Apprentice

****

4 Stars/5

Thanks to Rachel Carter for giving me this book to review.

Ryiah is now an apprentice in the combat faction of magic but everything is just begining. She has 4 years left until she becomes a mage, but it is not going to be easy as her sexist training master hates her. She is sharing this experience with her best friend Ella, her twin brother Alex and an older apprentice Ian who seems to like her. But she cannot stop her attraction to her friend/rival Prince Darren who is betrothed to her bully. Just when Ryiah starts to get use to her new life, a fellow apprentice is killed and they are drawn into a brewing conflict between Jerar and neighbouring country Caltoth.

Apprentice is the very good sequel to First Year, as I could not stop reading it and had to find out what happened next, and even after I finished it I could not stop thinking about it. This book has more action and romance than the last book. However, the one minor problem with this book was that because it was set over 4 years I felt it skipped over too much and only focused on certain things at the expense of others.

I really liked Ryiah as she is stubborn and determined, and she was a normal person with normal flaws, but she was a bit obsessed with boys in this book. I could never figure out what Darren was going to do next, as one second I really liked him and the next I hated him and this happened though out the book. One person I felt very sorry for was Ian, as I felt Ryiah used him. I also loved the secondary character, especially Ella and Alex and I liked getting to know Ryiah and Alex’s charming younger brother Derrick.

This book was very good and I am really looking forward to the next book Candidate. I would recommend to fans for the first book in the Black Mage series, First Year.