Dawn Study (The Chronicles of Ixia Book 9)

“Because now the baby was tangible. Not just a concept or a belief. Real. Excitement mixed with fear, and the desire to protect crashed through him like a burning hot wave. He staggered to his knees under the weight.”Unfortunately I have to say I was disappointed with the final book in one of my most loved series. It did not live up to the exciting, magical, assassin, butt-kicking book I’ve loved in the past.To start the review, a look at Valek an Yelena. Their voices and mannerisms in the book have changed, but that didn’t bother me much at all. Valek the Assassin is slowly turning into Papa-Valek, and Yelena has when she calls “baby-brain”. Where Valek was more trusting of Yelena to handle herself, he seems to worry more for her safety and doesn’t approve of her putting herself in danger, and vice-versa with Yelena. Out little couple is growing up and worrying about their future as a family.What really threw this book off was the entire plot line. It seemed to be bouncing around everywhere. In other book in the series, groups would split and every other chapter or so would update on one group or the other. In Dawn Study, however, there were so many separate groups by the time one rolled around the reader would have forgotten what that group was up to in the first place!There were also more than a believable number of kidnappings/captures in this book, even for a romantic fantasy! Every other chapter one of the characters was in need of rescue, which is disappointing for this series because I loved how the characters were mostly self reliant or always had each other to get out of the tough situations.I did love that Fisk and his Helper’s Guild had a major roll in this book. His little guild of street kids has almost grown into an army of their own, and they the ins and outs almost as well as any trained man of Valek’s. It’s great is see what started as a insignificant character in one book grow to become so important over the series.Overall, Dawn Study was good. It defiantly wasn’t what I was hoping for in the last book of the series, but it was good. Now I’m just left with my fingers cross for a Janco/Ari/Onora spinoff.

l think this book is not so much about Yelena as it was about Valek. That was a nice change.For all intents and purposes the story was still fly by the seat of your pants exciting. People were getting poisoned, sabotaged, crossed, double-crossed, kidnapped, coerced, imprisoned, held hostage, assassinated left and right. Many characters kept having near death experiences and cliff hanger chapters so really, after 75% of this book I started cursing the author for toying with my emotions. If you're like me, by now, you're very attached to these characters. Not so much Leif or his wife, or even Opal and her family since I haven't read her spin off series, or even Onora since she's really stuffed in with the other minor side characters. But I really cared about Valek, Yelena, Ari, Janco, Fisk and even the Commander; and hoped they'd all make it out alive.One huge denouement: There war was built up and the plot all pointed to the last 1/4 of the book only to skip all the Cartel business and the anxious "Are they or aren't they going to make it??" suspense. After throwing us a few dead ends and nail-biting moments the author gave us the big reveal and then that was it. It was like the author really couldn't be bothered at that point so it was a bit disappointing to not see some of the endings in more detail. Glossing over the deaths of the Big Bad and his cohorts, or having some people die off stage was really disappointing. The last two chapters and epilogue were really just the author's long goodbye to Yelena and Valek's story. But mostly Valek. Yelena wasn't even in the last scene, and it was really Valek's story, coming full circle.I wished Yelena could have kicked more butt, but again, this story arc was not about her entirely. And she did fairly well as a normal human in this arc. Having her condition and person consistently threatened was very nerve wracking, though. At least she wasn't as beat up in this last novel than Valek was, poor guy.This final book wasn't all that romantic but she and Valek still have their soul bond for the rest of their lives and despite their differences of opinion they never let disagreements keep them apart for long and they don't stay angry. Key to a great union. Their romance is a steady slow burn of the lasting kind. What I love is that the author doesn't string us along, doesn't introduce love triangles, and shows us the effects of two constant hearts, despite their other duties and jobs, despite distance between them, maintaining their love for eight years. They are both extremely mature people. Some may consider that boring, but IMHO I call that enviable. Whatever craziness is going on around them, Yelena and Valek are constant. This is easily one of my favorite OTP's. Yelena+Valek FTW!!All and all a really good read and a very entertaining series. Some years later I can imagine myself going back to Book 1, starting the journey all over again, with Yelena waiting for the gallows in the Commander's dark dungeon.

