It's interesting when you switch genres of literature, styles of writing, time periods... it feels like you are changing realities - like you are being subjected to the same culture shock as if you Bill and Ted stepping into the phone booth in sunny so-cal only to step out onto a stormy battlefield in France during one of Napoleon's campaigns.

Sometimes that switch is not easy - sometimes I find myself struggling through the beginning of a book, like this one, for the simple reason that it is not the same (in any way) from the other book I am reading or the book I just finished.

I spend the first few chapters thinking, Wait! this isn't morbidly funny like The Dust of 100 Dogs. It isn't eerily gothic like A Great and Terrible Beauty. It isn't Felicity-esque like Under the Rose.

That initial struggle dissapates once I become invested in the characters and their own unique story, and whereas the following may sound strange considering the characeters are shapeshifters who spend equal amounts of time in a human form or an animal form, but, I think I rely heavily on the plausibility factor. I need something to believe in when I read - even in the most fantastical setting.

All that to say, I didn't latch on to the story until a few chapters into it but I know that is not due to any inherant quality (or lack thereof) in the story but only due to the hiccup of switching genres so abruptly like I tend to do.
Hawksong is a lovely story. I loved experiencing the difficulty the characters went through because they wanted to trust in something unknown and how they were scared to because it meant danger and sacrifice. ( )

As an avian shapeshifterhow far do you trust the shapshifter cobra even though you are trying to do the right thing? ( )

One of the Hawk kind and one of the Serpent kind decide that only an alliance between themselves will stop the bloodshed that plagues their people. But will the very people they are trying to save destroy their fragile trust?

In a land that has been at war so long that no one remembers the reason for fighting, the shapeshifters who rule the two factions agree to marry in the hope of bringing peace, despite deep-seated fear and distrust of each other. Was not very well-written. ( )

I love this book. I read it when I was 20, so the tension in the book was absolutely awesome. It's definitely my favorite of this series, probably my favorite by this author ( )