Night Study (Soulfinder, #2) (Study, #5) (The Chronicles of Ixia, #8)

by Maria V Snyder

[Artemis]

After Shadow Study ended in a cliffhanger, I’ve been patiently waiting for Night Study, the second installment in the Soulfinders trilogy, the fifth in the Study series, and the eighth in The Chronicles of Ixia series. And after a year of not-so-patiently waiting for Night Study, I was not disappointed in this fantastic sequel!

Night Study begins right after Yelena’s cliffhanger of a statement in Shadow Study – and thank god it did. I don’t think I could have handled not hearing Valek’s response to Yelena. But back to the meat of the story. Yelena and Valek, along with Devlin, Leif, Ari, Janco and assassin-in-training Onora, continue the hunt for rogue magician Owen Moon. Their path leads them all over Ixia and Sitia, where the uncover conspiracies, experience personal upheaval and bear witness to the escalating tension between the two countries. Night Study has plenty of action and excitement, along with fantastic character and plot development.

Plot wise, Night Study expands the story on a much larger scale than Shadow Study. A lot of things are happening at the same time and thanks to Snyder’s employ of multiple POV’s, we are able to experience everything without creating unnecessary moments that take away from crucial developments. There is also a lot of character development, particularly concerning Valek (!!). I loved getting to see more of him in this book and I expect Dawn Study will have a few more secrets to share. Also this book had more Janco, who I adore for his ability to make me laugh out loud. Relationships in this book were also put through the ringer – Valek and the Commander was a particularly interesting one to witness. I won’t spoil too much here, but I’m really looking forward to see how this all plays out in Dawn Study. What I loved about all this development was the characters really beginning to question their alliances, learn more about themselves, their true abilities, and their pasts.
Snyder’s writing is easy to follow, even as she switches POV’s between characters. She manages to create vivid settings and situations without weighing down the reader with longwinded over-descriptions that would slow the action down.

Night Study is a great reads for fans of Snyder’s series like myself. I am looking forward to and also slightly dreading the conclusion in Dawn Study!

Review is also heret