Michelle Sagara's Cast in Flight is the Thirteenth installment in the authors Chronicles of Elantra series. The story is once again told in the third person narrative. Key Characters: Lord Private Kaylin Neya, Corporal Severn Handred, Annarion, Mandarin, Teela, Nightshade, Helen, Bellusdeo, and Sergeant Moran dar Carafel. Elantra is a place where you will find Dragons, Barrani, Humans, Leonites, Aerian, and Tha'alani. Kaylin works the Hall of Law as a Hawk.

After losing her wings, Kaylin gave Sergeant Moran a home even if it were a temporary one. After all, she's already living with two Barrani, and the only remaining female Dragon, as well as a sentient being known as Helen what's one more? When a walk to the Halls of Law becomes an assassination attempt on the sergeant, Kaylin discovers that it’s not the guest who’s going to be the problem: it’s all of the people who suddenly want Moran dar Carafel dead.

Kaylin is determined to discover her secret and protect her at all costs, even if keeping Moran safe means dealing with Aerian politics, angry dragons and something far more sinister. Kaylin's curiosity and temptations are always front and center. She's not afraid to ask the important questions, even though 99% of the people she works with can easily kill her. She's slowly getting to the point where it's time to give her a promotion to Corporal.

Hopefully that will happen soon. For someone who has read this book from the first one onward, I am still conflicted about my feelings for Kaylin. Time and time again, she seems to get in deep trouble and somehow manages to escape relatively unscathed. She wears Nightshades mark on her face, she's called the Chosen, yet nobody has really enlightened her into what that exactly means in the overall pictures, she has a familiar she is unable to communicate with (except in certain circumstances).

She has an allergy to magic, but her magic helps heal and her services are always on call by the midwives whenever there's a baby in danger of not making it. She's somehow managed to survive to the hardest test a Barrani can face and became worthy of being called Lord Kaylin. There's some really interesting scenes in this book including the dinner that includes three dragons, Bellusdeo, the Emperor, and the Arkon.

This is the story of Moran grudgingly accepting the mantle of power that is her birthright, and Kaylin unraveling more of the mystery of Shadow. This is a series that you need to read in order, because the amount of world building and character work that has happened thus far would leave newcomers more than a little lost.

I love this entire series. I actually reviewed it before, and am not certain why I am being asked to review it again, but I wait impatiently for each new book to come out!

Private Kaylin Neya already has Dragons and Barrani as roommates. Adding one injured, flightless Aerian to her household should be trivial. Sure, the Aerian is Sergeant Moran dar Carafel, but Kaylin's own sergeant is a Leontine, the definition of growly and fanged. She can handle one Aerian.

But when a walk to the Halls of Law becomes a street-shattering magical assassination attempt on the sergeant, Kaylin discovers that it's not the guest who's going to be the problem: it's all of the people who suddenly want Moran dar Carafel dead. And though Moran refuses to tell her why she's being targeted, Kaylin is determined to discover her secret and protect her at all costs--even if keeping Moran safe means dealing with Aerian politics, angry dragons and something far more sinister.



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Let me start off this review by saying that I love this series and have followed it from the very beginning. Ms. Sagara has created a wonderful world with characters of all races that have distinct personalities. I have this series both in audio and in paper. I find that I do prefer in audio because the narrator is wonderful at giving each character their own unique voices and personalities portrayed through their voices. And I loved CAST IN FLIGHT just as much as I loved the first book in this series.



Now that I have gushed about it, I do have to say there were issues in this book. The major one was with the main character, Private Kaylin Neva. It seems as though she is stagnating. Oh yes, she is rushing out to deal with the latest emergency but she isn't growing as character herself. Kaylin is an adult and wants to be treated as an adult but whenever there is an issue to be dealt with, she is turning to her partner for his opinion. It's like she is refusing to grow up and have her own opinions unless they are directly related to being a Hawk.



And speaking of Severn, he is one of my favorite characters yet we hardly see him in this book unless he is acting as Kaylin's advisor. Another of my favorite characters is Nightshade and he hardly shows up except in the background when him and his brother are arguing. And what's happening with their romantic triangle? Will it ever be resolved? Or at least come more into play?



I do think that my readers who enjoy fantasy will enjoy taking flight in Ms. Sagara's world with CAST IN FLIGHT. I am however disappointed in the fact that the story arc doesn't appear to be advancing. I would love to hear your opinion on the book and the series.



*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own.

I have enjoyed reading the Elantra Chronicles from the very beginning. The twists and turns throughout the series have been engaging and interesting to read. Nonetheless, it is beginning to feel mildly repetitive. Kaylin has been through some very grand adventures. Yet she herself has not grown much in the novels despite these experiences. It feels as though none of the things she has done has made an impact on her awareness of the greater world outside her job.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it is number twelve in a series. Unfortunately NetGalley needs to update their series displays, unless it’s in the synopsis you can’t tell if it’s a series book. Yes, shame on me, I should have gone onto Goodreads.com and checked, but you see a pretty cover and a cool blurb and you get excited and you click. So, I think this book would have been much better if I was actually committed to the series, since there were eleven books that came before it.

The story and great characters of Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra is a definite draw to read more in this series. I need to go back to book one and begin again, this one was only a teaser. I enjoyed the story and through the characters were intriguing. There was so much going on that at times the book was overwhelming. The main character, Kaylin, is a bit stereotypical within the fantasy genre, but I did want to read more about her. She was a strong female lead, but toed the line of the too headstrong to carry the plot forward type.

Cast in Flight moves forward a very established world of Elantra. The main character, Kaylin, takes on an injured Aerian (a flying police officer of sorts), Sergeant Moran dar Carafel, as a roommate. But, with her new roommates comes a lot more problems, like an assassination attempt and the promise of many more. You would think protecting Moran would have the Aerian act a little more helpful…but it doesn’t, so Kaylin has to find out what secrets Moran is hiding and why everyone wants her dead.