Title: Battle Magic (The Circle Reforged #3)

Author: Tamora Pierce

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Published: September 24, 2013

On a world tour Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy visit two places Gyongxe and Yanjing. While there they got dragged into the war between the two countries.

Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors. I have read almost everything she has written, some of them more than once. This book is supposed to be the third in the series, but it takes place before the other two books. When I first started reading The Will of the Empress I had to make sure I hadn't missed a book somewhere along the way. The characters kept talking about battles and the nightmares which resulted from the battles. Battle Magic tells the story behind those battles. Basically I'm saying if you are going to read this series I would recommend starting with this book instead of number one.

My biggest problem with the story was the maturity of Evvy. For most of the book I had a hard time remembering she was supposed to be twelve. Most of the time I kept picturing her has eight or nine. Even if she had been that young I would have expected her to me more mature considering she had been living on her own and taking care of herself for years before meeting up with Briar.

One of the things I like most about Ms. Pierce's books are the fantastical creatures. In this one there was the heart of a mountain, peak spiders, cave snakes and more. Within the world fashioned they become common even though they are creatures I have never heard of before. They are placed next to humans, statues of lions, and snow leopards and the way they are placed in the stories they are just more characters you are introduced to instead of the oddities expected within the genre.

Overall I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.