2.7 stars

Nothing good comes from journey books. Well, most of them anyway.

The problem with journey books is that, after a while, everything becomes repetitive. We rode for this-many-days. We set up camp. Someone made a meal - it was bland. A thing happened. We took care of the thing. Unless an author decides to keep the journey part of their stories short, this repetition is inevitable. I mean, what else is your character going to talk about?

This book? It had a LOT of journeys in it. It should have been called There and Back Again, instead of Fire Study. Yelena & Co just went back and forth and back and forth. So many nights wasted on the road. I mean COME ONNNNN

It felt like this book regressed. The writing was bland-er, the narration was more annoying, and the plot??? It wasn't very interesting if I'm being honest. It was like, "Yawn. Okay, yeah, great. Fire demons. What else?"

This book lacked the charm of the previous two. Not even Valena could make up for it. I skimmed through a lot of it.

I am disappointed.

I expected better.