What a fantastic ending to what has been just a delightful trilogy. This book, and indeed the entire series, is just hot chocolate comfie! Curl up in your favourite chair and don’t move until you’ve finished this great book (and your hot chocolate).

Although the overall series is original and fun, the third in the series, Fire Study, is a little more formulaic. We know it’s the final in the series, and the goal is to tie up all the loose ends and deliver us a happy ending to this great series, which Maria V Snyder does beautifully. Although there is a sense of what the outcome will be, there are still enough small twists and plot leaps to keep you turning pages.

I do have to say it got a little confusing near there end, I don’t know if I just missed something vital, or if I was just too eager to find out what happened next, but some of the whole soulfinding business just left me a little lost.

However, lots of warm fuzzies. The interpersonal relationship between Yelena and the other characters is just wonderful, with the Moon Man being one of my favourites:

“What else can you do?”  I asked
“I am not telling you. It would destroy my mysterious Story Weaver persona.”

Although I believe he’s supposed to be a well build, muscular man, I just can’t help but visualise him as a small, scrawny old bugga, wiry with way too much energy. He’s just got that cheeky sort of ‘medicine man’ personality.

Of course, then there is Kiki, the all-knowing, all-seeing horse – and she’s just wonderful!

Yelena: “Are you saying good think might come from Peppermint Man? Or if he dies, it would be beneficial?
Kiki: “Yes.”
Cryptic horse advice? Well now I could die happy – I’d heard it all.

The whole book is just made up of wonderfully written and expressed dialogues interspersed with a bit of action. The characters just come alive and you can hear them speak, the sound of their voices, the tones, the expressions and they all just become so very real.

However, through it all we’ve got Valek. He’s the strong, brave hero, who’d do anything for the women he loves. You can hear the love, and the frustrated, barely held patience, in almost every conversation they have.

“Thank you for saving me.”
“You keep things interesting, love. It would be boring without you.”
“Is that all I am to you? An amusement?”
“If only it was that simple.”

I found Fire Study to be a book of pure entertainment, rather than an emotional roller coaster journey. It really does bring visions of comfie PJ’s and hot chocolate. The whole series is wonderful, and it does end just so very very well. There’s enough left unsaid that you know in the fantasy land the characters are going to carry on, but all the loose ends are tied up, and you can close the book, and the series, with a sense of satisfaction and contentment.