Review--Storm Glass

The Glass Series!

Maria V. Snyder has done it again with another brilliant series. For those who may not know, Maria wrote the Study Series which followed a young woman, Yelena, who discovered she has magical talent. Well, since I am talking about the new series, I don't want to get too into that one. If you stop by her website, you can find information and book descriptions for her first three books from her first series.

http://www.mariavsnyder.com/books/

Her new series still takes place in the same world as Yelena. A few years later, Yelena even stops by in the last few chapters. Along with a few other characters from her first trilogy.

Storm Glass brings us into Opal's world, a young glass maker that we met in the first trilogy. It is not necessary to read the first three books in order to know what is happening. Any details you need to know about how Opal connects to Yelena are mentioned in the book, although, I HIGHLY recommend reading the Yelena books. Those are Poison Study; Magic Study; Fire Study

Those are really GREAT reads. Maria's books brings you into this whole other magical world. All books draw you into their world and most of the time, the ones that I read, are already in our current world and time, things are just different with vampires lurking about. There are no vampires in this series, this is a strictly magical series.

Going back to the Glass Series, Opal is a glass-maker and a magician in training, but she feels like maybe she is only a one trick magician, meaning she can only do one thing really well. Opal has the power to do amazing things with glass blowing, she is even able to trap bad guys' souls into them or create glass object so other magicians can communicated to one another from long distances. No need for cell phones!

But something is going wrong with the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, powerful magicians are dying. The clan needs Opal's help, especially with her particular talents. But the things go wary when she reaches the clan and naturally things are a lot worse than she was originally led to believe.

Opal soon discovers that she has a different kind of power within her and that it can be dangerous, to the people around her and to herself if the wrong people were to find out about it. So now she must keep a secret from her most trusted adviser and few friends.

To make things even MORE interesting and intriguing there is a conflict of love interests going on the book. Opal is torn between two men, both who have the power to steal her heart. She cannot determine who would not break it if she were to hand it over and the results are shocking! You will never see it coming, unless you look (read) very closely. I caught on pretty quickly and was mostly right about the turnout. I won't delve further into my guesses because then that would ruin the book for you.

Maria's books are wonderful and exciting to read. I can't get enough of them. To top it off with every book there is a contest, where you must answer trivia questions regarding the book to win a signed bookplate and then your name is put into a drawing for a signed copy of the book. There are ongoing contests from her previous books as well to win signed bookplates and a chance to win a signed copy of the book as well. So if you read the book or one of her past novels or want to win a signed bookplate and the chance to win an autographed copy of one of her books, check out her contest page on her website:

http://www.mariavsnyder.com/contests.php

Maria is a wonderful author and I love reading her books. I even had the pleasure of meeting with her last year at the Romantic Times Book Convention 2008. I was able to talk with her about her writing career and how she got started since I want to be a writer myself someday soon. She had to go through several rejections before finally getting published by Mira books. Determination is the key, you have to keep going for your dream no matter how many rejections you get. I have taken this advice to heart and think about it constantly as I am trying to write my first novel. I again say, that she is a wonderful and thoughtful person who I still talk to through email every now and then.

So go now, read her books!!