Magic Study (Poison Study #2) by Maria V Snyder

Pages: 419
Publisher: MIRA Books
Released: May 2008

Plot: After travelling back to the home Yelena was taken from, Yelena is then sent to control her magic in Sitia where she must learn to master her magic in just a year or face death. Alongside the brother who resents her return Yelena has to worry about someone kidnapping females. Can Yelena learn to control her magic and cope with the battle between good and evil?

Good Points: At first I wasn't really that keen on this book, I think I was just expecting so much from it after reading Poison study that I just felt a little let down. Valek wasn't in it half as much but we did get to see more of Yelena's personality and the beginnings of her attempts to control her magic.
Yelena also makes quite a lot of new friends which was nice, though slightly strange when one of them is a horse addicted to peppermints - which Yelena always seemed to promise to give throughout the book but never actually did.
Some of the new characters such as her cousin Nutty had a good character base which I hope will be developed later on in the series with the inclusion and better return of Janco and Ari.
Towards the ending the book did get a little better and I loved the whole plot of the mystery guy stealing females from the towns. Also the big ending left me hooked wanting more. I am definitely looking forward to Cahil's plan for revenge. Mwoo hahahahaa (evil laugh)

Bad Points: Like I've said already too many times, Valek wasn't in it nearly as much. This left out quite a lot of the humour and sarcasm that I loved in Poison study. The whole tactics weren't as good as the first book in my opinion as well (again I think this has to do with Valek missing).
Also I love you Valek but seriously stop calling Yelena 'Love' after every damn thing you say it is so annoying after a while!

To Sum Up... To be honest this book was nothing like its previous. Although Yelena still runs into trouble, Valek didn't appear until late into the book. In the end though I liked it. I thought the plot was good and left it off to a good cliffhanger but in no way did it compare to Poison study which was just amazing.
Good read though and definitely a page turner.
Looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Fire Study.