Touchstone

The Glass Thorns series follows the adventures of a theater group in a fantasy world where magic is used for special effects. While the world is fairly standard generic fantasy (the only reason I didn't give this 5 stars), Rawn does an excellent job of portraying how the ability to conjure magical illusions would change the way plays are performed - and the society around them as well. After all, the magic that changes an actor's costume on stage can also be used to disguise an assassin - or hide an army's movements from enemies. So someone skilled in such magics can draw unsavory attention - as our protagonists find out ...

A tale about a magical theater troupe sounded so good I couldn't pass it up.

The story starts with friends Cayden, Rafcadion and Jeschenar holding tryouts for the all important fourth member who will fit into their troupe. The extremely self confident Mieka joins them and with him their dreams of becoming the best could possibly be fulfilled. Cayden leads the troupe as their storyteller/writer and through his dreams of the future tries to keep his friends safe.

I really loved this story. It was fun and engaging with great characters that I want to know more about. I look forward to the next book.

In this fantasy about a young drama troupe the performances are a result of the combined magics of the four young men (and a young female glasscrafter whose glass holds their spells). No one is a pureblood anything anymore but many have a little elf, wizard, troll, fae, or whatever blood in them. Rawn develops her characters slowly and they come replete with flaws. I found this performance centric fantasy fascinating, although if you are keen on swords and battles this is probably not for you. First book in a series. Humor is a feature. Rawn's dragon books were OK, but she has matured as a writer and this effort is more refined than those earlier efforts.