THE ASSASSINS OF TAMURIN

In this well-crafted and absorbing romantic high fantasy debut, set in a land resembling ancient China, Lale, an 11-year-old foundling girl, is driven from her village of Riversong to take refuge with Makina, the ruler of Tamurin. Makina (aka the "Midnight Mother") runs the School of Serene Repose for the selected girls who are her adopted "daughters." At 17, Lale is one of the promising pupils dispatched to the School of Three Rivers, to be trained as a ninja, as part of Makina's longstanding plot for both personal and political vengeance on Terem Rathai, the ruler of neighboring Bethiya. Lale later arrives as an actress at Terem's capital, where she attracts the ruler's eye and is raised to the status of his established mistress, but she can't change sides completely or she'll die a horrible death by sorcery. However, her love for Terem grows, for he is attractive in both person and politics, and Makina's plots increasingly sicken. Eventually, the course of true love zigzags around invading armies, magic, misunderstandings and newly rediscovered ancestries to the expected happy ending. That ending may be somewhat rushed, with Nilang the sorceress acting like a dea ex machina and Terem being almost too forgiving, but even critical readers will have enjoyed the fine narrative technique, superior world-building and characterization. The author is also to be commended for heroic resistance to the temptation of turning the story into a trilogy. (Jan. 2)

FYI:S.D. Tower is the pseudonym for a Canadian husband-and-wife team.