Review: Apprentice (The Black Mage #2) by Rachel E. Carter

Title: Apprentice (The Black Mage #2)
Author: Rachel E. Carter
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Astraea Press
Pages: 316

She survived a trial year at the Academy, but that was just the easy part…

Now sixteen-year-old Ryiah is an apprentice in Combat, her school’s most notorious faction of magic. When she finishes she will be a mage, but in order to do so she has to survive four years with a training master she hates and her old nemesis, Priscilla. To make matters worse the unwanted attraction Ry feels for her sometimes-friend-sometimes-rival Prince Darren is at an all time high –even though he is betrothed to the very girl she can’t stand.

Really, the only bright spot to Ryiah’s new life is the time she spends with her friends, including an older apprentice named Ian, who she finds herself thinking about quite often.

Just when things start to get comfortable they take a turn for the worse. An apprentice is killed in a rebel attack and several mages end up dead. Unwittingly, the apprentices find themselves in the midst of a budding unrest between Jerar and its northern neighbor, Caltoth. For Ryiah the impending conflict means many things, but as her apprenticeship draws to a close she finds her biggest problem at home.

Unfortunately for her, Darren’s not going anywhere. (More from Goodreads).

Here's my review the instant I finished this book on Goodreads.

Apprentice by Rachel E. Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh this book is positively evil.

I'm still palpitating and my adrenaline rush is nowhere near over, but let me just say this: This book has improved on every aspect from the first book, and is more. Way more.

I didn't expect this, but I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with this book.

Ugh.

SO EVIL.

View all my reviews

Now for a proper, more (ahem) professional review.

Review: First Year (The Black Mage #1) by Rachel E. Carter

Title: First Year (The Black Mage #1)

Author: Rachel E. Carter

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic

Publisher: Astraea Press

Pages: 276

Before the age of seventeen the young men and women of Jerar are given a choice -follow tradition, or pursue a trial year in one of the realm's three war schools to study as a soldier, knight or mage...

For 15-year-old Ryiah the choice has always been easy. Become a warrior and leave the boring confines of her lowborn life behind. Set to enroll in the School of Knighthood on the eve of her next birthday, plans suddenly shift when her twin brother discovers powers. Hoping that hers will soon follow, she enrolls with Alex at the Academy instead -the realm's most notorious war school for those with magic.

Yet when she arrives Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Every "first-year" is given a trial year to prove their worth -and no amount of hard work and drive will guarantee them a spot. It seems like everyone is rooting for her to fail -and first and foremost among them Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived.

When an accidental encounter leads Ryiah and Darren to an unlikely friendship she is convinced nothing good will come of it. But the lines become blurred when she begins to improve -and soon she is a key competitor for the faction of Combat... Still, nothing is ever as it seems -and when the world comes crashing down around her, Ry is forced to place faith in the one thing she can believe in -herself. Will it be enough? (More from Goodreads)

[This is my first encounter with new authors. Although the author added me as a friend on Goodreads, my review is not influenced in any way by that fact. Well, maybe a little- I wouldn't have bought the book if I wasn't aware of the author, and if it wasn't on sale for 99 cents in digital format to promote the second book in the series, Apprentice- which was released on my birthday, which I took as a sign. Phew. I wouldn't be reviewing this book if things didn't happen in that order so there is that!]

First of all, and I really have to get this off my chest first because it's a huge deal to me, is that this book is not perfectly edited. Or at least, the version I got wasn't. There were quite a few spelling errors and weird sentences that made me flinch a little. These little things are my book kryptonite. So... There is that: This book is in need of further editing. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let's go to all the other nice stuff!

2015 Book Reading Challenge

For the first time ever, I'm participating in a reading challenge on my Goodreads' group Dragons & Jetpacks.

The challenge consists of 50 total categories, and one book cannot be used for more than 2 categories. The group gives us the option to individualize our goal and reduce the number of categories we intend to cross off to pass the challenge, and I opted for 25.

I've been a sleeper member of the group. I intend to change that by starting to be (slightly) more proactive with their activities.

Here's the challenge: