The Novice Review

So its official, The Novice was better than The Magician's Guild. It wasn't great and I didn't exactly love it, but it was better.
Unfortunately in this book I still don't relate to Sonea, I just can't. She endures some horrendous bullying which certainly earns my sympathy but that doesn't equate to like or respect. She never even fully protects herself unless someone else points out how it can be achieved. She never tells anyone and when someone finds out on their own she begs them not to do anything and to keep it a secret. The adults keep assuming it's out of pride but honestly no one ever gives a believable reason why she won't let anyone do anything about her tormentors. Especially since the few times they are caught she seems satisfied.

This kind of brings me to my next qualm with the book. The adults in this book are totally ineffectual. They spend more time being gossips than anything else. Whenever someone does something that is absolutely terribly wrong they brush it off with a slap on the wrist. In my opinion the main villain from the first book is never even properly punished even though they're all supposedly outraged by his actions and it's well within their power to make him pay for his crimes.

My third and final complaint is that smaller plot points were dragged out throughout the whole book, while larger turn of event type scenes are thrust upon you almost clumsily and with no build up. So there it is, overall the book was definitely better but still not a stellar book.

Will the third be better than both?