Review: Elsewhens by Melanie Rawn

Despite their success Touchstone under perform at trials and find themselves once again on the Winterly circuit. However the group is chosen to travel to the Continent with a royal embassy to collect Prince Ashgar's new bride. Magic is viewed with suspicion on the continent so Touchstone's welcome is less than assured. Meanwhile Cade is still troubled by his visions of possible futures (dubbed Elsewhens). He wants to warn his friend Mieka that the woman he has fallen in love with and her mother only plan to ensnare him but is terrified of alienating the elf and bringing one of his worst visions to life.  

Like the first book Elsewhens is focused on the relationship between Cade and Mieka. Both are well realized vivid characters that dance to life on the pages and neatly steal the show. Again the support characters are just fleshed out enough to be interesting.

My biggest problem with this second installment is the plot seems to meander along without any focus. The ending just seemed to highlight further how little the plot has been advanced. I also feel Rawn missed a trick in developing the setting further with Touchstone traveling to a new continent.

Overall Rawn's character development remains top notch, however a meandering plot keeps this book from being one of her best. 7/10.