SHIFTER AND SHADOW
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SHARON SHINN
[Also available: Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) for $7, due to an incorrect order. This is a bound book with text that isn't completely corrected. The cover is not final, and it has ARC designations and PR info on the back. The overwhelming bulk of the story is the same.]
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Part of the Twelve Houses series, Shifter and Shadow takes place between the end of The Thirteenth House and the beginning of Dark Moon Defender.
What really happened on Dorrin Isle?
Kirra Danalustrous is the daughter of a marlord, a celebrated beauty—and a shapeshifter with magic in her veins. After a disastrous affair with a married man, she has fled to the edge of the kingdom, to a small fishing village that has become a refuge for children dying from the invariably fatal red-horse fever. Yet Kirra has discovered a radical cure. She can transform the patients into animals who can take a medicine that’s poisonous to humans. But so many people in Gillengaria fear and distrust magic. How many parents will allow Kirra to save their children? And if Kirra saves enough of them, will she be able to heal her own broken heart?
Donnal is a peasant’s son who has been Kirra’s protector and companion for years. Although he’s always loved her, he’s always known she was destined to marry some titled lord and take her place in society. After watching her fall in love with another man, he has tried—and failed—to leave her. A shapeshifter himself, he has accompanied her to Dorrin Isle, determined not to take his human form again because he finds it too painful to be around the woman he knows he cannot have.
But Kirra needs him. So do the dying patients. And if he’s going to help any of them, he has to have the shape—and the heart—of a man.
Also from Sharon Shinn:
The Shuddering City
Whispering Wood
Alibi
- September 2025 978-1-958880-36-4
- trade paperback 5 x 8
- Order copies below. Or order ebook and trade paper print copies from these dealers.
- Artwork by Thea Magerand
[Also available: Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) for $7, due to an incorrect order. This is a bound book with text that isn't completely corrected. The cover is not final, and it has ARC designations and PR info on the back. The overwhelming bulk of the story is the same.]
---
Part of the Twelve Houses series, Shifter and Shadow takes place between the end of The Thirteenth House and the beginning of Dark Moon Defender.
What really happened on Dorrin Isle?
Kirra Danalustrous is the daughter of a marlord, a celebrated beauty—and a shapeshifter with magic in her veins. After a disastrous affair with a married man, she has fled to the edge of the kingdom, to a small fishing village that has become a refuge for children dying from the invariably fatal red-horse fever. Yet Kirra has discovered a radical cure. She can transform the patients into animals who can take a medicine that’s poisonous to humans. But so many people in Gillengaria fear and distrust magic. How many parents will allow Kirra to save their children? And if Kirra saves enough of them, will she be able to heal her own broken heart?
Donnal is a peasant’s son who has been Kirra’s protector and companion for years. Although he’s always loved her, he’s always known she was destined to marry some titled lord and take her place in society. After watching her fall in love with another man, he has tried—and failed—to leave her. A shapeshifter himself, he has accompanied her to Dorrin Isle, determined not to take his human form again because he finds it too painful to be around the woman he knows he cannot have.
But Kirra needs him. So do the dying patients. And if he’s going to help any of them, he has to have the shape—and the heart—of a man.
Also from Sharon Shinn:
The Shuddering City
Whispering Wood
Alibi
Prasie for Sharon Shinn:
"Shinn is just great, her books are well-thought-through and engrossing. She thinks about the implications of her worldbuilding and the effect it has on all sorts of different people . . . this is a fantasy about vaccine reluctance, while also being rooted entirely and completely in the fictional world. And also it’s a sweet love story that works very well. This short novel was written later but was chronologically next in the Twelve Houses series, so I read it next. This world is so interesting, and the magic is cool, and I really like the characters."
— Jo Walton, author of Among Others
“One of the subgenre's great romanticists."
— SFRevu
"When it comes to vividly layered characters and detailed world building, Shinn is a master at her craft.”
— RT Book Reviews
"I have long enjoyed Shinn’s approach to fantasy fiction because by and large she avoids the melodramatic tropes that dominate the genre — major wars, stolen thrones, evil sorcerers, adventurous quests, and so on. This new novel is no exception. The protagonist is a shapeshifter who settles down in a small village after an unfortunate romantic entanglement. The village hosts a number of children who are afflicted with a disease whose only cure involves ingesting a poison that is fatal to humans, which sort of defeats the point. But she has the power to temporarily shapeshift other people, and if the children in question can be changed temporarily into animals which can tolerate the cure, she can save their lives. The problem, of course, is that many people fear magic and will not allow the process to be completed. I assume this is a sidewise swipe at the anti-vax movement. The resolution involves another shapeshifter who has long been in love with the protagonist, although he believes that love can never be consummated. The relatively low key plot is surprisingly gripping and I read this through in a single sitting."
