The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey

This was the first in the "Bardic Voices" series. I have several more of this series that I will read....eventually.

This story reminded me quite a bit of the Anne McCaffrey "Dragonsinger" series, actually, except that the McCaffrey books were, well, better.

In this first book we meet Rune, an unhappy teenager who has a talent with the violin. She works and fiddles for room and board in a run-down inn while her selfish and promiscuous mother, also an employee there, schemes to wed the owner. When Rune is attacked by some local young men, she becomes desperate to leave and pursue her dreams of becoming a guild member--a paid and respected musician. She's broke, of course, and the way she finds the money to leave is the first of her adventures on the road.

The book was engaging and predictable--which are usually both just fine with me. It's nice when a book surprises you, though, and this one did not. I liked all the characters. One thing I didn't like: Rune--who is later called Lark--has a romance with the other titular character, Wren. This romance completely lacked chemistry. A very boring romance indeed. And one of the things I dislike most in a fictional romance is when the female cares not whether she marry her "true love" or merely live with him for evermore. Particularly in a novel with a historical setting. Ugh.

So. The book was fun to read, but it had no "teeth" (i.e. there was nothing exciting or unpredictable about it) and the romance was extremely lackluster. It certainly left me uneager to read the rest of "The Free Bards" (or "Bardic Voices") series. I will read them. Later.