lberestecki 's review for:

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

3.0

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This story was told from different characters' POVs, which can work but didn't here. Switching back and forth pulled me out of the story, particularly because Valek's chapters kept jumping back and forth between past and present. I didn't feel that the look into his past really added anything to the story here and I think this book would've been improved without it - that story could've made a decent novella. My other major issue with the book was that the big twist at the end is a) a lazy trope

Spoiler

that creators often use when they don't know what else to do with a female character

and b) SO OBVIOUS. Like it was SO OBVIOUS that that was why Yelena's magic was blocked. I'll keep reading the series but this was just an okay book in my opinion.

Poison Study is one of my favorite books, but no other book Snyder has written has managed to live up to it for me.