[4 Stars] This was my first Mercedes Lackey book, and it certainly will not be the last! I adore the writing, the slightly nostalgic and bucolic setting, the humorous characters, the plot thickening at the capital etc. It was good fun and a bit of a lighter read, even with its darker moments. Not much really *happens* in this book if I'm being honest, and certain plot threads just get left off, but it felt like a book particularly catered to my own comforts as a reader. That is what it is, a comfort read.