Misty's Reviews > Sea Glass

In some respects this is a hesitant 4, and in others, not at all hesitant. Will review fully, but for now, let's just say I have questions. And issues.

REVIEW:

Sea Glass is the second in the Glass series, a spin-off of the popular Study series (Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study); it takes up where Storm Glass left off, with glass magician Opal Cowan under house arrest in the Citadel due to her new-found ability to steal a magician's magic through her glass sculptures. But Opal has other things to worry about; everyone seems to want something from her, and worse, she's afraid that the man she thinks she loves has been forced to switch bodies with the man who once tortured her. Worst of all, no one seems to believe her, and she must struggle to set things to rights and figure out her powers before everything crashes down around her.

It took me a bit to get into this installment of the series, though I think that is due in part to the fact that I didn't remember enough from Storm Glass. The beginning was confusing to me, but I still don't know how much of it was due to my lack of memory and how much to messiness or clarity problems. What I do know is that it hit that part where everything started flowing and becoming compelling, and from then on, I was fairly hooked.

I love the world Snyder has created, and her characters, when she hits the mark, are full and real and interesting. She makes you care about characters. Case in point: when Maria came to good ole (podunk) Monroe for some events, my book club had dinner with her, where we spent a good majority of the time debating who we liked more, Devlin or Kade, while Maria sat back and watched with a very amused expression. We were passionate. There was yelling; there may have been some fork pointing. There was a lot of talking over each other and "you're out of your mind"s. Book conversations like that are an excellent sign, in my opinion. Nothing recommends a book more. Also, Snyder has the guts to keep things from being clean-cut and easy, which I appreciate, and which adds to those excellent conversations.

That's not to say I didn't have any issues, though. Opal takes a definite step back in her growth for a big chunk of this book....
Rest of review is here.