Rgz Salon: Rene Kirkpatrick Reviews Forest Born by Shannon Hale

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years. She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René!

Forest Born, by Shannon Hale, is a great addition to the Books of Bayern series.

Beginning with Goose Girl, the Bayern novels offer high adventure and fantasy. In this, the fourth book in the series, we meet Rin, a young woman of the forest who finds that she has a power over people that compels them to do what she wants. Unable to handle the way it makes her feel, she leaves the forest and the trees she understands and goes to the city to become a handmaid to the queen.

When Bayern becomes embroiled in war, Rin and the women she calls the Fire Sisters go to the kingdom of Kel to fight the queen who wants them dead. Along the way, Rin begins to understand her powers and how they can be used to help those in desperate need.

High excitement, great romance, funny, Forest Born is a good addition to any library.