NIGHT STUDY BLOG TOUR: Where did the idea for Night Study come from? + Review!

Welcome to the first stop of the UK Blog Tour for Night Study by Maria V. Snyder! For those of you who have been with me for a while, you will know just how much I LOVE the Study Series (aka The Chronicles of Ixia). Night Study is the 5th Study novel, and is released today (25th February 2016)! If you haven’t already, you really need to start this epic, amazing fantasy series, which begins with Poison Study. Keep reading for a feature from Maria V. Snyder on ‘Where did the idea for Night Study come from?’. 

Night Study 
Maria V. Snyder

Another book in The Chronicles of Ixia

Published by MIRA in paperback and eBook
25^th February 2016 – £7.99

 New York Times bestselling author Maria V. Snyder transports readers back to the realms of Sitia and Ixia in an exciting new novel from The Chronicles of Ixia Series full of magic, danger and intrigue.

“This is one of those rare books that will keep readers dreaming long after they’ve read it” — Publishers Weekly

“Books that fantasy fans everywhere should enjoy” – SciFi Now

“A compelling new fantasy series” – SFX Magazine

“The story… is peopled by convincing and well realised characters” – Total SciFi

About Night Study: Ever since being kidnapped from the Illiais Jungle as a child, Yelena Zaltana’s life has been fraught with peril. But the recent loss of her Soulfinding abilities has endangered her more than ever before. As she desperately searches for a way to reclaim her magic, her enemies are closing in, and neither Ixia nor Sitia are safe for her anymore. Especially since the growing discord between the two countries and the possibility of a war threatens everything Yelena holds dear. Valek is determined to protect Yelena, but he’s quickly running out of options. The Commander suspects that his loyalties are divided, and he’s been keeping secrets from Valek… secrets that put him, Yelena and all their friends in terrible danger. As they uncover the various layers of the Commander’s mysterious plans, they realise it’s far more sinister than they could have ever imagined.

Night Study is a powerful female-led epic fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.

About Maria V. Synder: Meteorologist turned novelist, Maria’s been writing fantasy and science fiction since her son was born.Maria has won numerous prizes for her writing including the Golden Leap Hall of Fame, Wirral Paperback of the Year Award, Compton Crook Award and the Salt Lake County Library Reader’s Choice Award. She’s been on the New York Times bestseller list and earned her Master’s degree in Writing from Seton Hill University. Traveling is one of her biggest distractions from writing and Maria hasn’t said no to a trip yet. She has visited China, Dubai, Malaysia, Europe, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada — all provided wonderful fodder for her stories. Maria lives in Pennsylvania with her family.

For more information about Maria please visit www.mariavsnyder.com

My Review: For those of you who don’t know (which is probably hard because I talk about these books all the time) the Study series/Chronicles of Ixia by Maria V. Snyder is my favourite series. Poison Study is my favourite book, and I compare every book I read to it, in the back of my head. So yes, I’m probably more than a little biased when it comes to reviewing this book! First of all, let me just say, I would read a book all about Yelena and Valek doing their supermarket shopping if that was all I was allowed (that would probably be pretty funny actually!). I just LOVE this book couple so much. Maria is absolutely magnificent at developing their relationship with each new book. Even when you think there’s nowhere new for their story to go, there are more problems and obstacles to face. Their relationship is just one that you want to read about forever. And boy, are there some serious progressions in this book! If you read Shadow Study and know that killer cliff hanger – you will probably end up just like me, in fangirl-excitement mode, with the first chapter of Night Study!

My favourite thing about all of Maria V. Snyder’s books are the characters, and this book is certainly no exception! Yelena is just as strong, witty, practical and clever as ever. And Valek (winner of no.1 fictional boyfriend award at least 5 years running) reaches some major new dimensions in this book. I love that in these new books, we are able to see a new, emotional side to him. Janco’s sarcasm of course remains one of the joys of this series! There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this book, as per usual! The Commander becomes even more intriguing. Basically – the characters are great! And what I especially love about all of the characters, are their very logical minds. We see strong, brave, physically powerful characters all the time, but to see these attributes mixed with the intelligence and logical, practical processing of these characters is much rarer!

And Maria’s writing is as wonderful as ever! This book was especially quotable – my favourite was:

“Dark shadows of grief haunted his expression. More than any one person should be asked to bear. But that was the problem with grief. No one ever asked for it. It arrived with its bags packed for an extended stay. It settled into your best guest room and demanded to be waited on all day long, and when it finally shuffled out the door, it left behind permanent scratches on your furniture.”

Basically, if you have already read and enjoyed the previous Study books, you will love this book! (And if you haven’t, you need to get on this series already, like yesterday!). As an addition to my favourite series, it was very satisfying, and makes me VERY excited for what Maria has up her sleeve for the final book. I’m going to have to spend the rest of the year mentally preparing myself, if its going to have as many pivotal moments as this one!

Where did the idea for Night Study come from? Night Study is a continuation of the events that started in Shadow Study so the best answer would be how I came up with the idea for the new set of books in the Chronicles of Ixia J.  My readers have been emailing me for years about continuing Yelena and Valek’s story and, while I enjoyed writing about them, I thought Fire Study ended things quite nicely.  But the more I thought about it, I realized it ended things more for Yelena than Valek and my readers didn’t really know that much about him or his past.

So I sparked on the idea of bringing in a new hotshot assassin to challenge Valek’s job.  This would trigger his memories from his past, which I could layer into the story. That appealed to me more than doing a prequel about his life.  That would be fascinating, but Yelena wouldn’t be there and I like having romantic elements in my books.  I also needed current day problems to challenge them and there’s nothing like a secret Cartel that is plotting to take control to keep things interesting.  And since Yelena’s Soulfinding powers are rather powerful, it added lots of conflict and tension to block her magic and see how she copes.

I also wanted to show the story from Valek’s perspective as well.  In Night Study, he is put through the emotional wringer and has to decide where his loyalties lie. This is key in his character arc.

Be sure to keep up with the rest of the Blog Tour for Night Study…