Dawn Study - Book Review

Dawn Study - Book Review

Maria. V. Snyder

YA Fantasy

(Soul Finder Book 3)

UK PUBLISHER: Harlequin / Mira Ink

Other books in the Soul Finder Series:

Night Study

Shadow Study

Synopsis:

Despite the odds, Yelena and Valek have forged an irrevocable bond and a family that transcends borders. Now, when their two homelands stand on the brink of war, they must fight with magic and cunning to thwart an Ixia plot to invade Sitia.

Yelena seeks to break the hold of the insidious Theobroma that destroys a person’s resistance to magical persuasion. But the Cartel is determined to keep influential citizens and Sitian diplomats in their thrall and Yelena at bay. With every bounty hunter after her, Yelena is forced to make a dangerous deal.

With might and magic, Valek peels back the layers of betrayal surrounding the Commander. At its rotten core lies a powerful magician and his latest discovery. The fate of all rests upon two unlikely weapons. One may turn the tide. The other could spell the end of everything. 

Review:

From beginning to end, I have loved this series. All nine books of it! However while this final book wasn't without it’s flaws, it still brought everything to a satisfying conclusion. All the characters (both new and old) came together for one last adventure, and together they helped put the world to rights.

Ixia is preparing to invade Sitia with a weapon created to wipe out magic. Yet with the magicians under the influence of Theobroma, their minds controlled by the cartel - Yelena and Valek find themselves trapped between their two fighting nations. Now with Yelena heavily pregnant, they are determined to bring about peace before their child can be born, but they will require the help of their friends if they are to defeat old enemies… 

This book is told from several character view points, however Yelena’s POV remains my favourite. For all her trials, she is still very much the same girl we all came to know in Poison Study, and I especially like that without her magic, she is back to relying on her initial wit to survive. 

Valek’s POV though comes in at a close second, and I love the emotional insight we’ve had into his character. Getting Valek’s backstory was one of the best things about this series - along with meeting his family. As strange as it sounds, its also nice to see him getting older. Unable to rely on his physical abilites, he wins his battles through strategy and skill, unlike the previous books where he was just an awesome, “I can conquer all” assassin. 

I guess my biggest nit-pick with this book though was how the plot fell into a repetitive, characters captured/characters rescued sort of pattern. We went through so much of this in the previous book and I felt it got a little silly. No one learned from their mistakes! I kept feeling all “I’ve read this before”, however the dialog and humour (generally supplied by Ari and Janco) stopped me from getting bored. 

This book also offers a lot of insight into the commander and the ending scene between him and Valek  blew my mind. I would have read through even more capture/rescues scenes so long as I ended up with that same finale. It was grand!

Otherwise everything wrapped up very smoothly. However I feel there is plenty potential for a spin off featuring the next generation of trouble makers. I would really love to see this happen, because saying goodbye to this world and characters is truly heart-wrenching. All in all - while I only give this book 3 stars, I would give the Soul Finder Trilogy as a whole a solid 4!

It’s been an awesome magical journey! I cant wait to see what Maria. V. Snyder will write next!

How about you guys? Have any you read this series? If so what did you think? And if not, please give me your excuses as to why?!!

:)