Book Review: To Weave the Wind | Sharon Rose

To Weave the Wind by Sharon Rose
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever since Devron's time in To Form a Passage, the ties between Dirklan Province below and the rest of Welcia above have been kept alive through the half-year opening of the dome and a formal exchange of representatives. Princess Fanteal's grandfather is the Prime Minister of Dirklan, her mother is Dirklan's Ambassador to Welcia, and now it's Fanteal's turn to take her place as the Royal Ambassador to Dirklan. She's supposed to have the guidance of her grandfather, a canny politician who has planned out the transition... except when the time comes, he's dead and a new, desperate Prime Minister has been installed in his place.

Misunderstandings abound. Fanteal is assured she will have a year to choose a suitable husband, but everyone in Dirklan assumes she will marry the Prime Minister's son. What Fanteal is trained for is to be an ambassador, yet all her suitors - sons of various Dirklan Governors - assume that she will be nothing more than a trophy wife. Most important of all, Fanteal is a powerfully gifted wind weaver, but what Dirklan really wants and needs is a streamer to restore the trade cataracts.

To Weave the Wind is a fantastic read that weaves all the usual political drama about kingdoms and thrones and backstabbing, unscrupulous usurpers with a gentle enemies-to-friends-to-lovers storyline. There's plenty of ambition and pride to go around, but there's also honour, loyalty, and integrity, exemplified in the Mikkaels - the new Prime Minister and his son, Jaikon. Rose makes good use of cultural shifts between those who live above and below ground to build up these misunderstandings - especially when there is a huge communication barrier in the form of an entire swath of rock that prevents either group from going up or down except through the dome.

Where To Form a Passage is a story of visions and dreams and trusting in God (or, well, Ellincreo), To Weave the Wind is a story of restoration. Dirklan, for all that its Keepers speak against idols, has fallen away from true worship. They have covered up the vision wall that once saved them, saying that visions are a thing of the past. They have suppressed the gifts of the wind weavers, putting restrictions on them because they are not deemed 'useful'. They ignore certain gifts, even those of formers, who don't fit into what the current leadership can do.

Yet who is to say that a gift from Ellincreo isn't useful? Or that He isn't sending something unusual that will be useful precisely for such a time as this?

(Hmm, in saying that, there really were some Queen Esther vibes...)

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from the author. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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To Weave the Wind is available directly from Sharon Rose's website or from Amazon. You may as well get To Form a Passage while you're at it! :) You probably don't need to read the first one to understand the second as they're not directly linked, but it's pretty cool to see the things you read in the first book become a myth/legend in the second. (Paperbacks were available at time of review, hopefully ebooks will be too by the time this posts!) ((No I'm not paid for this, I just like these books lol))