Changes - Mercedes Lackey

Changes: The Collegium Chronicles Book Three
Mercedes Lackey
Daw Books
Copyright: September 22, 2011
978-0756406929

The amazon.com product description:

Enter the thrilling third volume in the epic Collegium Chronicles.
In Mercedes Lackey's classic coming-of-age story, the orphan Magpie pursues his quest for his parent's identity with burning urgency-while also discovering another hidden talent and being trained by the King's Own Herald as an undercover agent for Valdemar. Shy Bardic Trainee Lena has to face her famous but uncaring father, one of Valdemar's most renowned Bards. And Healing Trainee Bear must struggle against his disapproving parents, who are pressuring Bear to quit the Healers' Collegium because he lacks the magical Healing Gift.
Each of the three friends must face his or her demons and find their true strength as they seek to become the full Heralds, Bards, and Healers of Valdemar. 

Changes is the sequel to Foundation and Intrigues, which are also a good place to start reading the whole world of Valdemar. This one picks up where the last one left off, and resolves a couple of the storylines, while still leaving some of the main lines from the previous books unresolved.

Like a lot of Mercedes Lackey's books, I think that the Collegium Chronicles series is just as readable for the YA market as it is the general fantasy segment of the population. I know I've said it before, but when I was first introduced to her books, I found a few of them in the YA area of the library. This series is one that reads like those.

Suffice it to say, I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series. This one was a fairly quick read (or rather, I settled in to read first thing in the morning early and kept going until I had turned the last page), but there are times when that's what you need.

With Mercedes Lackey's novels, especially the ones set in Valdemar, I know I'm going to be getting a good read, no further questions needed.

I recommend Changes, but you'll probably need to read the first two books in this series first, just to know what's going on. These books don't summarize the previous ones in any way.