Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

So far, I've managed to survive. You would think after being kidnapped as a child, imprisoned in my teens and released to become a poison taster, I would have endured enough. But no. The discovery of my magical abilities—powers forbidden in Ixia—has resulted in an execution order. My only chance is to flee to Sitia, my long-lost birthplace.

But Sitia is unfamiliar. I'm treated like an enemy—even by my own brother. Plus I can't control my powers. I want to learn about my magic, but there isn't time. A rogue magician has emerged and I'm targeted as his next victim.

Will my magical abilities save me…or be my downfall (barnesandnoble.com)?

I must say that I was a little disappointed with this one. This is the second book in the Study trilogy. It is still a good book but not nearly as good as Poison Study.

In this book Yelena is in Sitia. One majorly bad thing, for me at least, is that Valek is missing for most of the book. When he shows up it gets a lot better. New characters are introduced, one being Cahil. I think that he is supposed to be "into" Yelena but I am just not felling it. The interactions between them are not all that great.

Yelena also meets her family in this story but I felt like those interactions were weak as well. I didn't really like the character development of her brother either. Shouldn't we have spent more time getting to know him? They are in the same place for most of the story but he is hardly mentioned.

I don't really like where Yelena's character development has gone. She was locked in a dungeon and tortured for years in the first book. Now all of the sudden she is saving the world, over and over again? I am just glad that Snyder didn't make her a master magician right away (maybe in the future she will). That would be laying it on a little thick. Maybe by the third book Yelena will be Queen of both world's? I will have to read on to find out...

All-in-all this is a sequel and definitely worth reading if you liked Poison Study but don't expect it to be as good as Poison Study.

Almost a four! But overall: 3/5