THE TURNING SEASON by Sharon Shinn is book three in the Shifting Circle series. As with the other two books in this series, I found this to be a melancholy read. I love, love, love Shinn's writing style, so I will read anything that she writes. My favorite series of hers is the Samaria books, which are a mix of sci fi and romance. The Shifting Circle books, while they do contain some mild romance, are definitely downers to me though, so I have to be in a certain mood to read them.

Karadel is a shape-shifter who works as a veterinarian while she's in human form. Being a shifter in Shinn's world is not glamorous, though, but a huge hardship. Karadel is trying to come up with a formula to inject herself with that will allow herself to turn into the same animal each time, instead of the different animals she has been, some of which are hard to disguise (who can hide an elephant in their back yard?!) It is fascinating to me that Shinn has chosen to make most of her shifters take the form of multiple animals, rather than a fixed animal form. Karadel hates the fact that she is a shifter. Her unpredictable and uncontrolled shifts makes her life incredibly difficult, and she will die young from the physical hardships that her shifts cause.

Karadel has a motley group of friends, many of whom are shifters as well. Karadel meets a lovely man, Joe, when he is working as a bouncer at a dance club that her shifter friend Celeste drags her too. Joe & Karadel slowly fall in love, and Karadel is forced to make challenging decisions about trusting her new love or her old friends. The questions about morality and the ethical dilemmas posed here are quietly insightful, as I expect from Shinn, who often presents sharp questions in a beautiful yet subtle manner in her books.

I enjoy that Shinn's world building that continues in THE TURNING SEASON- I keep learning more about the Shifter Circle with each story. Although part of a series, this book easily works well as a standalone read. This is a thoughtful book, well-polished and with incisive beauty. The truths of Shinn's shifter world are harsh, so readers should expect to deeply feel the pain of the characters' exposed hearts here.

Book Summary

In national bestselling author Sharon Shinn’s latest Shifting Circle novel, a woman must choose between hiding her nature—and risking her heart...

For Karadel, being a shape-shifter has always been a reality she couldn’t escape. Even though she’s built a safe life as a rural veterinarian, with a close-knit network of shifter and human friends who would do anything for her—and for each other—she can’t help but wish for a chance at being normal.

When she’s not dealing with her shifts or caring for her animal patients, she attempts to develop a drug that will help shifters control their changes—a drug that might even allow them to remain human forever.

But her comfortable life is threatened by two events: She meets an ordinary man who touches her heart, and her best friend is forced to shift publicly with deadly consequences.

Now Karadel must decide whom to trust: her old friends or her new love.