JUST POSTED ON MY BLOG

Oh, wow. Where do I even start?! 

I was a latecomer to the Maria V. Synder bandwagon. She was one of those author constantly on my tbr but I never seemed to get there. And when I finally did last year, ALL the books were already out. Or so I thought. The groundbreaking announcement over the new series and the return to the Ixia/Sitia world came soon after I finished Fire Study and brought my inner fangirl much delight. 

I needed more Valek and Yelena.

My inner fangirl reared her #sorrynotsorry head when I got approved for an e-arc via Netgalley. She was shouting THANK YOU SO MUCH MIRA INK for all the world to hear. The neighbors were complaining? who cares!? more Valek and Yelena to go around!

Okay. The actual book. Right...

*Book source ~ Purchased on Audible

Yelena finds herself targeted for assassination and loses her magic, Valek finds himself at odds with the Commander and the Power Twins are trying to keep things together. Smuggling is rife, plots are thick and tricky and it’s hard to decide who to trust.

Guest Reviewers:

T ~ my 16-yr-old son

K ~ my 14-yr-old son

Yelena, Valek and the gang are back. Told from three POVs (Yelena, Valek, Janco), the story switches back and forth between them as they deal with current events. A lot of Valek’s story consists of flashbacks on how he became the man he is today. We loved his portion because as T put it: Valek is effing awesome! K & I have to agree. Janco is always good for amusement and we’re mixed about Yelena. We mostly like her but there are times we seriously want to bitchslap her for doing stupid shit. Seriously. The alternating storylines were ok. We think it was a bit frustrating to get to a good point in one arc only to have it slip to the next and then the next. Grrr. Overall though we did enjoy having all three arcs come together in the end. And I have to tell you that K called that ending about 1/3 of the way into the book. That boy is too smart for his own good. LOL Oh, and that ending? Holy shit! As for the new characters, we’re reserving judgment. I kinda like Onora, but I don’t trust her. Yet. The Commander has me worried, K and T aren’t with T saying that he believes the Commander is incorruptible. I’m not so sure. Again, I’m worried where this story is heading. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Favorite Quotes:

Yelena to Onora about Janco: “ He grows on you. Sort of like a barnacle.”

Valek to Yelena: “We should make a list of who doesn’t want to kill you, love. It’d be shorter.”

I’d be offended, but it was actually a good idea.

Valek had learned the best way to distribute information was to classify it as secret.

This reader's personal opinion, ©2015, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

This is a hard one to review.  It was very easy to slip back into Yelena and Valek's world and be caught up in the story -- then the story itself caused mixed reactions.  I was hooked quickly and stayed hooked in the stay up all night reading way — Snyder can write.  I would have liked it much better if the main characters had been together more instead of just during the opening and ending chapters (almost as if Yelena and Valek had two short cameos in a book of separated and switching POVs).  

It's not a spoiler (right in book description) that Yelena was attacked and her magic is missing -- not pleasant.  There were more flashback reveals of Valek's past including the assassination of the King -- interesting.  Lots of returning characters -- nice to see again.  And some new characters (this book did not get around to explaining enough of their backstory although I'm sure I can guess) -- suspiciously easily accepted.  

"We should make a list of who doesn'twant to kill you, love. It'd be shorter."

 

I have no idea why booklikes is showing this as Book 5 of Soulfinders.  It's not— it's Book 1 of Soulfinders, #7 in the Chronicles of Ixia, and #4 in Study series (some sites call "Study" series "Poison Study" but author and publisher use "Study").  I have no idea where booklikes got "5."

I keep meaning to start this one, fits the shelf, so ...

I have two other 2015 books I was really wanting to get to but one I know starts at a grim point in the series and the other is a series I'm out of patience with so fighting to do one chapter at a time (which is bad for weekly BINGO calls).