Emerjas

Forest-Born, the last book of The Books of Bayern series, follows Rin, Razo's little sister. Unlike the main characters of the other books, Rin only shows up in this book, although she is mentioned in the third one. She lives in the Forest, but is no longer comfortable there. When Razo comes home to visit, Rin leaves with him for the palace to try and sort things out. But trouble has returned once more to Bayern. Someone in Kel is trying to start another war. When Isi, Enna, and Dasha all leave to find out who, Rin joins them. But the journey is far more dangerous than they expected.

Like the other books in the series, Forest-Born focuses a lot on the character. Rin is a very introspective character and a good chunk of the book deals with her figuring herself out. This can make the plot move slowly at times, but I found myself not minding because Rin's journey of self-discovery was just as interesting to me as the mystery of who was trying to start the war. She may not have the fighting capabilities of many of the other characters, but, much like her brother did in the third book, Rin learns to focus on what she is good at.

The main characters from the first three books all have fairly large roles in here, and it was great to see them all again. In fact, quite a few characters from the previous books are seen or mentioned in this book. I loved getting to see all of their stories continue, and it was interesting to see it all happen from the perspective of Rin, who wasn't present for the earlier parts of the journeys. I've read other series where an "outside" character becomes the main character for the final book, and that change just didn't work for me, so I had been a bit nervous about whether I would enjoy this one or not. Thankfully, it worked for me here, and I ended up loving Rin.

I really loved the fact that the book didn't have a romance in it at all. I liked the romances in the previous books, but it's always a welcome change of pace when I get a book that has no romance.

Forest-Born was a nice end to the series, although I am sad to see it end. I really loved all the characters and their journeys.