This was...ok is the best I can muster. Josetta is kind of bland and the plot that they kept talking about (Rafe being the secret Prince) didn't pick up steam til around chapter 20ish I suppose (there's 29 chapters) and even then it all just HAPPENED.

In between we also had the mystery of the Princess Odelia (why was she never brought to Court, was she ok), and Kayle's (the Elay prime) new invention of the aeromotive (early model airplane, he's the Wright Brothers and Ford all rolled into one). Plus Alice's machinations, Corene's loss of identity and place in the world and the love life of Josetta & Rafe.

The book focused ENTIRELY too much basically on everything but Rafe's secret and then crammed EVEN MORE SECRETS about him into the final chapters. Which in turn made Darien seem entirely too smart and calculating. This guy was full on prophetic.

As I said Josetta was uninteresting mostly. She was very reactive with very little proactivity. Rafe meanwhile is the literal definition of a diamond in the rough. Or Rogue with a heart of gold. He was entirely TOO noble for his own good (often literally).

And they sort of dropped some storylines though it may be picked up in the next book which, should in most ways, pick up soon after this (TROUBLED WATERS is set five years before ROYAL AIRS, which PS I see what you were going for with that clever trick of wordplay Shinn).

In all I'm much more excited for JEWELED FIRE, Corene's book. ( )

Josetta is a princess of one of the Five Families. But she is far from the throne, so she is free to spend her days working in the poorest sections of the city. Rafe Adova, an outcast since he was born, lives the life of a career gambler in those slums. He has no ambition other than cheating at the card tables—until the night he decides to help a girl named Corene, who looks like she's stumbled into the wrong bar. She, too, is a princess—sister to Josetta, who finds her with Rafe. He fascinates her. Josetta has never encountered anyone like him—someone seemingly devoid of elemental blessings. He is drawn to her, though he thinks they are unlikely to ever meet again—but their connection grows strong when she nurses him back to health after he is assaulted by foreign mercenaries. And when they learn the reason he's being hunted, they know that the truth about his history could endanger not only their love but also their very lives…

I think I really needed something lighter-weight, and Sharon Shinn’s always such a fantastic storyteller; what she writes is just as good in a contemporary context as it was twenty years ago, and I love that. ( )

Second book of the series follows the Princess Josetta who falls in love with the card shark and would-be pilot Rafe Adova. An Elemental Blessings novel

re-read 6/15/2023 ( )

I love a good fantasy adventure romance, and Sharon Shinn never fails to draw me in. So glad to see another book in this series, as I enjoyed Troubled Waters very much as well. Really delighted by the mingling of tech and elemental powers and with the weird, clever court intricacies.

Held up well to a re-read, and it turns out to be long enough ago that I remember very little. ( )

Excellent sequel, centering more on the princesses of Welce but still with Zoe as a participant in the story. Josetta's story has more focus in this book, and is rounded out by the mysterious Rafe Adova, living as a career gambler. Corene has several scenes and starts to develop from the bratty, sad little sister. ( )