River Secrets

River Secrets ( 3rd Book of Bayern) by Shannon Hale

This is the third book in the Bayern series, the first two being Goose Girl and Enna Burning. This book focuses on Razo, the forest born turned soldier. The land of Tira wants to wage war against Bayern. King Geric and Queen Isi send their best friends......Finn, Enna and Razo as ambassadors and soldiers to quell the blood thirst of Tira.
Razo is small and not a great soldier. He can't understand why he was chosen by the army leader to be one of the select of Bayern's Own to travel to the southern city. Not long after the arrival of the Bayern newcomers, Razo begins finding charred bodies. He realizes his talent for detail and begins a search to find the murderer before Bayern is blamed for harboring a fire-witch and a bloody war begins. Meanwhile Razo meets Dasha. Dasha is the daughter of an ambassador sent to Bayern from Tira. She acts as a liason between Bayern's Own and Thousand Years, the center of the city.
Finally we find out that Dasha is a water speaker, just as Enna is a fire speaker and Isi speaks with the wind. Dasha needs help from another element before the power of the water alone overtakes her. Enna could help but doesn't trust Dasha because she is from Tira.
Enna and Finn are falling in love but Enna will not accept the proposals that Finn throws out all of the time. She finds him good at everything and always in control. She wants Finn to put himself out there in order to show his true feelings for her.
The three friends; Razo, Enna and Finn are able to come together with Dasha and find out where the burned bodies are coming from. Just in the nick of time they are able to thwart the war.
The beginning of the book was terribly slow at times..........if I remember correctly the other two were also. But then you find things picking up and by the end you forget that you didn't love the beginning. This is a great clean read..........even for the very young good readers that you are struggling to find appropriate reading material for. I found myself really enjoying the balance between the elements.....fire, wind, water, although not as pronounced as in Enna Burning. Also the mystery was intriguing.
Rating 4........I have to take some off for the slow start.
Rating G