Fire Study - Maria V. Snyder

[goodreads]

Title: Fire Study (Study #3)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 441
Date read: October 2012, September 2016

When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder - able to capture and release souls - spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before....

Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself - and save the land she holds dear.

Unfortunately not quite as good as the two first books in the series. I still really liked it, but I didn't love it, the way I did the two others. Still, as a whole it earns the place as one of the best fantasy series I've read since Tamora Pierce.

The threads are nicely wrapped up, and all the questions answered... although there were some of them where I thought, "Well, D'UH! I could have told you that 400 pages ago. Ah well, it still worked. My biggest problem with it was probably the conclusion of the Fire Warper / Jal story line. It seemed rushed and especially Jal's motivation wasn't quite fleshed out enough.

But that's a minor complaint to an otherwise excellent series. Definitely books I want to own as physical books and not just ebooks.