Magic Study - Maria V. Snyder

[goodreads]

Title: Magic Study (Study #2)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 425
Date read: October 2012, September 2016

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.

I loved Poison Study, but had heard somewhere that the other books in the series weren't quite as good, so I'd been reluctant to pick this one up. However, I was challenged to read it in October, so I figured I might as well get started and loaded it onto my Kindle two days ago.

It TOTALLY lived up to the standards the first book set! This is one of the best fantasy series I've read in a very long time, and I only hope the last book can live up to my now very high expectations. I love Yelena and her relationship with Valek, Irys, Kiki, Ari and Janco... and even Leif after awhile. Maria Snyder writes those relationships really, really well. She does tend to fall into the trap of making (most) bad characters one-dimensional (Cahlil was an exception), but I hope at least Rose will turn out to be more than she seems.