Tag: maria v snyder

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Fire Study (Study #3)

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Fire Study

Maria V Snyder

1966969

Publisher: Mira Books

Year Released: 2008

Date Read:  Septemeber 10, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Romance

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

 

“There’s always another storm. It’s the way the world works. Snowstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, sandstorms, and firestorms. Some are fierce and others are small. You have to deal with each one separately, but you need to keep an eye on whats brewing for tomorrow.”

― Maria V. Snyder

 

A war between the magicians and Ixia is about to take place. Yelena is finishing her apprenticeship, but still is having trouble proving to the Magicians Council that she is not against them or trying to  betray them. Matters are only made worse when a plot is made against Yelena that makes everyone out to get her. Yelena must get all of her friends together to try to stop the war that is brewing and save Sitia from its own destruction. There’s only one more problem. One of their friends is betraying them, and Yelena doesn’t know who.

Fire Study is the best of both the first and second book of the Study series. You get all the characters from the first book and all the characters from the second book working together, either helping or trying to get rid of Yelena and Ixia. An even better part is that it’s a book that is pretty much full of Yelena and Valek. It’s also full of more of Yelena’s sneaky plan’s and Valek’s plan B’s which is just him cutting throats.

 

Pros

  • Even though there is more of Valek in this book, it’s still not romance heavy. Maria V Snyder always has a way of putting her romance in the background and letting the characters figuring themselves out and growing take the lead. She also always make the male interest majorly supporting the main character. They are there to help them with what they need, and to help them grow. But she does it in a way that doesn’t make the male interests just a support character with nothing else to them. In the Healer series, Kerrick is also there to help Avry but he also has his own goals that he sets out to do. Avry helps him and he helps Avry. It’s the same with Valek and Yelena. I really enjoy reading Maria V Snyder’s relationships, not only with the couples, but the friends. The friend’s bonds aren’t as strongly written as Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series, but it’s still very present.
  • Yelena’s growth. Her growth throughout the three books seems subtle but as she has figured out her new powers she has grown with them. She went from being someone who avoided the conflict and was just trying to survive in the first book, to saving both the place she grew up  in and the place she was meant to be. She’s gotten more confident in herself and mentions Reyad less showing that she is learning to move on from the pains in her past. 
  • There’s more action scenes this time. Even if there’s not actual fighting all the tie there’s scenes that get intense and make you want to keep turning the page.

 

Cons

 

  • Cahil is still an annoying brat through most of it. He got more ok towards the end though. I was hoping Valek would just kill him through it. 
  • The book can be seen as boring possibly because it is almost the same as the second book. More sneaking around, council doesn’t like Yelena, people trying to make Yelena pick a side, a lot of people want to kill her. It’s the same as the second book with just different events. I still enjoyed it but I can see how someone could think it was repetitive.

“It’s the problem with mistakes, they tend to linger.”

― Maria V. Snyder

This is the second series written by Maria V Snyder that I have loved and i’m glad that it’s not over. I only finished the first half of the Study series and will soon start the second part of Yelena’s story with the Soul Finders series. I can’t wait to see what new issues Yelena will have in the Soul Finders series and have more of her and Valek. This book was a good conclusion to the first half of the series and marks a good place to take a break on from. Everything is solved with no foreshadowing so you can read this book and be content to stop. You wouldn’t even have to read the second half if you just wanted to leave Yelena’s story there. This is a good series to read if you like magic, adventure, political disagreements, assassins, diversity, kingdoms, and if you liked Maria V Snyder’s Healer series. 

 

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Magic Study

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Magic Study (Study #2)

Maria V Snyder

1265703

 

Publisher: Mira

Year Released: 2007

Date Read: September 8, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, Romance

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

“I’ll have you know that the most delicate flowers often produce the strongest scent when crushed.”

― Maria V. Snyder

**This review contains talk of things that could trigger some people. If you do not wish to read things that contain talk of rape or rape victims then please either do not read this review or just be aware of it.**

 

Magic Study is the sequel to Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study. Yelena no longer is having to test foods for poison but that doesn’t stop her life from being in danger. Yelena has left Ixia, the place where magic is banned, and now is in her home land where she will meet her family she was taken from and learn more about herself as she learns magic. Learning about her new magic is the easiest part of Yelena’s new life as she tries to solve who is kidnapping and killing girls, and stopping multiple people from trying to kill her, not to mention being named a spy by a man who claims he is the rightful heir to the throne in Ixia. More and more problems pile on to Yelena as she starts to uncover more about her would be life.

Going into this book I was scared that I wouldn’t love it as much as the first book, or just hate it general. I was glad those thoughts did not become true. I loved this book almost as much as I loved the first one. I thought I was going to miss Yelena’s constant interactions with Valek throughout the whole book but Yelena’s story kept busy. There was never an off period where nothing was happening. Yelena was always having something going on. Drama with her family(mainly her brother, Lief), constant ridicule from the same two people, being chased by a man whose pride was taken by Yelena, and trying to stop a man from harming more girls. It was a packed story but it wasn’t too packed where it seemed like to much. It was just the right amount where you never got bored reading it.

 

Pro

  • I don’t know how she hasn’t, but Maria V Snyder needs to be praised for how she writes how Yelena handles being raped and how she comforts other girls who go through it. I loved in the first book when she spoke briefly about it but I especially loved how she spoke about it in this one. Her conversation with Tula about how none of it was her fault, and then told her that it was going to be a battle to get through it but everyone would be there to help her.
  • Valek’s love and loyalty to Yelena. Valek make it apparent that whatever Yelena wants from him all she has to do is ask him for it. Valek will give her anything or do anything for her. He is constantly popping into her head when she is in need of it and asking her what he can do for her, and no matter how weird or impossible her request is, all he says is he will do it with him calling her love tied onto the end of it Valek was only in this book for a little less than half(if even that) and he still had me swooning over him.

