The Chronicles of Ixia // by Maria V. Snyder

1. Poison Study
   1. Assassin Study
2. Magic Study
3. Fire Study
   1. Power Study
4. Storm Glass
5. Sea Glass
6. Spy Glass
   1. Ice Study
7. Shadow Study
8. Night Study
   1. Shattered Glass
9. Dawn Study

I first read these books a few years ago and really enjoyed them, so I was pretty excited to use some Christmas money to purchase the whole series in paperback this past year.  With piles of books awaiting my attention, I probably shouldn’t have picked up Poison Study, but I just felt like it was what I wanted to read, and I did! And honestly, although this series is nine books long (plus short stories) and clocks in over 4000 pages altogether, I can’t really regret delving back into it, because these were exactly the books I was looking for.

One aside before I really get into this review – these books were originally published as three separate trilogies (Study, Glass, Soulfinder).  You could probably skip the Glass trilogy if you wanted to and still get what is happening overall, but the books really do build on each other. All of the short stories, except for Shattered Glass, are found on the author’s website for free and do add fun backgrounds to different things.  However, you basically have to read Ice Study, which genuinely should have been included at the beginning of Shadow Study – it’s really a prologue/introduction for that book with some fairly vital information in it.  ANYWAY

The first three books are narrated by Yelena, a young woman who is imprisoned, for murder, in the country of Ixia.  We gradually learn that several years ago the king/royal family of Ixia were deposed and assassinated and the country is now run by a man known as The Commander, who has a very strict code of conduct to which everyone must adhere.  There aren’t a lot of personal freedoms in Ixia – you need permission to do basically everything – but people have jobs and homes and aren’t being ruled by a despotic magician, so there’s that.  The Commander is particularly strict about magic – if you have it, you’re killed, end of story.  Magicians, according to the Commander, cannot be trusted ever.

Which makes relations with the neighboring country to the south, Sitia, a little exciting at times, since that country is ruled by a small group of Master Magicians and a council composed of one representative from each clan in the country.  Many people in Sitia have magic, and it’s used for all sorts of things.

The story begins with Yelena being taken from the dungeon to meet with the Commander’s right-hand man/assassin Valek.  There are a lot of stories about Valek, how he personally killed the king and his family, how Valek slaughters every magician born in Ixia, and how he knows all and sees all.  Valek offers Yelena a chance at life: she is next in line on death row, but if she wants she can instead take on the job as taste-tester for the Commander.  If she’s good at it she might live for a while longer.  Yelena takes the job, and that’s when things get interesting.

I really like these books because I really like Yelena.  She’s intelligent and determined, and rarely makes stupid decisions for the sake of making the story more dramatic.

Another things I was realizing when I was reading these books – there isn’t even a hint of the fantasy tropes that really get on my nerves, namely the whole “she wasn’t like the other girls because she was into fighting” especially combined with “she must overcome the patriarchy to earn even a smidge of respect!!!”  Instead, Snyder gives us a world where men and women are equals, without a lot of fuss.  Men and women do the same jobs, without a lot of fuss, in both Ixia and Sitia.  At one point in the series, a military officer in Ixia is demoted and punished because it’s discovered that he hasn’t been treating women equally.  But all of this is done without a lot of drama or fanfare.  I’ve always felt that stories about sexism being overcome in fantasy worlds are kind of dumb – if you’re making up a fantasy world, why don’t you just go ahead and make one up that looks like what you want??  And Snyder has done just that.  I can’t remember a single time in the story that Yelena (or the narrator of the Glass series, Opal) is told that she can’t do something because she’s a girl, and I just find that quite refreshing as I find plots about women overcoming the patriarchy to be SO. BORING.

