Raine Benares Books In Order

Publication Order of Raine Benares Books

Raine Benares, an age 30 elf, is a seeker and a sorceress whose family features thieves and smugglers. She is only good enough at what she does to pay the bills. As a front, they claim to be in the import and export business. Raine uses her family’s track record as thieves and smugglers to help her get more business. Her customers believe that since since Raine comes from pilfers, that makes her by extension a good pilferer herself. She has help finding things with the help of Quentin, a thief who is supposed to steal anything anymore, but still will from time to time. Before she hired him to work for her their path’s had crossed because, some of the objects she is hired to find, he’s actually already stolen. As a courtesy to Quentin, she waits until he’s already sold the item he has stolen, so that his reputation and wallet can grow, to retrieve it. She also is the narrator of the series.

“Magic Lost, Trouble Found” is the first book in the series featuring Raine Benares. It is also the debut novel of author Lisa Shearin. The book was released in 2007. Her friend and employee Quentin, who is a supposedly a former thief, stole an amulet that contains massive amounts of magical powers that used to belong to a necromancer. With help from her family, she is able to keep him from getting killed as people who also want the amulet show up to the necromancer’s house. She is hunted by some military grade goblins who are trying to get the amulet. Practically everyone else in the city wants the amulet from her. She tells Quentin that he needs to give the amulet to someone who can keep it safe. When she finally takes possession of the amulet, it grabs hold and expands her moderate powers, as it’s also sucking her soul.

Fans that liked this book praised it for the humor found in the book, that the protagonist, Raine, sticks by her friend even though she did not think it was wise to, and they also found Lisa Shearin’s characters to be well written and engaging. Fans also like her ability to fill the book with many characters of different species, and her ability to describe them and keep track of each one very well. As well as her ability to build a world in this book. They also liked that the romance in this book was kept to a minimum.

People who didn’t like this book criticized it because they thought the female protagonist could not take care of herself and needed men to bail her out of sticky situations, and they didn’t like that her heart flutters over any guy that comes running to aid her. They said she can’t fight as well as she thinks she can, she’s not very observant, and she was not all that smart. They also found the dialogue in in the book to be childish, and that the book included far too many characters without developing the bulk of them.

“Armed And Magical” by Lisa Shearin is the second book in the series featuring Raine Benares. The book was released in 2008. This book takes place not to long, about two weeks, after the end of the first book. After finding the amulet in the first book, Raine is sharing her mind with the stone, and all the souls that the stone has taken possession of over it’s long existence. Raine feels crowded and decides to remove the stone from her. So she heads to the Isle of Mid, that has both a well regarded school for sorcerer’s, and the governing body for all magical users. The military goblins from the last book are not at all happy with her having possession of the amulet, and are threatening to sue, if they have to, to take it back. Her plan to remove the stone from her soul takes a backseat to the fact that the best student spellsingers at Mid’s academy are vanishing without a trace. Raine is tasked with finding them. Her amulet is getting stronger and stronger. As is Raine. She has scenes that show how strong she’s become; Raine is a lot more overpowering than before. She also gets involved with two men, one her ex Tam, and Mycheal, a a paladin to the Conclave Guardians who cares for her in this book.

Fans who liked this book praised the fact that the author had a plan with each storyline and didn’t just pull them out of the air, strong secondary characters in the book, and the fact that not having read the first book was not an issue reading this book. Fans of “Armed and Magical” also liked that it was as fun as the first book and does not disappoint. One fan liked that there was a subtle change in Raine’s character in this book. She is a lot darker and snarkier in this book as a result of being roomates with the stone.

People who did not like this book criticized the lack of progress in the love triangle between Tam, Mycheal, and Raine, and the fact that there did not seem to be any emotional involvement on Raine’s part, she seems to fall for each one as she with them, and seems to forget about them once they’re gone. Another person criticized the fact that there was nothing totally original in the book, it just followed the typical storylines that are found in urban fantasy novels.

The six book series takes place over three months of time; the duration of which, Raine tries to get her soul back from the amulet that she gets possessed by in the first book.

No plans have been announced to turn this popular series of novels into a TV show or movie(s) as of yet.

The series about Raine Benares is written by Lisa Shearin, who is also author of the “SPI Files”, the first book of which came out in 2013. She is also has a day job as an editor and proofreader for an ad agency.