Shards of Glass

It has been awhile since I dived into the world of Elantra but it was easy enough to get into the flow of this new spin off as certain words sparked my memory and so I was able to enjoy this story very much! You have Robin, with secrets of his own looking for Raven of the very mysterious past so that she too can join the Academia. I found Raven to be fascinating, from the way she can find "hiding places" that are perfectly safe (definitely needed when you live in the Warrens!) and collects glass that sometimes no one can see, to the way she interacts with the world and her connection to Robin. It is a good thing she went to go find him because there were students dying on the grounds of the Academia and no one could see how or why, only that it was happening more and more and someone needs to do something about. So, of course Raven and Robin get drawn into it though they have a strong group of diverse beings (like Starrante who I absolutely love! and the mysterious Grey Crow aka Giselle). You have awakened buildings and also immortals like the Barrani and Dragons in this book to round out the cast. My favorite Barrani was Terrano of course and I loved how he was tolerated on campus because he could not be kicked out (not a student, just a busybody sticking his nose into everything), With all those beings, the killer had no chance of achieving his goal and it had a splendid ending with enough left open that there could be much more to the Academia as it awakens fully with more students. This book takes place mostly at the Academia and a bit in the Warrens so I hope more books get written about Robin and Raven as they journey on together learning the mysterious of magic and their heritage.