The middle trilogy, the Glass books, are narrated by a different character, Opal.  Sadly, I don’t like Opal nearly as well as Yelena.  She tends to whine a lot.  She’s kind of rude and unfriendly, and complains a lot about not having friends without recognizing how unfriendly she is.  The Glass books are also longer than the others for some reason and it felt like they were never going to end.  Honestly, the  next time I read this series I’ll probably skip these three because Opal just isn’t worth my time.  A lot happens in those books that is kind of important to the overall plot, so I think they are worth reading once in the context of the series, but while the rest of the books all got 4 and 4.5 stars from me, Opals were 3* – just sort of there.  I also don’t really care for the way Opal’s love story unwinds, which is definitely part of my ambivalence towards those three books.

The final three books are non-stop action, and while I enjoyed them, it does get A Bit Much at times.  Snyder has a habit throughout the entire series of having people get kidnapped – I kind of wish I had started counting how many times it happened – it’s basically her favorite plot twist, and it happens a LOT in these three books as well.  Instead of a straight first-person narration like we had in the other books, the final three books also have some chapters of third-person narration from the perspectives of other characters.  Overall I liked it and it meant that the action was able to keep going because the reader could always be where something was happening, but it also meant that sometimes the story felt a little choppy, as we were constantly hopping back and forth between characters.  It wasn’t as big of a deal when there were only two or three threads, but sometimes there are more than that and I found myself almost forgetting what was happening five characters ago.

All in all, if you enjoy fantasy, I think you’ll find a lot to like about these books.  Yelena is such an engaging, resourceful character.  The world-building is done well and is completely absorbing.  While Snyder definitely relies a little too heavily on having people kidnapped to move her plot along, overall the stories move well.  I would totally read more books set in this universe – maybe ones about the next generation??

Like I said, this is my second time reading this series, so if you’re interested in my original thoughts, you can find them here.

Rearview Mirror // April 2020

Still operating under the “better late than never” premise, here’s the roundup from April!

Favorite April Read

It’s just super hard to top rereading a book that’s been on my list of favorites so long that I can’t even remember the first time I read it!  So I have to go with Anne of Avonlea for this one!

Most Disappointing April Read

Despite the fact that I did mostly enjoy this one, I’m putting Sofia Lundberg’s The Red Address Book here for this month.  There was just a lot of potential that never felt like this book achieved, plus I was really over the insistence that the main love story was super romantic when it was mostly just aggravating.

Other April Reads

• 3.5*
  • Robin Kane series by Eileen Hill
• 4*
  • The Washington Wolves series by Karla Sorensen
  • His Good Opinion by Nancy Kelley
  • The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
  • Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (I read the first three books in this series in April, but will review them with the rest of the books, which I read in May)
  • Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark
  • A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
  • Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
• 4.5*
  • Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
  • Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
• 5*
  • Leave It to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse

April Stats

• Total Number of Books Read:  19 (15 physical; 4 Kindle)
• Total Pages Read:  5857
• Average Star Rating for April:  4.02 (highest month of the year so far)
• Longest Book:  Fire Study (441 pages)
• Shortest Book:  The Mystery of Glengary Castle (188 pages)
• Oldest Book:  Anne of Avonlea (published 1909)
• Newest Book:  Focused (published 2020)
• Number of New-to-Me Authors:  5

April DNFs

I was trying to read a few more of my oldest Kindle books, but had two more fails in a row.  Did I like not even read book descriptions before downloading them back in 2016?!

Although in fairness White Tiger (by Kylie Chan) does kind of sound like a book I would like.  But it was so, so, SO slow.  I got through 22% of this book and finally bailed.  Absolutely nothing was happening, the main character wasn’t particularly likable, and this book was the first in a trilogy, so while I may have slogged through it on its own, there was no way I was going to read THREE of these books.

I didn’t even make it that far into Veiled Empire by Nathan Gamson – just the first chapter was full of graphic violence and that just ain’t me.

