Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
Series: Study #1
Study #2
Magic Study
Study #3
Fire Study
Genre: Adventure, Mystery
Released: December 1, 2008
Buy Links
Book Synopsis from goodreads
You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster...
With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can't help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways—and her newfound friends and relatives don't think it's for the better...
Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training—especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince—and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.
If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies...
My Thoughts *MIGHT HAVE SPOILERS*
After reading something as good as Poison Study my expectation for this series was YAY high, but unfortunately my expectation for the sequel was actually too high. Magic Study mainly focused on Yelena's magical ability and training her while figuring out who is out to kill the young magicians in Sitia.
Magic Study introduced allot of new character and I felt like they kept appearing to fill the void of the other character from Poison Study. Yelena seem to find her entire family and they all live in the trees and jump from one branch to the other like Tarzan. Yelena's brother has some deep problems with her returning. He even seem to believe his sister is the spy from Ixia. Yelena's parents were very interesting, specially her mother. I was reminded of Disney's Tarzan far too many times while reading about Yelena's family.
If you have read Poison Study you already know Valek, the master spy, lethal killer, chief of security for commandeer Ambrose, he can assassin with his pinkie and also happens to be in love with Yelena. I missed this amazing character in this book. The only time he appears is when he is sneaking in Yelena's guarded room to have sex! I mean yeah sure they are together it fine and dandy but where the heck did that lethal killer go? Valek was purely a mental support for Yelena without being there physically in this book. I missed their sparing very much.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I say if you read Poison Study stick to that no need to read this one and have the image ruined. I am going to continue this series anyway, I am still interested to know how this will play out in the end and I have no expectation from the third book so I know I won't be disappointed even if it is total failure.
Magic Study introduced allot of new character and I felt like they kept appearing to fill the void of the other character from Poison Study. Yelena seem to find her entire family and they all live in the trees and jump from one branch to the other like Tarzan. Yelena's brother has some deep problems with her returning. He even seem to believe his sister is the spy from Ixia. Yelena's parents were very interesting, specially her mother. I was reminded of Disney's Tarzan far too many times while reading about Yelena's family.
If you have read Poison Study you already know Valek, the master spy, lethal killer, chief of security for commandeer Ambrose, he can assassin with his pinkie and also happens to be in love with Yelena. I missed this amazing character in this book. The only time he appears is when he is sneaking in Yelena's guarded room to have sex! I mean yeah sure they are together it fine and dandy but where the heck did that lethal killer go? Valek was purely a mental support for Yelena without being there physically in this book. I missed their sparing very much.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I say if you read Poison Study stick to that no need to read this one and have the image ruined. I am going to continue this series anyway, I am still interested to know how this will play out in the end and I have no expectation from the third book so I know I won't be disappointed even if it is total failure.
I give this
half because some parts actually made me laugh.
Maria V. Snyder author of Study Series, Glass Series, Insider series, Healer series. Find out more about Maria V. Snyder from her website / blog / goodreads
I loved Poison Study, but I had heard that the other two books in the series didn't live up to the first, so I never went beyond that first book.
ReplyDeleteYour review confirms that my decision was probably a wise one.