So i probably should have written this last night when i finished reading but it was like 1am and i was tired. I will try my best to recall all my feelings.

 

So there's a good reason why I am rating this book 4 stars instead of 5.

To begin with, the start of this book was fairly slow compared to the others, it took me a while to get involved and become interested in what was happening. On top of this there were quite a few POVs, which i originally found excessive, cumbersome and somewhat aggravating. About halfway through I started see the advantage and now that i have finished, i can fully appreciate how all these POVs gave us [the reader] a much more rounder and in-depth story, especially for the battle scene. So i can definitely see why Trudi decided to add so many different perspectives for this book, its just a shame (for me) that it didn't work as smoothly in the beginning. But towards the end i was very glad to have them, it also helped that we had all seen these characters in previous books and therefor had prior knowledge about them - they weren't sprung on us randomly.
The last reason why this book lost brownie points is because I never fully felt emotionally connected or invested in Akkarin.

for me it felt like the relationship came out of nowhere - actually for a good chunk I was convinced he'd put a some sort of love spell on Sonea to make her more cooperative. Apparently not. I also couldn't quite get the image out of my head of Akkarin being some old skeletal man with ridiculous 'metal' hair who ran around in black robes leering at everyone, not the most attractive look. It didn't help when Trudi kept referring to his body being a 'thin frame' though to be fair she never said skin and bone, that was just my own weird imagination.
It did seem strange for Sonea to go from hating and being absolutely terrified of Akkarin to then loving him in such a short period of time. especially when she never seem to fully connect with other potential romantic interests before this.

(spoiler show)

  

Otherwise fantastic series. I was a tad concerned that we would never get to find out what happened afterwards to all my favorite characters and some loose ends hand't quite been tied together but i just discovered that the next series is set a few years after this, and it appears some of my fav characters will be making an appearance!! So I'm looking forward to getting my hands on that and seeing what everyone has been up to.

Recommend for people interested in trying out High/Epic Fantasy for the first time - as this series is what drew me originally to the genre. 
Start with The Magician's Apprentice

Read the full review here.The Novice follows immediately from The Magician’s Guild with Sonea’s acceptance into the ranks of the Guild. She struggles to find her place among the other novices who are sourced from the influential Houses of Imardin. One student in particular, Regin, takes exception to Sonea’s skills in magic and attempts to have her expelled. The level of bullying in the book was surprising but realistic in nature - it was shielded from teachers and encouraged by other novices. I felt Sonea’s pain keenly and understand her desire to remain anonymous and unwillingness to seek the help of teachers who also judge her on her background.The promotion of Lord Dannyl to Second Guild Ambassador to Elyne allows the reader to experience other cultures in Canavan’s world. The people Dannyl meets are many and varied, and I found the depiction of other cities very interesting. I looked forward to the chapters narrated by him because of the insight he had into the politics of the Guild, and his musings helped me understand Sonea’s experiences even though Dannyl wasn’t physically with her. The Ambassador’s personal journey and realisation of self was also a wonderful addition to the plot that I enjoyed reading.

WOW :) I love some characters in here and what an amazing second in the trilogy :)http://basicallybooks1994.blogspot.com/

A great sequel to The Magicians' Guild. This second book in the trilogy got started much faster and had me hooked right from the beginning. I have to admit I was a lot more interested in Sonea's story than Dannyl's though, so I'm glad the plot skipped back and forth so often to give me a nice mixture of both. I'm thinking that all is not necessarily as it seems, and am looking forward to seeing whether I'll be proven right in The High Lord.