River Secrets by Shannon Hale

This is the third in the series following The Goose Girl, and I actually really enjoyed it. This book follows Razo, another one of the animal workers that Isi knew while she was working as a goose girl, and his experience as a member of Bayern's force protecting the new ambassador to the country of Tira, soon after the war between these two countries ended. Razo and the rest of the soldiers sent there are charged with trying to keep the peace and make friends with the Tiran, and Razo is also trying to prove that he's not worthless, even though he's short and not a good fighter and young. He finds out that he's been brought there to be a spy, because he's very observant and good at finding out things, and he helps to stop some people who are trying to guide the Tiran into another war against Bayern.

I liked the coming of age story about Razo, and his new confidence and his belief in himself as he begins to recognize his skills. I also liked the general plot of the book: it moved quickly, wasn't too long, and incorporated more of the magic of speaking with other things in an interesting way. The only real complaint I had with this book was that I felt like it turned Isi and Geric, and Finn and Enna, into caricatures of the former characters that I read about in the earlier books. Isi and Geric are the perfect, doting parents in a perfect, funny relationship; Enna is strident and demanding and Finn is quiet and stoic and always perfect. They all seemed way less interesting and well-rounded than they did in their own books. I don't know if that's just because we're seeing them simply from Razo's perspective in his own book, but it made me not like them as much. And I felt like the resolution of the romance at the end of this book seemed highly unbelievable, but that's fine. Whatever.