I'm such a terribly sporadic blogger these days - it always seems like The Boyfriend and I want our laptop at the same time and since he, quite legitimately, always raises the argument "I'll make you coffee, why don't you just read?", I'm weak and my blogging waits another day...I vow to be better over the coming weeks..
What the blurb said:
Again, I'm going to skirt around what I would usually say here so I don't ruin anything, particularly seeing as this is the last instalment in the 'Study series'. So, for a kind of recap: I've reviewed Poison Study (Book #1) and Magic Study (Book #2) and, as always, the description of Fire Study can be found at the lovely Goodreads here.
What I would say:
I adored Poison Study and, as is my usual habit, have chain read my way through the remaining two books of this series - a habit only worsened by the arrival of my eReader which basically forces me to download the next instalment instantly!
Firstly, I want to make it clear that, although it might not seem like it, I did very much enjoy the trilogy and would recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of light fantasy fiction with fantastic characters.
That said, I'm pretty sure I only loved the final instalment because I already adored the characters and I was driven to find out what happened to them. As a stand-alone novel, it tried to do too much. As soon as the book started, we were thrown straight into world-threatening-level action and it didn't let up...at all. By saying that, I realise I sound like a pansy but I like getting to learn more about the characters and see them develop before they get their lives and civilizations thrown into mortal peril.
This story does bring together a lot of the threads from its predecessors (which probably lends the book its hasty feeling..) and wraps everything up beautifully - the ending is kind of like one of those films where you think the good guys are all out, the sad music plays (..I cry..) and then something rousing happens. In context, this is brilliant, but I did think that either another book should have been written or this one should have been longer - evidently Snyder just had too much left to do in 317 pages...All told though, the series is still great and the characterisation is absolutely fantastic (I swear I could live happily ever after with our dashing male lead!).
Overall: Read as part of the trilogy, this book is a great conclusion to the Study series - as with the earlier two, there's plenty of evil vs good, romance and magic and it's fabulous - go start at the beginning right away!
