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rental's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
I hated how fickle the characters were in this book, and there were several (many) moments in the book where I just wanted to stop reading due to the characters’ stupidity. I also disliked the random time skips in the book, which felt arbitrary and lazy. Furthermore, I felt the book did a lot of telling and not showing.
However, at the end of the day, I did finish the book and it did have some redeemable moments. I’ve also never felt as much need to tell someone else about what’s happening in the book than I did for this one. Kind of like reality tv, but in a way that left me feeling a little more literate.
However, at the end of the day, I did finish the book and it did have some redeemable moments. I’ve also never felt as much need to tell someone else about what’s happening in the book than I did for this one. Kind of like reality tv, but in a way that left me feeling a little more literate.
amethystbookwyrm's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Rachel Carter for giving me this book to review.
Ryiah is now an apprentice in the combat faction of magic but everything is just begining. She has 4 years left until she becomes a mage, but it is not going to be easy as her sexist training master hates her. She is sharing this experience with her best friend Ella, her twin brother Alex and an older apprentice Ian who seems to like her. But she cannot stop her attraction to her friend/rival Prince Darren who is betrothed to her bully. Just when Ryiah starts to get use to her new life, a fellow apprentice is killed and they are drawn into a brewing conflict between Jerar and neighbouring country Caltoth.
Apprentice is the very good sequel to First Year, as I could not stop reading it and had to find out what happened next, and even after I finished it I could not stop thinking about it. This book has more action and romance than the last book. However, the one minor problem with this book was that because it was set over 4 years I felt it skipped over too much and only focused on certain things at the expense of others.
I really liked Ryiah as she is stubborn and determined, and she was a normal person with normal flaws, but she was a bit obsessed with boys in this book. I could never figure out what Darren was going to do next, as one second I really liked him and the next I hated him and this happened though out the book. One person I felt very sorry for was Ian, as I felt Ryiah used him. I also loved the secondary character, especially Ella and Alex and I liked getting to know Ryiah and Alex’s charming younger brother Derrick.
This book was very good and I am really looking forward to the next book Candidate. I would recommend to fans for the first book in the Black Mage series, First Year.
This and my other reviews can be found at Amethyst Bookwyrm
Ryiah is now an apprentice in the combat faction of magic but everything is just begining. She has 4 years left until she becomes a mage, but it is not going to be easy as her sexist training master hates her. She is sharing this experience with her best friend Ella, her twin brother Alex and an older apprentice Ian who seems to like her. But she cannot stop her attraction to her friend/rival Prince Darren who is betrothed to her bully. Just when Ryiah starts to get use to her new life, a fellow apprentice is killed and they are drawn into a brewing conflict between Jerar and neighbouring country Caltoth.
Apprentice is the very good sequel to First Year, as I could not stop reading it and had to find out what happened next, and even after I finished it I could not stop thinking about it. This book has more action and romance than the last book. However, the one minor problem with this book was that because it was set over 4 years I felt it skipped over too much and only focused on certain things at the expense of others.
I really liked Ryiah as she is stubborn and determined, and she was a normal person with normal flaws, but she was a bit obsessed with boys in this book. I could never figure out what Darren was going to do next, as one second I really liked him and the next I hated him and this happened though out the book. One person I felt very sorry for was Ian, as I felt Ryiah used him. I also loved the secondary character, especially Ella and Alex and I liked getting to know Ryiah and Alex’s charming younger brother Derrick.
This book was very good and I am really looking forward to the next book Candidate. I would recommend to fans for the first book in the Black Mage series, First Year.
This and my other reviews can be found at Amethyst Bookwyrm
amandalynn's review against another edition
5.0
I wanted more action and this book delivered. words can't even describe how much of an emotional rollercoaster that I have been on the last couple of days..loved this more then the first book! keep em coming :)
koalabaer's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
redamancyreads's review against another edition
5.0
I just finished this and I am about to dive into book 3 but I had to make myself stop and write this review first because I NEED YOU GUYS TO READ THIS SERIES.
I need it.
For real.
It's so good.
I can't get enough of Ryn. I love her. I also love Ella because she's just awesome and of course who doesn't absolutely LOVE Alex? And yes, I also love Darren. But I also hate him a little bit. I mean, it's just part of who he is! You love and hate him.
He does things that piss you off even though they are for good reasons.
But whatever...just read this series! Okay time for book 3! <3
I need it.
For real.
It's so good.
I can't get enough of Ryn. I love her. I also love Ella because she's just awesome and of course who doesn't absolutely LOVE Alex? And yes, I also love Darren. But I also hate him a little bit. I mean, it's just part of who he is! You love and hate him.
He does things that piss you off even though they are for good reasons.
But whatever...just read this series! Okay time for book 3! <3
_camk_'s review against another edition
3.0
What I like about the first two Black Mage books is the move in the timeline. So many books have a story line along with relationship that may only span over a couple days or weeks. But this series, you see the characters grow and develop.
vikcs's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
5.0
OMG! I loved this book. If you didn't read the firs one I recommend reading that first, since this one continies from the point where the first ended. Not to mention that without knowing the characters back story it would be hard to understand the plot.
Also for those who didn't read First year, this review contains mild spoilers.
The story spans over 4 years so a lot of things happens in it. It is really action packed despite the fact that the characters still in the learning stages. There is also an underlying romantic thread, but it only complicates thing in the long run mainly because of Ry stupidity. I could understand that she wanted to get over er heartache but she only considered herself, didn't care about the ones around her, the ones she hurt during the so called 'healing process'.