TBR Update

This I keep updated as I go, so it’s current as of today, rather than as of the end of April.  I’m sure it’s off-kilter, though, because I get most of my TBR additions from reading book reviews on all of your lovely blogs, and am now up to almost 700 unread book blogging emails!!!!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m weirdly obsessive with organizing the TBR, and have it on a spreadsheet divided into five different tabs:

• Standalones:  480 (down one)
• Nonfiction:  117 (holding steady)
• Personal (which includes all books I own (fiction and nonfiction), but lists any series I own as only one entry…):  666 (down four, and a weirdly appropriate number for these bizarre times haha)
• Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series):  243 (up one)
• Mystery Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 114 (holding steady)

Reading Challenge Updates

• #ReadingEurope2020 – visited one country – France (total 4/46 complete)
• #ReadtheUSA2020 – visited three states: Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Washington (total 19/50 complete)
• #SeparatedbyaPondTour – visited the three states above, and no where else!! (Total 33/159 complete.)
• #LitsyAtoZ – 2 books (20/26 complete)
• #BackwardsAtoZ – 10 books (No D through no M on my second list – I’m trying to do this one in order and to see how many times I can get through the alphabet!)

Current Reads

I just started Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson.  While none of Swanson’s books have become instant classics that I loved and wanted to read again and again, I haven’t regretted reading a single one of them as they have all had excellent pacing and engaging stories, so I’m interested to see where this one goes.  I’m also doing a buddy read of Sense & Sensibility, just one chapter a day, which I’m really enjoying.

Up Next 

My probable next five(ish) reads…

• Heidi by Johanna Spyri – I’ve been meaning to reread this book for simply ages.  I’m also planning to read the two sequels, both written by Spyri’s translator, Charles Tritten:  Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children.
• Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome – I’m genuinely excited about reading the next Swallows & Amazons tale!!
• King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry – another reread of a childhood favorite
• The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie – I’m in a Litsy group that is reading one Christie book per month in published order, and this is May’s book!!
• The Snark-Out Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater – another book I’ve been meaning to reread for eons!!

Well that’s the wrap-up for April – maybe I’ll actually get to write some May reviews IN MAY!  :-D  Hope all of you are doing well!!!

April Minireviews (in May) – Part 2

I’m back, with more exciting minireviews!

The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg – 3.5*

//published 2017//

This was a book I read as part of the traveling book club on Litsy (#LMPBC).  It’s the kind of sappy historical fiction that I wouldn’t normally read on my own.  In the present, Doris is super old and weak and struggling to live on her own in………… wow, I’ve blanked.  Sweden, I think.  In the meantime, she’s writing a letter to her niece (Doris doesn’t have any children of her own) telling the story of her life.  The pacing was good, and while I’m not always a fan of the dual timeline, it worked decently here.  I also liked that the story was about Doris while she was still alive, rather than her niece discovering everything after Doris had already died.  It allowed for some actual resolution of some of the things that were happening in the past timeline.

HOWEVER (and there are going to be spoilers in this paragraph) I did NOT buy the true love/star-crossed lovers bit between Doris and Allan.  Allan went on to get married not just once, but TWICE – not exactly the actions of someone whose heart has been broken beyond repair.  Doris dropped everything in her life, abandoning people who actually loved and needed her, on multiple occasions to be with Allan (despite it not working out before).  I especially didn’t understand why she felt like her niece, as a little girl, really needed her, yet never moved back to the US permanently.  It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Part of it is probably just that I have a completely different personality type than Doris.  I wouldn’t have made basically any of the decisions that she made, so I found her tedious after a while.  Still, this wasn’t a bad story.  For me, a bit too sappy/plot twists just for the sake of screwing with your emotions, but some people like that kind of thing.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – 4*

//published 2013//

I’ve been meaning to read this series for quite some time.  Set in Victorian-ish times except not in our world, Isabella is an aristocrat who yearns to break free of society’s constraints so that she can devote her life to science and the study of dragons.  This book is written as though Isabella is publishing her memoirs at a much later date, which worked for the most part, although she has an aggravating habit of referring readers to other works that, of course, don’t actually exist.  This one started slow with a lot about Isabella’s childhood and whatnot.  Luckily, she has a father who cares about her, so when it’s time for her to find a husband, he gathers together a list of eligible young men who he thinks will allow Isabella to at least somewhat continue her studies.  She manages to marry one of these guys and FINALLY the action begins when she convinces her husband to allow her to travel with him as a group heads to a foreign country to study dragons.