— Critical Mass
On Alibi:
I really enjoyed Alibi. It's fair to say that the opening is a bit of a slow burn — but appropriately so — and before long, even while in a curious way little happens but ordinary (future) life, the novel becomes quite absorbing. We root for the characters, we care about them, and we believe their interactions. And the conclusion is quite satisfying."
— Rich Horton, Strange at Ecbatan
"[Her] characters are vivid, distinctive, real people, all of whom are unique and appealing. It’s the characters that make this story sing."
— Rachel Neumeier, author of the Tuyo series
On Whispering Wood:
"Fantasy author Sharon Shinn is known for her brilliant world-building and the layered richness of her characterizations, and she's in top form with her new Elemental Blessings novel, Whispering Wood."
— Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author of The Rogues Redeemed series
On The Shuddering City:
"The world is coming apart at the seams in this impressive fantasy from Shinn. Once separate, the lands of the continent were bound together by the god Cordelan, so that the bounties of each would benefit the others. United, they have flourished—but they hold a dark secret . . . Throughout, Shinn balances vivid worldbuilding, captivating characters, and a fascinating mystery. Readers won’t want to put this down."
— Publishers Weekly
"Sharon Shinn creates a rich world balanced on the edge of disaster, with evocative, engaging characters, each with a piece of a desperately vital mystery to unravel.”
— Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries
"Shinn is just great, her books are well-thought-through and engrossing. She thinks about the implications of her worldbuilding and the effect it has on all sorts of different people . . . this is a fantasy about vaccine reluctance, while also being rooted entirely and completely in the fictional world. And also it’s a sweet love story that works very well. This short novel was written later but was chronologically next in the Twelve Houses series, so I read it next. This world is so interesting, and the magic is cool, and I really like the characters."
— Jo Walton, author of Among Others
“One of the subgenre's great romanticists."
— SFRevu
"When it comes to vividly layered characters and detailed world building, Shinn is a master at her craft.”
— RT Book Reviews
"I have long enjoyed Shinn’s approach to fantasy fiction because by and large she avoids the melodramatic tropes that dominate the genre — major wars, stolen thrones, evil sorcerers, adventurous quests, and so on. This new novel is no exception. The protagonist is a shapeshifter who settles down in a small village after an unfortunate romantic entanglement. The village hosts a number of children who are afflicted with a disease whose only cure involves ingesting a poison that is fatal to humans, which sort of defeats the point. But she has the power to temporarily shapeshift other people, and if the children in question can be changed temporarily into animals which can tolerate the cure, she can save their lives. The problem, of course, is that many people fear magic and will not allow the process to be completed. I assume this is a sidewise swipe at the anti-vax movement. The resolution involves another shapeshifter who has long been in love with the protagonist, although he believes that love can never be consummated. The relatively low key plot is surprisingly gripping and I read this through in a single sitting."
— Critical Mass
On Alibi:
I really enjoyed Alibi. It's fair to say that the opening is a bit of a slow burn — but appropriately so — and before long, even while in a curious way little happens but ordinary (future) life, the novel becomes quite absorbing. We root for the characters, we care about them, and we believe their interactions. And the conclusion is quite satisfying."
— Rich Horton, Strange at Ecbatan
"[Her] characters are vivid, distinctive, real people, all of whom are unique and appealing. It’s the characters that make this story sing."
— Rachel Neumeier, author of the Tuyo series
On Whispering Wood:
"Fantasy author Sharon Shinn is known for her brilliant world-building and the layered richness of her characterizations, and she's in top form with her new Elemental Blessings novel, Whispering Wood."
— Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author of The Rogues Redeemed series
On The Shuddering City:
"The world is coming apart at the seams in this impressive fantasy from Shinn. Once separate, the lands of the continent were bound together by the god Cordelan, so that the bounties of each would benefit the others. United, they have flourished—but they hold a dark secret . . . Throughout, Shinn balances vivid worldbuilding, captivating characters, and a fascinating mystery. Readers won’t want to put this down."
— Publishers Weekly
"Sharon Shinn creates a rich world balanced on the edge of disaster, with evocative, engaging characters, each with a piece of a desperately vital mystery to unravel.”
— Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR