by Maria V Snyder

“As the rest of us grieved, Leif searched the jungle for you day after day.” “When did he finally stop?” “[When you came home]Yesterday.” – Page 44

But first, a quick look at the novella 1.5!

Title: Assassin Study
Author:  Maria V Snyder
Book: 1.5 of the Study series
Genre: Fantasy
Found: Series, HERE
Rating: 3 Voodoos

Yelena, the heroine of Maria V. Snyder’s stunning debut novelPoison Study, is on her way to her ancestral homeland of Sitia to be reunited with her family and to learn more about her magical powers. An order of execution hangs over her head should she ever return to Ixia. But her true love, Valek, quickly learns that an assassin has taken it upon himself to make sure Yelena doesn’t reach her destination. As Ixia’s chief of security, and a highly skilled assassin himself, can Valek track down the killer in time to save Yelena’s life?

-Goodreads

This one dragged a little. It was originally a vote-for-what-happens-next story, which would have been more fun – reading it in instalments instead of all at once. Again the rating is the one I gave it the first time I read it. This gives us a hint of some possible things to follow – if you’re reading it before the rest of the series. A new culture has been revealed! I kind of want to know how the promise followed through too. Maybe we find out in series two! you never know.

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Title: Magic Study
Author:  Maria V Snyder
Publisher: Mira Books
Book: 2 of the Study series
Genre: Fantasy
Found: Series
Rating: 4 Voodoos

You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster… 

With an execution order on her head, Yelena has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth. With only a year to master her magic – or face death – Yelena must begin her apprenticeship and travels to the Four Towers of the Magician’s Keep. But nothing in Sitia is familiar. Not the family to whom she is a stranger. Not the unsettling new facets of her magic. Nor the brother who resents her return. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her rare powers, a rogue magician emerges – and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in battle of good against evil. And once again it will be her magical abilities that will either save her life…or be her downfall.

-Goodreads

My review for book one in this series can be found HERE.

Again, this is the rating from the first time I read it, I don’t like to change them, but I’m happy with this rating.

I think Valek is an incredibly under rated character and that needs to be fixed. He does a lot for Yelena and no one believes so. I also kind of wish Yelena did a bit more for him too. It’s something I’ve noticed in books, since an extra in The Selection series by Kiera Cass paid attention to the male leads’ birthday and the female lead didn’t and drew my attention to the discrepancy. I like to think she somehow helped him in the plains though, because his situation was pretty dire.

In this book we meet Yelena’s family! And they’re a strange bunch. Her brother Lief makes me think of an elf. I’m pretty sure he’s dark haired, but with a name like Lief, I imagine a Legolas type character. ( Film Legolas, I’m yet to meet book Legolas.) But I hope things improve with him, she could do with some support where she is. We also learn a lot about the country Yelena was born in and it’s interesting, how their systems and superstitions work. And while the plains people are still a part of their system, they’re almost separate. In fact, her clan was separate too, as they live in the trees.

To be honest, I’d forgotten how awful Cahil is. I was convinced at the end of it all he simply said “haha, oops, my bad.” – that must be something else, cause he’s been pretty naughty now! Plus I hated his reaction to the fact there are no beggars in Ixia. It was selfish and he didn’t even consider the step forward it clearly was. He’s exactly what the Commander is against and it’s not even funny. He’s a complete idiot.

As I’ve read these all before several times, I have some idea where this is going. Of course, there are two books at the end of all this that I haven’t read and I hope I don’t loose too much by not re-reading the Glass series, but we’ll see.