Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

 

Summary from goodreads.com: 

Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.
But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life or be her downfall.
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 new-found 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.

I think that I enjoyed this book even more than I did the first one! I was drawn back into Snyders world completely.  I love Yelena's character. She's so strong and can kick some major ass. She doesn't let anyone bs her either. In this book she is in the land of Sitia, her home land that she can't remember. For the first 2/3rds of the book it's mostly Yelena and new characters, which was a bit confusing at times, but not too bad. I really enjoyed when the old characters were in the book, especially Valek *swoon*.

I really liked the use of magic in this book. It was another threat that had to be watched for and another weapon that could be used at the same time. I like how Yelena's magic was different from everyone else's and how people reacted to her. Magic was effortlessly woven into the story, and didn't seem odd or out of place at all.

I thought that Snyder really improved her descriptive skills in this one. The complaint about not being able to see things clearly in the last one no longer applies. I could picture the jungle and the citadel vividly and that's why this one was better than the last. I could also picture the people better and the action didn't seem as forced. Yeah, I would say that this one was better than the first.

Characters: 9/10
Plot: 10/10
Originality: 10/10
Writing: 8/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall: 46/50 A
Cover: 5/5 I really like this cover and I think that it portrays the book well. The other covers are nice too, but I think that this one is my favorite.