You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This request comes from Shade, who is looking for what sounds like a fantasy, or, if you're me, a really neat version of Ladyhawke, which is a movie I loooooooooooove.
So basically I cant recall when I read it, anything about the title or cover and to be frank most of the book (which ofc is why I'm looking for it….)
About the book:
It was of a series I believe.
There was a lady who preferred shape shifting into a hawk because the men she dealt with in her timeline were barbaric or she had a bad experience *shrugs*. The man she came to love was a fisherman.
I remember there being another man – he had powers. I'm not sure if it gave him the title of warlock though.
Once the couple went through the necessary climax… tattoos would show up on their skin that represented their lover.
Help me please I have been searching high and low for this book. I want to say I searched all of goodreads but what is not possible is impossible so just know I've searched really hard.
Please and Thank You Also OH MY FRIKKING GAAHH at this awesome community OK Bye now.
Shade really, really likes you guys a lot! (I love that. Thank you, Shade!)
Do you recognize this book?
This made me think of Emma Holly’s Catching Midnight, but I don’t recall any fisherman.
Deep in a cave in the Scottish forest live the children of midnight, shapeshifting immortals who can run as both wolves and men. Young Gillian has been rescued by their leader from certain death and transformed into one of them. She would be happy if her heart did not yearn for the world beyond.
Aimery Fitz Clare is human, second son to a noble house, and a master falconer. To him Gillian flees in the guise of a falcon, hoping to escape her immortal keepers. To her surprise, Aimery’s kindness is a powerful seduction, and never mind his beauty and warmth! But does she dare embrace this forbidden love, and can it survive her jealous brethren baring their fangs?
I don’t know if it’s the right one, but I like Emma Holly a lot, and that book sounds intriguing. Thanks for the tip! (off to spend the offsprings’ inheritance…)
Darlene
Its definitely not that but you had me racking my brain. I think that was the second book of the series I read. The first was about the shape shifting woman’s brother I believe. During the memory search session I remembered several random things which helped me not an iota but hopefully it helps YOU guys… the shape-shifting woman feared her leading man at the start, she lived on her own but her brother was immensely worried about her, mermaid, that ‘magician’ man was running or hiding from his father I think
Could it be “Mystical Warrior” by Janet Chapman, doesn’t mention fisherman, but fits a lot of the other requirements
http://www.paperbackswap.com/Mystical-Warrior-Midnight-Janet-Chapman/book/1439159904/
downloaded and rereading as we speak but ding ding! we have a winner! just in case you do not know I’m hugging you Olivia. Its kind of weird though I remembered the fisherman more clearly that the rest of clues good gosh I do hope its not another book I’ve forgotten
Thanks guys. Thanks Olivia
I know this isn’t the right book, and you have already found the one that is, and this wouldn’t have really fit the description anyway, but for some reason I feel compelled just to mention “Daughter of the Lion” from Jennifer Roberson’s Cheysuli series. fantasy novel, heroine is a shapeshifter who can change into any animal but really loves hawks, and is VERY resistant to getting married off because of other people’s plans. I loved this book & this character. Content note for triggery stuff: she is captured by an enemy sorcerer for months, really bad stuff happens & she has to deal with the emotional & physical results after she escapes. But one of the things that I like is she rescues herself.
I wish the Cheysuli books were digitalized, but alas, they’re not that I can find. I loved them so much, couldn’t wait for the next one to come out.
The Cheysuli books are great in a lot of ways, but to be fair (in case anyone is specifically interested because of the heroine) only the first book and the other Storyphile mentions features a heroine to the best of my recollection. Most of the leads of all the rest of the books are male, and there’s a lot of distressing women being sold/traded/forced into marriage and breeding for prophecy purposes. One of those dubious “is it really consent if she has no real say” scenarios, like Dany in Game of Thrones. The basic concept is that there used to be one all-powerful race that’s since been diluted and everyone is at war, so the Cheysuli are trying to merge all the bloodlines with alliances and marriages, which is harder when everyone wants to stab everyone else. My main issue is that after the first book, the female characters are all plot devices that I can recall… their deaths, betrayals, and so forth drive a lot of the male angst, and few of them do anything but sit around and dispense advice while the men fight wars and solve problems. (And Aislinn is the saddest, most tragic goddamn character.) A lot of the women had potential, they just rarely get there.
As a trigger warning, the Legacy of the Sword, the third book, features what is basically magical date rape. The Cheysuli have a lot of abilities that lead to them being exiled by what are essentially fearful white folks (they’re dark-skinned, so racism is a heavy tone throughout), and one of them is a sort of mental compulsion. At one point, a woman who has been married to one of the Cheysuli warriors refuses to allow the consummation to take place because of reasons, and he’s told by others to compel her magically to do it because of the prophecy needing to be filled. He’s got a lot of reservations and doing it basically disgusts him, but, well, he does it anyway. He goes out of his way to say that while the spell makes her think she wants it (something like “though she roused to his touch, etc”), he knows it’s not what she wants, and it’s rape because she can’t control it or herself.
That said, the series has a lot of interesting things to say on the topic of race, identity, prejudice, and so forth, and basically is a study in people doing crappy things to other people for the greater good, and having to deal with the guilt and whatnot that comes of that. I think the series was good for taking the concept of this all important prophecy and examining how badly it screws up the people who are trying to fulfill it for everyone else, the friendships and families it messes up. At the same time, however, it’s very “… but despite that, destiny knows best”, and it’s usually the characters who FIGHT their destiny initially that end up hurt the worst.
I dunno. Caveat emptor, I guess. I actually just bought this whole series off ebay a few months ago since I hadn’t read it in like fifteen years, and I’m just noticing a bunch of troubling themes and scenes.
The Cheysuli books are available as audio books from Audible. (At least in Australia they are. Digital can be regionally challenged.)
At least the first few Cheysuli books are available for Kindle in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Shapechangers-Book-Cheysuli-Jennifer-Roberson-ebook/dp/B00AFZIKXY/