If I were to write an action adventure story with magical and fantastical elements, I would write a book exactly like "Sea Glass". But since I'm not ambitious or imaginative enough to write an actual novel, I'm glad Maria V. Snyder can and did.

"Sea Glass" is the second book in Maria's latest trilogy. It complements the first book perfectly, even upping the excitement and intrigue level a notch. There is enough magic, mystery, blood magic, humor, cameos, political intrigue and action to keep you riveted and entertained. She even has a bit more romance thrown in for good measure.

"Sea Glass" starts off almost exactly where "Storm Glass" left off. In this installment, Opal has spunk! She is frustrated beyond belief that the list of those who believe what happened to her in "Storm Glass" is so short - and it grows shorter and shorter as the book progresses. On top of that, she feels as though she has no control over her own life or her own decisions. She feels trapped. While reading, I just wanted to reach into the book, shake these people and tell them to really think about what they are accusing! Seriously…*sigh* But alas, no matter how much I wanted to, there was no way to reach into the pages. So I simply continued reading to see where the adventure took me. (Not a real sacrifice, I must say). Through the book, Opal is gathering up her courage and it's actually nice to see when she finally has enough self-confidence to "stick it to the man". Unfortunately, when she is finally in a position to make her own choice, what she must decide between will basically screw her over no matter what she decides to do. Opal is well aware of this, but she is trying her hardest to opt for the choice that makes her feel as though she is in control and that let her feel somewhat independent. Opal is a great character. You really feel her struggle. It's her struggle that makes her so relatable. Who hasn't felt like the whole world was against you and as your confidence level wavers while you are trying to battle magicians who are using giant green bees as weapons? Okay…maybe not the magicians with the bees part…but the confidence part? Absolutely.

One decision that is easy to agree with is Opal's choice of beau, Kade. How he tries to stand by her even when everyone else seems to have left her behind is quite admirable. Their relationship is not perfect - you feel as though Opal is holding back a bit. But Kade is strong and he wants to stick by her.

Let's talk about Devlen. Now he's a conundrum. He's the bad guy. I should hate him. He hurt our girl Opal - many times. He's deceived her, lied to her, tricked her… Really, I should hate him. But I can't seem to bring myself to as wholly and completely as I should. I attest that to the way Maria writes her characters. She makes them human. Whether they are bad guys or good guys, I can't help but feel drawn to them. You can't help but feel for the naughty boy who is trying his hardest reconcile for his actions. I actually found myself wanting to tell Opal that if things with Kade don't work out, maybe she should consider Devlen. Seriously, how messed up is that?!

"Sea Glass" bumps up the level of adventure from high to "holy cow!" It's funnier than the first one too, although that should not surprise since Janco (from Maria's 'Study' series) has quite an important role in this book - and Janco is funny! And the ending…whoa! What happens to our girl Opal is very unexpected. Then again, so is most of what happens in these tales. If you loved "Storm Glass", then you will for sure really love "Sea Glass" and you'll count the days until "Spy Glass" is released with impatient glee.

Sea Glass is missing the magic that Storm Glass managed to capture in the storyline of young Opal. The storyline meanders a bit, and the few chapters that actually involve sea glass are forgotten as the book reaches its lacklustre conclusion. Hopefully the next book in the series (Fall 2011 - a long ways away!) will be more promising. Although I was somewhat disappointed in Sea Glass, I am still interested to see what will happen with the characters next, in particular Kade and Devlen!

Reading her fifth book in the world of Sitia and ixia, I found the story of Opal Cowan an interesting one in the two glass series books. This second book, Glass series is, unfortunately, not as good as the first. You could feel that her imagination in the story was bouncing all over the place. It's clear that Maria Snyder is an impatient author and likes to move along in a story and doesn't like the constraints of time but, that being said, having a 100 pages less in this story compared to her other novels made this one too quick and not taking enough time, in the action or the story, to help us move along the story. Also, not wanting to give anything away, the ending was somewhat of a disappointment and makes you wonder who will want to read her third novel in 2011 after this ending.
The reason I gave this book a 2 star rating is because I did like Yelena's adventures and Opal was an interesting character. But this book was good, but not great.

Well it's the continuing adventures of the glass magician Opal. In the previous novel(storm glass) Opal learned that her powers are just limited to inserting magic into glass figurines. She actually able to steal another magician's power and turn it into diamonds.

She's been ordered to return to the keep to be debriefed about her latest adventures. Unfortunately, idiot that she is, she goes looking for her ex-boyfriend, just to make sure he's okay and to disprove that he's an evil moron. Adventures ensues.

This book series started out well with the first book. This book however has some serious flaws. It's still an ok read. The author spent several chapters setting up a side story that went unresolved. Probably for a future book, but in this book it just wasted several chapters.

The main character makes some very poor decisions that make you want to yell at the book to think before she acted.
The villians are barely believable.
One of the side characters who was a 'stand up for you, always' personality, folded under pressure..

I really think the author should have taken a bit more time planning out this novel.