This was an awesome series. It was like sweet tea on a hot Texas summer good. I exhaled. A deep sigh of contentment for finding such an epic fantasy. Even better than the Poison study with the multiple Pov's. The only thing I didn't like was the use of the word cartel. It just didn't fit. Also what happened to Hale? And I always wanted to know the horse name he received when he finally got to ride a Sandseed.

I loved following Yelena and Valek through this journey of protecting their countries, building bonds with friends and family, discovering their own strengths, weaknesses, uniqueness, and understanding of themselves. Maria V. Snyder has a unique ability to describe our human nature and teach the reader how to cope with problems and loss without losing hope and trust in those in "our herd". I will be reading the entire series multiple times, it's my favorite series to date.

Love this book. I liked how the author even changes the character perspectives so one chapter my be through Yelena's eyes while another is through Janco's. Absolutely stunning work and tying it all together and giving each character their own personalities.

I have followed these books since the first (Poison Study). I have laughed, cried, had my stomach in knots and watched as each of these characters came into their own. I loved when I found out she continued the series with a second trilogy! I did of course guess one of the biggest surprises in the book, but that was only because I hang on everyone that I read of Maria Snyders!

Love this book. It's a real page turner. This whole series was excellent. Hard to find good books to read when you've read thousands. And all of those reads are in the Fantasy category so finding great books in that vein is increasingly difficult! Read this in 2 days. Had to finish it!

I love the Study Series, but there was something about the Soulfinder series that left me a little disappointed, and this book was no exception. Snyder is brilliant when it comes to writing plots and plot twists, but this book felt far too predictable for me. Every time the characters tried something, they would end up captured. It kept up the tension, but after a while it just felt a bit meh.I didn't like the alternating view points, either. I wouldn't have minded it if was just Yelena and Valek, but with everyone else it just became a little irritating. I admit it was nice seeing inside their head, but I also found it a little distracting. This is probably just my hang up, though.One thing I felt that was lacking from this series over the original series was the emotion. Because the Study trilogy was all about Yelena and we only saw things in her perspective, the plot line wasn't as complicated. As a result, Snyder had more room to play with the characters and explore their personality. I felt like this aspect of Snyders writing was sacrificed for the sake of plot in the Soulfinder series, which is a shame because there was a lot of relationships Snyder could have explored more. Some of the relationships fell a little flat because of this. most notably for me was the one between Valek and the commander.If you liked the Study series, it's worth a read just to see what the characters are up to now, but don't expect it to be on the same level as the original.

The final insatlment of a good series of books and well awaited end.I will not give away this book your going to have to read it but for those who havent read the series then my advice is read the first three then read the glass series then the end three it will make sense better that way otherwise you won't know who some of the characters are

This is not book 6 but book 8. The conclusion to the latest series. Good but so annoying as I order book 7 to find that the events predate what I had just read, and that indeed I knew the outcomes for all the threads. Tbh I don't even know if book 7 is book 7 or if book 8 is book 7 or if book 7 is book 6 or if book 8 is book 6. All I know is Dawn Study advertised as book 6 is the LAST book in the series.

Yet again an amazing story, my only disappointment was that it was the last in the series. I've grown very attatched to all the characters, it almost broke my heart when I reached the last chapter and realised that was it. Still the ending was bittersweet, with some of the characters leaving many mysteries unanswered about their unusual background. All in all, I was satisfied with the whole series whilst left wanting more. Which I think is exactly how a book should leave it's reader, and Maria delivered on that.

You can sense the struggle in writing this book, a lot of effort spent in being captured, escaping captured and once again escaping and not enough in pulling all the threads of the story together. Some of the characters didn't get the ending they deserved after 9 books. A little disappointing as these have been my favourite read for many years now.