Cons

  • The only real con I can think of is that this book does have a lot of drama going on, though that wasn’t a con for me, it might be for others. There was a lot more action and fighting scenes then the first book.
  • Cahal is annoying, but that’s his character. He is very obnoxious and is always angry for no reason. He is very bratty and reading about a very bratty man isn’t the most enjoyable. The more he shows up the more the dislike for him grows. He gets worse as the book goes on, though i’m sure that was the point of his character. 

“And what did you give him in return?”…

“My heart.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Magic Study was just as good as Poison Study. The characters have grown and changed from the first one and the story is progressing in a good way. The action is coming along more and so is Yelena as a character. There is a lot of times when some off the middle books in a series get boring but this one kept my attention well. It was a very good addition to the series.

“Living is a risk…Every decision, every interaction, every step, every time you get out of bed in the morning, you take a risk. To survive is to know you’re taking that risk and to not get out of bed clutching illusions of safety.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Fantasy · Magic · Romance

Poison Study

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Poison Study

Maria v. Snyder

60510

Publisher: Mira

Year Released: 2007

Date I Read It: August 28, 2018

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Magic

Grade: B/ 4 Stars

“To Yelena, our newest food taster. May you last longer than your predecessor.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Yelena is given the choice of death or a small chance at life after she is arrested for murder. The  Commander is in need of a new food taste tester, and Yelena would like to live. To prevent Yelena from running away she is given the poison, Butterfly Dust, which she needs to take a daily antidote of to stay alive. The only one who can give her the antidote is the Chief of Security, Valek, who also makes her learn how to taste and smell poisons, and sometimes even ingest them to learn the immediate symptoms. Yelena thought her only problem would be risking her life by taking the chance of being poisoned, but as the father of the man she murdered tries to have her assassinated and spies betray the castle, Yelena will find out the job that already seemed impossible to survive just got even more impossible.

If you enjoy fantasy books that take place inside of a castle type setting with spies, assassination attempts, forbidden magic, and a handsome killer with a growing soft spot you would probably enjoy this book. After reading Maria V Snyder’s Healer series I decided that I would try out her other series, Poison Study. Maria V Snyder’s book reminds me of all the adult type books I read without all the adult content(Although some is there just not descriptive). She doesn’t focus on the romance, but on the main character dealing with her problem. The romance is present, but her main characters always tend to focus on their objectives more than their love interest which is refreshing since a lot of young adult books do tend to focus on the love interest.(Which I don’t mind, I love, but it is nice to step away from it for awhile) She also has a way of making the main character coming off as strong without overly doing it or making them invincible. In this book Yelena is not really a fighter, she’s just does what she needs to survive. Yeah, she killed a man(with reason) but Yelena only fights back when she has to do it to live. What makes Yelena strong is that she bounces back and she’s smart. She is strong without being physically strong. Yelena is vulnerable and she isn’t some crazed killer, she is just a normal person who got stuck in a bad situation and is trying her best to survive.

“Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder.”

― Maria V. Snyder

Pros

  • A lot of books start with the romance as soon as they can. While Maria starts off with chemistry between the characters and you can see where she is going to go with it, the characters themselves aren’t pining after each other throughout the whole book. It’s a slow builds with each of their interactions, like a normal relationship would between to people who weren’t looking for one.
  • Valek. He is just a really good character. He comes off as a little cold at first but it is shown very quickly that he isn’t. He is actually really nice and sweet. He just comes off cold because if he doesn’t know you or feels that he can’t trust you he feels that you are a danger to the Commander. The only times he actually gets angry at Yelena is when something happens to or with the Commander, otherwise he helps her out.
  • How Yelena handles her past. Why Yelena killed that man, the true reason, is what made me see Yelena stronger then I already did. Through the book you can tell something happened to Yelena, and based on how she talked about them, you could assume it had to do with a torture like situation. I had figured that they had hurt her but not in the way that they did. I think that Yelena handles herself very well and in a way most people wouldn’t after that. I loved everything about how Yelena handled it from the moment it happened to her. Also while it is a part of her character it doesn’t define her, she doesn’t let it.
  • A surprise LGBT character that isn’t in there just to have one.

 

Con

  • It’s really hard for me to find a flaw in this. I’m searching for it deep in my head,  but one of the only ones I can really think of was when the romance did happen it happened fast. They talked about it for a few seconds and then a lot happened really fast. It did seem like a little awkward pacing.
  • If you are an action fan this does not have a lot of it. It is only the first book so in the others there might be more. But the action in this never lasted long, it was very quick and done.

“Everyone makes choices in life. Some bad, some good. It’s called living, and if you want to bow out, then go right ahead. But don’t do it halfway. Don’t linger in whiner’s limbo.”

― Maria V. Snyder

This is my favorite type of book so for me personally it is hard to see fault with it. I like adventure type stories with assassins, castles, spies, and cold characters going soft. So for me this was a book I was very happy to find because this is the type of story I’m always looking for. It actually makes me scared to start the second book because I don’t want it to be so different from the first. If you liked Morgan Rhodes’ Falling Kingdoms series, or Maria V Snyder’s other series that she made, then I would try this one.

“What have I earned from you, Valek? Loyalty? Respect? Trust?”

“You have my attention. But give me what I want, and you can have everything.”

― Maria V. Snyder