child, Coriel Halsing spent many glorious summers at Castle Auburn with her half-sister - and fell in love with a handsome prince who could never be hers. But now that she is a young woman, she begins to see the dark side of this magical place....

©2001 Sharon Shinn (P)2018 Tantor

You cant listen to 'some" of the book !

if you don't follow this book throught to the end you will miss EVERYTHING that is truly great about it. I do NOT want to give everything away but all the detail, the charater introductions the little side storys and daily goings on -- its all setting you up. It pays OFF. yes, only a few hours in you are still hearing about Cories daily life, and her sister and the Alioria and this and that and you will start to see subtle changes month by month and year by year in her life at court and the tides that turn around her. The pay off is Big, its worth the wait.

Wonderful, so wonderful.

This is a wonderful coming-of-age kingdom fantasy story. I really tried to savor it and listen to it slowly, in small chunks here and there, because it was truly marvelous and I wanted to drag it out as long as I could. The story follows Corie, the female lead, over several years as she spends her summers at the castle with her sister and other family members. She spends the rest of the year with her grandmother back in her small village cottage, learning herbs and potions. As we see her growth over the summers at the castle, we see Corie transform from a young girl with a wide-open, trusting, ideal view of the world around her and everyone in it...to an older young woman who sees the world as imperfect, just like the people in it. It is heartbreaking for her to learn that people she has idolized actually have flaws and it is also hard to witness a few things that happen in the story, but overall the growth of Corie and the rest of the cast is wonderful and true, and it makes for the most wonderful of slow-burn tales. The way everything ends is SO GOOD, I just couldn't believe it. I thought I knew how it would all end, but I was so wrong! I can absolutely 100% see myself returning to this one in the future for a re-listen (probably multiple times) because I loved it so much. It was my first Sharon Shinn title but I can't wait to listen to another one and I highly recommend Summers at Castle Auburn to other fans of high fantasy or kingdom fantasy. It was so, so good.

Solid fantasy mystery, feels a bit dated.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on audiobook from audible.com.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): This was a good quality audiobook. The narration was pleasant to listen to and did a decent job with character voices. No complaints.

Story (4/5): This was a bit slow moving and much more of a traditional YA fantasy. This book slowly unravels as more and more secrets behind Castle Auburn's politics are revealed. It was well put together but definitely more of a deliberately paced book. The target audience is teen girls and this definitely has a "princess book" kind of vibe to it. However it deals with more serious themes too, such as slavery and finding ones own path through life. A lot of the story also focuses on Coriel’s obsession with the Prince and then the unveiling of the Prince’s true character.

Characters (4/5): I didn’t enjoy Coriel (our main character) all that much; she just comes across as very naive and oblivious. This lack of observation of the things around her makes her seem a bit selfish as well. Then as the story continues some of the things she does doesn’t match up with her character. I thought her half-sister, Elisandra, and the Prince’s friend, Kent, as well as some of the other side characters were much more intriguing. These side characters were well done and very complex and I enjoyed trying to figure out their motives.

Setting (4/5): This was a classic fantasy type of setting. It’s made slightly more complex because Castle Auburn is located on the border of the kingdom of Aliora. The Aliora are fey-like creatures that the humans have been capturing and enslaving. This whole unlying theme of slavery adds an interesting tone to the book. Outside of a brief glimpse of Aliora, we spend most of our time either in Castle Auburn or in the village that Coriel spends her spring/fall/winter time in.

Writing Style (4/5): This is beautifully written with amazing descriptions and well done dialogue. It has a very classic YA fantasy style to it. It moves slower and very deliberately builds the plot around the Alioran race, Coriel’s coming of age, and the Prince’s evil deeds. The story takes place over the span of many years. This will probably appeal more to a MG or YA audience because it has that “princess” type of plot to it and Corie comes across as very young for her age at times. As I said it is beautifully written and the plot is intricately woven, making it a very solid fantasy. It just feels kind of dated, like a fantasy written in the 80’s or 90’s to me.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I am glad I listened to this and ended up enjoying it. I almost stopped reading it because the beginning is very slow and the main protagonist is very naive. However, as the story continues I grew very intrigued by the secrets of this castle and got very attached to some of the side characters. The writing style is absolutely beautiful and the intricate plot also comes together in a very well done way. I would recommend to middle grade and YA readers who are interested in a princess-type story that involves a lot of intrigue and mystery in a fantasy castle setting.

My very favorite single book from Sharon Shinn.

This has everything a good story ought. Good verses evil, mystery, fantasy, heroism, and love.

Fantastic book, disappointing narration.

I’ve loved this book for years and was thrilled to see that an audiobook had finally been recorded. And although she has a lovely voice, Baker’s narration leaves a lot to be desired. Several of her character pronunciations are inconsistent - a real pebble in the shoe for a fantasy book where there are several made up names. And there are many outright vocabulary mistakes; it’s hard to tell if this was the fault of the narrator or the person whose job it was to have the text arranged for her to read. A character’s name is switched for another character at a critical moment, and if I hadn’t read the book before I would have been VERY confused. Is this the fault of the narrator or the vocal director? Hard to say. These would be easy mistakes to correct.

EXCELLENT

I don’t usually choose fantasy books but must say this is excellent & I stayed up all night listening to the end. It has many lessons about life, but not sure I like the ending lesson about the villain , ..that two wrongs DO make a right. But otherwise loved everything else about this book!

One of my comfort reads

I’ve loved this book for years. It’s a lovely, fairy tale with a gentle undercurrent of Shinn’s commentary on societal issues.
Gabrielle Baker does excellent work, with a fun assortment of voices and accents. My only gripe with the book is how the proofed managed to not address the fact that Baker alternately pronounces the heroine’s family name as Halsing and Hasling.

Great book, bad reading.

The reader has a lovely voice, but there were MANY mistakes that should have been fixed with editing and rerecording. She often put punctuation emphasis in the wrong places, completely changing meanings; names were wrong throughout, and there were even just plain wrong words and switched names. Many mispronunciations, too. I've loved the book for many years, and while it's not exactly high brow literature, it's one of my favorites for cozy comfort reading. I think I'd rather have Alexa read it to me though, because that makes mispronunciations more forgivable, and at least every word and comma is precisely correct.

Unbelievably Boring

I'm 3+ hours in and nothing has happened. I don't care about any of the characters and there's no story. I'm returning the book.