Mundie Moms

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder, Book Review


Published by: Mira / Harlequin
Released on: 12/18/2012
Series: Healer #2
Source: purchased book
4.5 Stars: I Really Enjoyed It
Purchase it from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Add it to Goodreads

Hunted, Killed—Survived?
As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again



I LOVED Touch of Magic. I'm a huge fan of Maria's writing, her characters, and her world building. She's one of my favorite fantasy writers, and I love her knack for story telling. After the end of book one I couldn't wait to dive into this book.  I love it when a sequel picks up right where the first book ends. 

It was nice being back in Avry's world. She's such a fabulous character to read about. I am so glad Avry continued to be that brave, confident, selfless character she was in Touch of Magic. I admired her then for her courage, and her not backing down when things get tough, and I did even more so in this book. She deals with some not so fun situations, but she endures the pain, and the hopelessness like a solider. She's a fighter, and she's does what she can to help others even if that can also be a down fall for her, and leads to trouble. She continues to be just as strong as ever, which surprised me.

Kerrick and Avry both have a lot they've got to do in this book to prepare for the looming war, making their part of much of the book. I missed Kerrick and Avry's bantering and the chemistry they had, had in Touch of Magic. For much of this book they aren't together for various reasons, but they both tell this story from their own points of views. While I liked that at first, as the story went on I felt like Kerrick's points of view took away from the flow of the story. I know, gasp. I hated feeling that way, because I adore Kerrick. When they are back together again the romance factor heated up quite a bit. I love how Maria writes their
romance scenes. 

Much of what I loved about the first book in this series was some what present in Scent of Magic. Meaning, the fantasy and magic elements where very much present, the story telling was good, and the danger factor was always high. King Tohon is definitely one evil guy, and he amped things up a bit between him and Avry. I will say he knows how to use his powers to turn the "heat" up between the two of them, even if it is extremely short lived. Much of character chemistry I loved in book one wasn't there as much this time around, because not all the characters I loved where together as much. Don't get wrong, there's no shortage of character interaction, I just wanted the characters from Kerrick's group all together again. I love that Maria's secondary characters play such big roles in her books! I loved it when they were all able to regroup. 

I love this series. Sure there are a few things I missed from book one, but despite that, this is a book I read in one sitting. It's still a great read. With that killer of an ending I'm anxious to get my hands on the next book. I'm a little worried about what's to happen. There's some shocking betrayals and exciting plot twists that happen in this book, and a few big ones happen towards the end of the book. If you loved Touch of Magic, I would recommend reading this one, as there are things that happen in this series the tie up lose ends from the first book, and things that will leaving you wishing the next book was already in your hands. 

Labels