Thursday 26 July 2012

Review: Magic Study

Book Two of the Study Series (therefore contains spoilers for the previous book)

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...



Magic Study was a brilliant sequel to the amazing Poison Study. Yelena has travelled to Sitia to reunite with her family and to learn how to control her magic. With an enticing beginning, Magic Study consumed me and made me fall in love with this series even more. In this story, Yelena is once again tested in many ways. Her loyalties are questioned and through her, so are ours.

Snyder provides you with many questions to pounder about. For one, Magic Study gives you a insight into how Sitia is run and what are the benefits to this type of ruling. The question I thought about during the whole book is whether Ixia's way of ruling is better or if Sitia's way is better. Both with their advantages and disadvantages, I loved how this book made me think and how this relates to problems today.

Yelena is developing into her magical skills and we see her fight another battle for justice. Sadly, Valek doesn't come in until the last quarter of the book although Yelena does mention him often in her thoughts. New characters are introduced, such as Lief, Yelena's brother, who is a rude and mean towards Yelena yet still makes you feel for him. Cahil is the lonely boy looking for a friend or perhaps someone more, he often invoked my pity yet never really made me like him. Dax is another funny and charming friend Yelena makes, making you laugh often.

Throughout the book I loved the magic added into the already amazing action Snyder writes, although I do have to admit that I preferred the action in Poison Study over the magical fights Yelena faces in this book. All the characters were well written and enjoyable to read about, even though some were not very likeable people, they contributed to the story nicely and fit in with the plot. However the for me the characters in Poison Study were much more enjoyable to have Yelena interact with, I missed Valek, Ari and Janco a lot (although they do make an appearance so they are not forever gone). 

Magic Study left me dying for more, giving us a faint idea on what the next book is about and how the story might conclude. I would recommend this book to those who loved Poison Study and love stories involving magic. One thing about this book is that it does involve rape and abuse so if it is a sensitive subject for you then you might want to avoid this one (but if you dealt with Poison Study fine then it should be alright). Snyder has once again proven herself to be wonderful writer and I only hope that the next book is even more amazing.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

1 comment:

  1. Hi!

    I've nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award :)

    Here is the link explaining how to participate:

    http://uncorkedthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/versatile-blogger-award.html

    x

    ReplyDelete