Rating: 
Summary: Definitely the best one in the series!
Review: In this book, Briar and Rosethorn head to the Mire to help out at Urda's House, a low-class hospital. While he is there, Briar's friend Flick catches a mysterious disease called the blue pox. The disease continues to spread and Rosethorn and Briar are stuck in quarantine, where they care for the sick. After a while, Briar and his teacher are allowed to go back to Winding Circle, where they work with Crane and his team to find a cure for the blue pox. However, just as things are starting to go well, Rosethorn gets the blue pox. What will happen to her? Will Crane and his team find a cure for the blue pox? More importantly though, will the cure work on Rosethorn?This book is definitely the best one in the series. It is packed with suspense and action, and it is a great end to The Circle of Magic series. Pierce's writing skills have developped since she started off with Sandry's Book, and the young mages' teachers, particularly Rosethorn, are also starting to evolve and take shape. If you weren't sure about continuing the series with The Circle Opens quartet, Briar's Book will definitely convince you. Two thumbs up for this excellent ending!
Rating:
Summary: "You'll Regret This for the Rest of Your Life..."
Review: "Briar's Book", the last book in the "Circle of Magic" quartet (also published as "The Healing in the Vine") is perhaps one of Tamora Pierce's best novels. Unlike her other series, which deal with battles, magic, fantasy creatures, revolution and politics, "Briar's Book" centres something very mundane by comparison: a plague. Yet Pierce incorporates within the story all her powerful themes of love and friendship, pain and suffering, grief and hope, and humanity's capabilities for both good and evil that make her one of the best YA fantasy writers out there.
Briar Moss (who is unique among the cannon of Pierce's books considering he is her only male protagonist thus far) has spent almost a year at Discipline Cottage, Winding Circle and out of all of the young mages gathered there, he has changed the most. Once a street rat that picked pockets for a living, he is now happily installed in the temple community, under the tutelage of Rosethorn in the art of growing and maintaining plants. He loves Sandry, Tris and Daja as if they were his sisters, and enjoys the material benefits that the community provides him with.
One afternoon, when accompanying Rosethorn into Summersea to restock supplies at Urda's House (a hospital for the poor), Briar is called away by his old street friends. Following them down into the sewers he discovers his particular friend Flic is seriously ill. After informing Rosethorn the situation escalates, and soon Briar finds himself in quarantine at Urda's house as more and more patients of the Blue Pox are brought in. Whilst Briar and Rosethorn tend the sick in the city with minimal supplies and little help, the Winding Circle community are doing their best to find a cure and replenish the medicines available.
But the death toll keeps rising and no one seems to be any closer in discovering a cure. When a way of identifying the disease is finally discovered, Briar is finally allowed to return home - only for one of his nearest and dearest to get the Pox...
Pierce is excellent in creating the growing despair and panic of the city, the claustrophobia of Briar in quarantine, and the frantic efforts of Winding Circle's healers. As well as this is Briar's inner struggles; both with the patients and with his growing reluctance to spend time in the grime and muck of his former life. Pierce is always good at capturing human emotion and thought, and here she is at her peak. Throughout the course of the story there are many moments of insight into the human mind during this crisis - but for me to describe them here wouldn't be doing them justice. Some readers may be frustrated at the slow pace and lack of magical components that usually make up Pierce's books, but the patient reader will be justly rewarded.
The bond between the four children and their teachers is palatable, and you can really feel their pain at their separation, and the joy of their reunion. Things as small as a hug, a smile or a hand holding up a bowl for their loved one to vomit into is how Pierce captures their affection for each other - and which all capture more meaning than any long-winded speeches about friendship and loyalty that other author's write. Especially touching is the bond between Briar and his stern and bad-tempered teacher Rosethorn - but I'll let you discover that for yourself. A fantastic read all around.
Rating: 
Summary: The Circle closes...
Review: Yes indeed, this book closes the The Circle of Magic Quartet, and most appropriately, too, if I do say so myself. The four young mages utilize their powers seperately, and that's quite interesting to see. This book was one of my favorites in the quartet, my first being Tris's Book. I'd recommend this to any fan of Ms. Pierce, young and old. I'd also recommend the rest of the quartet.
Rating:
Summary: Briar's Book one of the best
Review: I greatly enjoyed Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce. I am already a huge fan of Ms Pierce and have enjoyed all of her other stories. Briar's Book is my favorite out of the Circle of Magic Books. In this story you see how the four young mages react under pressure, but for the first time they all need to use their powers seperately. Instead of all combining their powers to work on one (conveniently end of the book) project, they're seperated and using each of their individual tasks to help stop the plague. This book isn't a good place to start if your new to the series, but it is the best display of the character's unique personalities and strengths. The sickness stirs up different memories in each of them and makes the book a definite page turner. I highly reccomend all of Pierce's work, but Briar's Book holds a special place on my list.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing close to the quartet
Review: This is probably the most exciting of the Circle of Magic quartet. When Briar's 'street rat' friend, Flick, takes sick with an never before seen disease, Briar must do all he can do to save her. But the disease is highly contagious, and soon about 198 out of every 200 people in the city are sick. Briar returns to Winding Circle Temple to help find the disease. They are getting closer to the cure when a splash of the disease essence infects a person very close to Briar, then he is torn between helping to find the cure and caring for her. The cure is discovered, but is it too late?
Rating: 
Summary: Briar's Book
Review: This book was...okay is guess. Although it's well writen and not confusing or anything, it doesn't have the adventure or excitment found in many of the other Tamora Pierce books. I really like books in The Circle Opens much better, I recommend that instead.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite in COM!
Review: I loved Briar's Book. In it, the characters are finally developed enough that T.P. doesn't need to do more with them. The end was probably the most original conclusion I've ever read. The parts in Crane's 'lair' are probably my favorite, and he's so cool, I'm glad he got a bigger part in this book than in others, where he was close to a villian. I also really liked the parts with Tris and Daja (Sandry didn't really have a part, I don't think). The only complaint I had was, it should've been longer!
Rating:
Summary: The best one yet!
Review: The series comes full circle here! Former street rat, Briar, now lives easily at Winding Circle Temple, learning to be a mage, amoung his friends and those who care for him. Even so, when one of his old companions calls him, begging magical help for a strange illness she's suffering, Briar (being the kind and helpful boy that he is) cannot refuse. But when the girl's disease proves beyond even the power of Briar's powerful teacher, Rosethorn, the truth is out; a plague is on the loose. And so begins a powerful and heartrending adventure, where once again our favorite four mages in training work together, defeating evil. Except this time the question remains far more serious; will Brair be able to rise above his darker past to save the one he loves most? This book is undisputedly the best in the series, especially since it centers around Briar, my favorite of the young mages. It would serve as a stand alone book, but I'd recommend reading the previous three first anyway. Not much happens in the first two, but the third is almsot as good as this one.
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