There was a lot to like here, which is why I ended up with a 4* rating.  The overall concept is fantastic and the writing is fairly good.  Once Isabella finally makes it to where the dragons live, the pace picks up a lot, with just enough mystery to keep things rolling.  To me, the biggest negative (besides the absurdly unnecessary death of a beloved character at the end – still mad about that) was that this book needed to be set in an alternate universe of our world.  It’s obvious that Brennan is using large parts of England and Europe as a basis for her world’s geography – why not just USE THEM and then everything would make more sense.  Then there wouldn’t have to be so much time spent on boring backgrounds of politics and government (which got significantly worse int he second book).  It would be obvious how far apart things are, giving a sense of distance and time.  Languages would make sense.  EVERYTHING would make more sense.  Creating a completely different world that is basically just the same as ours except with a bunch of different countries and names just made this story unnecessarily confusing.  Overall a pick, but a somewhat aggravated one.

His Good Opinion by Nancy Kelley – 4*

//published 2011//

This is a super straight Pride & Prejudice variation – it’s literally just Darcy’s perspective of the whole book.  It’s done really well and is a nice companion piece, but it lacks Austen’s sparkle.  Part of it is Darcy himself – he’s kind of the straight guy, so to speak, so his inner dialogue isn’t exactly full of jokes, but I always get the impression that Darcy has a lot of snark under his stiff exterior, and that wasn’t in this book at all.  The other big thing this book lacked was any kind of background about Darcy – the author had a great opportunity to show us how Darcy became the man that he is, even if it’s through flashbacks or something, but no – this book starts with Darcy discovering Georgianna’s almost-elopement in Ramsgate and goes from there.  While I’m sticking with my 4* rating for solid writing, this book had a lot of potential that it just didn’t capitalize on.

Washington Wolves Series by Karla Sorensen

• The Bombshell Effect (4*)
• The Ex Effect (3.5*)
• The Marriage Effect (4.5*)

Let me just preface this one by saying these books are kind of trashy.  There’s a decent amount of sex in them and they’re overall pure brain candy.  But sometimes I NEED some pure brain candy, and although these were sexier than I prefer, I really enjoyed the characters and stories, and liked the way the trilogy came together as a whole.

The stories focus on a (fictional) professional football team, the Washington Wolves.  In the first book, the owner of the team dies and his daughter ends up inheriting it.  Of course, some of the team members are nervous about having a random woman in control of their livelihood, especially the star quarterback.  For anyone who reads romance, it’s not going to be a surprise that the quarterback falls for the new owner, but Sorensen does a great job of writing this enemies-to-loves trope and I totally enjoyed it.

The second book was my least favorite of the three, mainly because the main character was my least favorite of three and tended to make what I considered to be dumb decisions, but it was still a good time.

The third book was my favorite, possibly because it employed my all-time favorite trope, marriage of convenience.  It’s done super well here, and there was actually a decent amount of depth concerning the children involved and trying to make things work together.

There’s also going to be a spin-off series from this one. So far only one book has been published (Focused), which I of course also read and enjoyed.

Like I said, these aren’t stellar, thought-provoking reads, but if you’re looking for plain old zone-out relaxation, and don’t mind the sexy times, these were pretty fun.

Alpha Erased // by Aileen Erin

//published 2020//

Oh my, time is flying by!!  Yesterday was the release date for the latest addition to the Alpha Girl series and I totally forgot to post my review!!

While this series is somewhat outside my normal reading fare, I’ve really enjoyed the journey.  Erin writes likable characters and engaging scenarios, and I completely blew through this book as fast as I could.  I’m not sure how well this one would have read without the background of the rest of the series – there are a lot of characters to track and various types of creatures (like fey and werewolves and all that other great paranormal stuff) interact in specific ways in Erin’s world, so I do recommend starting at the beginning and going from there.  (You can read my reviews of the rest of the series here.)

