A review by ithiliens
Wrapt in Crystal by Sharon Shinn

3.0

This is a weird rating for me because I enjoyed this very much but also felt very aware of the fact that a lot of it was... not satisfying? In anyone else's hands the romance would have been a complete turn off for me but Sharon Shinn is a master so I ended up liking it somewhat. This book was written quite a while ago as part of what seems like Shinn's "issue" books (heart of gold is about racism via alien races which like... no thanks). And I really liked the thoughts on religion in this one. The racialization of the Semayese was ultimately very weird and a lot of the cop procedural stuff was just really not my thing. But like her other books, I absolutely love how Shinn lingers on small moments and takes an almost leisurely pace through her story. The scene when Drake and Lise drive out into the desert was probably my favorite in the whole book. I love that characters have space to think rather than constantly reacting to plot points. So I would say this is a worthwhile read but maybe not for a newcomer to her books.