Reader and Raelynx (The Twelve Houses, Book 4)
Sharon Shinn is a journalist who works for a trade magazine. Her first novel,The Shapechanger's Wife, was selected by  Locus as the best first fantasy novel of 1995. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer, and was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the Midwest most of her life.