I really enjoyed this end to this series. I love the illness focus in this book and also how this book tied all the others characters stories together. I found this book to be a super fast pace read. I really loved being inside Briar head. I thought this book had a nice balance between adventure, heart and tension. I felt that the stakes were super high in this book and I really loved it. I want to read the sequel series soon. ( )

I really enjoyed this end to this series. I love the illness focus in this book and also how this book tied all the others characters stories together. I found this book to be a super fast pace read. I really loved being inside Briar head. I thought this book had a nice balance between adventure, heart and tension. I felt that the stakes were super high in this book and I really loved it. I want to read the sequel series soon. ( )

The British editions of these books are valuable.

For a few years now I've been trying to find more inspiration for plant-based magic users and have only come across a few manga, anime, and video game characters, particularly for plant mages that are in a story that addresses technique and theory in the set universe. These characters are surprisingly rare in a genre full of animal and elemental powers.

Briar, his mentor Rosethorn, and Rosethorn's rival called Crane are all plant mages. The beauty of this book is how Tamora Pierce incorporates her usual approach to magic and magical schooling but mixes in real world botany, microbiology, and traditional European medicine. One character may inject healing magic into a patient. Another character or the same character at a different time may mix willow bark tea. Another person or yet another person at another time may pass through a shower, wear sanitized laboratory--or in this case, greenhouse--protective clothing, and mix various plant extracts and add a few drops into a small glass dish containing the source of illness.

Magic. Traditional medicine. Modern medicine. Of course Tamora Pierce weaved these together decently--the entertainment and immersion value overrides the occasionally awkward narrative during technical descriptions. Though, I do have to say that Dedicate Henna doesn't explain physiology correctly. In the story she says veins carry blood and oxygen from the heart to the brain. No. Arteries do that. Veins bring deoxygenated blood from the brain and back to the heart. Technicality, yes. But I have always admired and imitated Tamora Pierce's fusion of fiction with nonfiction elements, so discovering something so simple explained backwards earned a shake of the head and perhaps humanized the extraordinary author.

I absolutely love the close-nit school and mentorship concept. Whether it's training to be a knight or having a one-on-one education in magic, Tamora Pierce has inspired me for many years. I'm ashamed that it took me until now to read the two Emelan series, but I have gravitated it at the right time. Plant mages, fusion of science and magic, and camaraderie in an educational setting are perfect for refueling my writing drive and humoring my imagination. ( )

The last in the first quartet, and I'm kind of glad it's over with and I can move on. This series as a whole was not Tammy's best work and I think I finished it because each was short, and I listened to the audiobooks while spinning.

In this story, plague hits, and Briar is in the middle of it. This book was interesting in that the four are separated for the first time since coming together. Briar is stuck in quarantine and Daja is off in the forge creating sample boxes.

What I really liked about this book was Tris coming into her own - which was surprising because I've always disliked her previously. Here, she feels the pain of uselessness and loses her irritating edge a bit. ( )