Unfortunatley the things she mostly dispays in this story are ambitions, self-pity and selfishness. Not the best ones, yeah? Sure she is strong too, but she strats to lose her 'purity' he had before starting the school. Ry goes through a lot of hardship every day, she has to work harder than the others, her powers not just handed to her she has to work fro them, unlike some of her classmates. And somewher along the way she became bitter about it. So her personality started down a slippery slope, not so sure how will she balance it out later.
I never liked Alex character and it didn't change.
Darres stayed a mistery, he still have a kind of two sided personality, but it became clearer that wich one of it is his true one. I like him.
However I love how the story progresses in an up and down way like a roller-coaster. I love the drama, the constant twist and turns. A really great story and I loved it despite my dislike of Ry. Looking forward to the next book.
Also for those who didn't read First year, this review contains mild spoilers.
The story spans over 4 years so a lot of things happens in it. It is really action packed despite the fact that the characters still in the learning stages. There is also an underlying romantic thread, but it only complicates thing in the long run mainly because of Ry stupidity. I could understand that she wanted to get over er heartache but she only considered herself, didn't care about the ones around her, the ones she hurt during the so called 'healing process'.
Unfortunatley the things she mostly dispays in this story are ambitions, self-pity and selfishness. Not the best ones, yeah? Sure she is strong too, but she strats to lose her 'purity' he had before starting the school. Ry goes through a lot of hardship every day, she has to work harder than the others, her powers not just handed to her she has to work fro them, unlike some of her classmates. And somewher along the way she became bitter about it. So her personality started down a slippery slope, not so sure how will she balance it out later.
I never liked Alex character and it didn't change.
Darres stayed a mistery, he still have a kind of two sided personality, but it became clearer that wich one of it is his true one. I like him.
However I love how the story progresses in an up and down way like a roller-coaster. I love the drama, the constant twist and turns. A really great story and I loved it despite my dislike of Ry. Looking forward to the next book.
claire_loves_books's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed some aspects of this book but I wish there had been less emphasis on the 'romance' aspect.
Unlike the previous book this one is set over 4 years across the whole of the country, and it was interesting to visit the other areas of Jerar. I feel like the different places could have been described a bit more a made a bit more unique (it was a bit generic fantasy-land in places). It was quite refreshing to have a book set at a school to not be one year per book but I did feel like the timeline was quite jumpy, suddenly we'd be three months further forward.
I would have liked more magic- Ry does do a fair amount of magic but none of it's explained as well as it was in the first book so I didn't feel like I was along side Ryiah as she did it.
However everything was overshadowed by the romance, I am really done with love triangles and tragically the love triangle plays a big part in Apprentice.there's so much drama and angst as Ryiah bounces back and forth between Ian (who seems to like her and want a relationship) and Darren (who seems to hate Ryiah most the time, occasionally throwing her a breadcrumb to keep her on the hook). Ryiah spend so much time choosing between them and seems to think she can either be with Ian or have something from Darren (I have no idea what she actually expects, he's been engaged to Priscilla since the previous book) she doesn't even consider taking a step back from both of them for the time being- I wanted to shout at her "You don't need a man! Be your own person!" (but I didn't because shouting at books makes you look crazy).
I just felt like Ryiah didn't develop much as a character- Alex and Ella's relationship develops as they both grow up, Derrick grows up, Ian grows up, we even get more depth to Priscilla but Ryiah doesn't seem to develop much from the first book and spends most the book alternately lusting after/ moping over/ being miserable about Darren, and it's a long book- 4 years for her- I feel like Darren has pretty much ruined 4 years of her life for her and I don't really get how she thinks he could possibly care about or respect her after everything he's put her through.
I didn't like Darren of what he was doing to Ryiah and I didn't like Ryiah of what she was doing to Ian, I just wanted to shake them both.
Unlike the previous book this one is set over 4 years across the whole of the country, and it was interesting to visit the other areas of Jerar. I feel like the different places could have been described a bit more a made a bit more unique (it was a bit generic fantasy-land in places). It was quite refreshing to have a book set at a school to not be one year per book but I did feel like the timeline was quite jumpy, suddenly we'd be three months further forward.
I would have liked more magic- Ry does do a fair amount of magic but none of it's explained as well as it was in the first book so I didn't feel like I was along side Ryiah as she did it.
However everything was overshadowed by the romance, I am really done with love triangles and tragically the love triangle plays a big part in Apprentice.there's so much drama and angst as Ryiah bounces back and forth between Ian (who seems to like her and want a relationship) and Darren (who seems to hate Ryiah most the time, occasionally throwing her a breadcrumb to keep her on the hook). Ryiah spend so much time choosing between them and seems to think she can either be with Ian or have something from Darren (I have no idea what she actually expects, he's been engaged to Priscilla since the previous book) she doesn't even consider taking a step back from both of them for the time being- I wanted to shout at her "You don't need a man! Be your own person!" (but I didn't because shouting at books makes you look crazy).
I just felt like Ryiah didn't develop much as a character- Alex and Ella's relationship develops as they both grow up, Derrick grows up, Ian grows up, we even get more depth to Priscilla but Ryiah doesn't seem to develop much from the first book and spends most the book alternately lusting after/ moping over/ being miserable about Darren, and it's a long book- 4 years for her- I feel like Darren has pretty much ruined 4 years of her life for her and I don't really get how she thinks he could possibly care about or respect her after everything he's put her through.
Spoiler
In the end it's all supposedly made okay after it turns out he has though he's loved her, but I don't like the whole 'be horrible and push the girl way for her own good' it just doesn't strike me as something you'd do to someone you respected and its kind of twilight-esque.I didn't like Darren of what he was doing to Ryiah and I didn't like Ryiah of what she was doing to Ian, I just wanted to shake them both.
aisog01's review against another edition
3.0
No taka książka świetna do sprzątania. Dobrze się bawiłam ale żadnego przywiązania ani emocji nie ma.