In this story, Tessa is kidnapped, so we spend a lot of the story reading Dastien’s perspective.  I was super stoked to get inside his head for a little bit, because I’m pretty fond of Dastien.  I could have used a smidge less time of him flipping out about Tessa’s disappearance (he’s easily triggered, geez) as that got a bit repetitive, but overall this book just made me like Dastien more than ever.

This book’s strength is also its weakness in a way – it’s heavy on action.  That’s great for keeping the pages turning and keeping me wondering what was going on next, but now awesome for building relationships.  I get that Dastien and Tessa are forever bound to each other etc. but it would have been lovely to see a little more time of Dastien wooing Tessa back after she was kidnapped.

But if you enjoy paranormal adventures, I definitely recommend this series.  It’s great fun and I can’t wait to see which direction Erin heads next!

NB: I received this book as an ARC, which does not impact my review.

April Minireviews (in May)

So once again I’m super behind on reviews.  Here we are in May, and I have written basically zero April reviews!  So even though my memory is a little hazy on some of the ones I read earlier in the month, here we go!

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs (finished April 7) – 4*

//published 2018//

This is one of the hazy ones.  I picked up this book because the subtitle was “A Novel in Clues,” which intrigued me.  However, the clues were sadly lacking, and even the mystery wasn’t as engaging as I wanted it to be.  It’s definitely more novel-y than thriller-y, and there is a LOT of math in this book.  It is really more of a straight novel, looking at a family after the sudden death of the patriarch. There is a bit of suspense, but it is not the driving force of the story. Still, I did overall enjoy the story and the characters, even if this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.  There were also a lot of dark themes throughout, which I wasn’t completely prepared for – child abuse, vigilante justice, drug abuse, suicide, etc.  In a way, this story was a lot more about the main character coming to grips with her family, both adopted and not, and her place with them, than it was about Isaac’s mysterious equation.  While I did give this book 4* for being a read that kept my attention, it wasn’t a book that I wanted to go back and read again.  And I still feel a little ripped off about the misleading “novel in clues” bit!

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (finished April 8) – 5*

//published 1909//

Frankly, I’m always going to give every book in this series 5* because I have no objectivity.  I’ve read these books since I was a little girl, over and over, and I love every page of them.  A while ago some other blog that I follow was reading these books for the first time (I honestly can’t remember which blog this was or I would link to it) and she seemed to feel that there was a real up and down to the series.  If I remember correctly, she liked about every other book and felt like the rest were filler content.  However, in my own prejudiced way I absolutely love this entry to the series.  Here, Anne has set aside her personal ambitions to do the right thing for the people she loves – and comes to find that it was the right thing for her as well.  While not preachy, there is an overall reminder throughout the story that sometimes life doesn’t go the way we had planned out, and that’s not always a negative thing.

If I have a criticism of this story, it’s that I would love to have more stories involving Anne’s group of friends.  They are such a fun crowd, and it would have been nice to Diana’s romance mature instead of just sort of appearing.  Still, this is still a book that I love and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting.

Leave It To Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse (finished April 10) – 5*

//published 1924//

No one can make me feel better about life than Wodehouse.  From the opening chapter of “Dark Plottings at Blandings Castle” through the delights of “Sensational Occurrence at a Poetry Reading” and “Almost Entirely About Flower-Pots” (followed by “More on the Flower-Pot Theme”), this book made me laugh out loud on more than on occasion.  Yes, Psmith himself can be a bit much, but the overall story is so fun and full of such fun characters and completely absurd situations that I could barely put this one down while I was reading it.  It’s another reread that just gets better every time I revisit it.

Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark (finished April 12) – 4*

//published 1996//

Despite the fact that I quite enjoy mystery/thrillers, I’ve read almost nothing by MHC.  Recently, I got an entire box of mysteries, including several of her stand-alone titles, and this was the first that I picked up.  The first chapter opens with the main character, Maggie, trapped inside of a coffin (SO CREEPY).  From there, we go back in time a few weeks to find out how she ended up there.  The hook of that opening, knowing that that doom is yet to come, is absolutely fantastic, and the pacing from there is perfect.  While I really enjoyed this story a lot, there’s a supposed romantic relationship between Maggie and one of the other characters that felt like the big weak point of the story and was what kept me from giving this more than 4*.  A lot of the climax hinges on his desperation to find her, but I couldn’t quite find that believable since we hadn’t really had much interaction between the two of them during the rest of the book.  Still, this was a great one-off read that made me quite intrigued to read some more of Clark’s writing.  Plus, it randomly took me to Rhode Island for my #ReadtheUSA2020 challenge, which was a great bonus!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (finished April 13) – 4.5*

//published 2013//

If you’re noticing a reread theme in April, you would be correct.  When I’m feeling stressed or not really feeling like reading, I go back to revisit old friends.  I find books that I’ve loved in the past to be comforting and safe to read.  I’ve been wanting to reread Fangirl for quite some time.  I had only read it once before and I really liked it, and I was curious as to whether or not I would still enjoy it the second time around.  The answer – yes!  I may have even enjoyed it more.  I’ve read several of Rowell’s books, and genuinely feel like this age of character is her sweet spot.  She captures Cath’s insecurities and uncertainties so well, while making Cath be more than just those things.  I really love how romance isn’t the driving story here – instead, we also see a lot of family relationships that Cath is trying to learn how to balance as she heads into adulthood.  I would absolutely love to have a story during this exact period of time focused on Cath’s twin, Wren, who was also going through a lot of growth and change during this time, although in a completely different way.

One thing that kind of made me roll my eyes a few times was the fact that Cath and her sister have lived in Omaha all their lives and are now going to school in Lincoln, but they act like the other students there are basically a bunch of hicks instead of cool city people like Cath and Wren are.  And like… Omaha is NOT that big of a city (I’ve been there), and Omaha and Lincoln are not that far apart, so that felt a little random to me.  However, overall this is book is so funny and well-written that I was able to forgive it a few small issues and just roll with what was happening.

Robin Kane series // by Eileen Hill

Oh hey, I’m back!!  I did so well getting all caught up on all my reviews through the end of March… and then disappeared again!  The craziness of life just isn’t letting up and I have been working a lot – loads of transplanting and watering going on at the greenhouse!!

• The Mystery of the Blue Pelican (1966)
• The Mystery of the Phantom (1966)
• The Mystery of Glengary Castle (1966)
• The Candle Shop Mystery (1967)
• Mystery in the Clouds (1971)
• The Monster of Wolf Point (1971)

I’m not exactly sure when I first discovered this series, but in the books I’ve written that I’ve owned them since 1998.  They remind me very strongly of the Trixie Belden books (although I have no idea which actually came first!) – there is a spunky 13-year-old tomboy heroine with freckles and a bobbed haircut who loves horses.  Her best friend is slightly more timid and girly and is super rich and also super lonely.  Her best friend has a super nice and very good looking older brother who can drive. The heroine also has a nice older brother, although to change things up this heroine also has a younger sister.

Overall, this series was just 3* all the way through.  They aren’t horrible, but they are completely unbelievable (way more unbelievable than Trixie), and they are mildly racist thanks to the era in which they were written – while the Mexicans in the story are portrayed with affection, they are quite stereotyped.  Honestly, the whole series feels more like a television series than books – a very sitcom vibe to them, to the point that I sometimes felt like they should have come with a laugh track for the terrible jokes.  My notes for all these books say something along the lines of “fun, but completely impractical,” and that basically sums it up.

So if you’re like me and you enjoy reading random MG mysteries written in the 1960s, you should totally pick these up.  But if not… give them a miss, because they really aren’t anything amazing.

However, I did really like the cover art, which is probably why I bought them in the first place!