Interesting story. The echoes are an interesting concept, although I have the feeling it is a little underdeveloped. Perhaps some of the mysteries will become clear in the next books. Or they'll just be explained away as 'the goddess did it'.
I liked it, but it was written a little too much like an adventure for me to fully engage with it. Brianna just didn't feel completely real. But 3 stars is too few, so I'm going with 4. ( )

I love Shinn’s work, and her ability to capture very rich lively characters is on display here again. The ‘Uncommon Echoes’ series takes place in a world where the nobility have echos - perfect copies of themselves except without any independent action or thoughts. I found the concept a little creepy, but the plot carried me along anyway. A lot of political intrigue, a little romance, and female friendship. Lots to like. ( )

This is an enjoyable book, though for myself the thing I found most interesting was the concept of the echoes. The rest of the plot was enough to keep me interested and reading, but Brianna had just a little bit (okay, a LOT bit) too much going her way for me to be at all worried about what would happen to her, and that took a lot of the interest out of the plot for me. Other readers might be more interested than I was in her romance with Nico (nothing is shown explicitly, if that matters to you). Or perhaps others might sympathize with Lady Marguerite more than I did and so find their source of dramatic tension there. (Not that I didn't sympathize with Marguerite, it just wasn't enough to make me worry at all about either of the girls.)

The part that kept me reading was the echoes. The concept is fabulous. Carbon copy version of the nobles that their goddess creates to protect them? Assassination attempts being foiled by the killer not knowing which of the group of identical people is the real person? Some nobles disliking that they have echoes while others completely ignore them and still others talk about them like extensions of themselves? That part I found supremely interesting, and I'm glad that books 2 and 3 will give us a different look at the echoes than we got in this one. I am 100% planning on reading all three books because Sharon Shinn's writing is quality and she's created this world that has drawn me in even if the main character in book one was a tad too annoying for me.

I started listening to this as an audiobook, but I changed my mind half-way through and read the ebook for the rest of it. Nothing against the narrator, I just wanted a better ability to skim at times. (So. Many. Flowers.) This book is one that I needed to read at my pace, not anyone else's. The writing was solid, as I've come to expect from Sharon Shinn. It's more YA than I was really expecting, though, which I think is part of why the audiobook annoyed me so much.

UPDATE: I just finished book two in this series, and if you are interested in the world but think that this particular book might not be for you, I would guess you can easily start at book two instead. There will be some spoilers (but surprisingly not everything is spoiled) but I found book two to be a more enjoyable experience than book one. ( )

Excellent world-building, as is typical with past novels by this author. Often gripping and very intriguing narrative, but quite an uneven pacing where the narrative flow dwindled. The publisher's synopsis is accurate, so no spoilers here. I had trouble "putting it down" ~ but in the end realized it was a book I wouldn't choose to re-read. The lead characters were not as individualistic as in earlier series (Samaria, Twelve Houses, Elemental Blessings). Compared to the protagonist in Troubled Waters, for example, the Onyx characterization was less vivid or too superficial to the point I forgot who they were when they next appeared. ( )

Set in a world where many of the nobility have “echoes” -- identical copies who follow them, more substantial than shadows but not capable of speech or independent action. Or so people believe.

Brianna becomes the maid for the governor’s daughter, who has three echoes. When one of Marguerite's echoes is killed defending Marguerite from attempted assault, Brianna proposes that she disguise herself as one of Marguerite’s echoes so that they can conceal the incident.

The concept of echoes is unusual and Shinn has clearly given careful thought to how they would affect society in general and the daily lives of those who have them, as well as the reasons for their existence. Some of the other elements felt much more familiar -- this isn’t the first time Shinn has written about innkeepers’ daughters, people in disguise, stratified societies, royal courts, temples or priestesses -- but I enjoyed seeing them explored and incorporated in different ways. Variations on a theme rather than unoriginal repetition.

I wasn’t surprised by the final twists, because I know how Shinn usually deals with injustice, but parts of this story were still quite tense. And I liked Brianna’s attitude -- she’s so sunny and resourceful and loyal.

“But I do know most of my flaws,” I offered. “Things that might make a man think twice about marrying me.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t like to sit around, fretting over what might happen. I prefer to do something to fix the situation, even if what I do might turn out to be wrong. I would be sympathetic if my husband lost his job, for instance, but it wouldn’t be long before I’d be saying ‘Well, what else can you do? Let’s try that.’” ( )