Early Review – Night Study (Soulfinders, Book 2) by Maria V. Snyder (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Mira
Release Date: January 26, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0778318750
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Soulfinders series, 5th book in the Study series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the 2nd book in the Soulfinders series and the 5th book in the Study series by Snyder. The third (and final) book in the Soulfinders series will be titled, Dawn Study, and is scheduled to release in 2017. This was a decent continuation of the Soulfinders series. I really enjoyed Valek’s parts of the story but some parts of the story were pretty boring and pacing was a bit slow.

Yelena still does not have any magic but the plot surrounding Owen Moon and a group called the Cartel thickens. Valek is determined to protect Yelena from Owen but the Commander is starting to doubt Valek’s loyalty to him. Yelena and Valek are struggling to figure out what Owen, the Cartel, and the Commander are up to before it is too late and war breaks out between their two home countries.

This book was a mixed bag for me. The story is told from Yelena, Leif, and Valek’s points of view. I have never liked Yelena as a character and my dislike for her continues. She continues to make life difficult for those around her by being rash and inconsiderate and honestly her portions of the story were a drag for me.

I have always been fairly ambivalent about Leif, so his portions of the story were okay but not all that engaging. Valek’s portions of the story were the most interesting; I have always thought he is the most intriguing character in this series. However even Valek comes off as a bit overprotective and alpha-male at points in this story (although you can’t really blame him, Yelena has absolutely no sense of self preservation).

The plot is generally boring and I didn’t really find it all that interesting. It mainly focuses around Valek and Yelena trying to figure out what this Cartel group is up to and why magicians are disappearing. Wrapped into that story is Valek’s issues with the Commander not trusting him and keeping secrets from him.

The main part of this story that really redeemed the book was finally learning more of Valek’s history and meeting his family. This portion of the story was very well done and fascinating. The whole plot behind why Valek is immune to magic is also explored and expanded on. I almost stopped reading this book a couple times, but then we got to these interesting portions about Valek and his family and I was hooked.

Overall this was a decent continuation of this series. I thought the plot was a bit boring and the pacing a bit inconsistent. I continue to dislike Yelena as a character and feel like the whole story would be better off without her. However Valek is an awesome character and I really loved the background about his immunity to magic and meeting his family. Having this towards the end of the book engaged me in the story and made me curious to see how this all plays out in the next book of the series. I don’t think this is a great fantasy book, but I would recommend if you are a huge fan of the Study series..or of Valek like me 🙂

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge