Thursday, December 13, 2012

Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Scent of Magic (Healer #2) 
By Maria V. Snyder 
Expected Publication: December 18, 2012 
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA 
Paperback, 400 pages 

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. --Goodreads
2 Stars

Review
I read Touch of Power last year and loved it so much. It was my first Maria V. Snyder novel, the beginning of one of my latest obsessions. So when I saw Scent of Magic on NetGalley, I knew that I just had to read and review it! However, Scent of Magic failed to excite and thrill me as much as its predecessor did. My expectations for this book were so high, so I felt really let down by this book.

Scent of Magic immediately begins after the events we were left off on. Avry has discovered the cure for the disease plaguing her world, but can't fully utilize it because the concept is still quite sketchy. She additionally separates from Kerrick to hide, and meanwhile trains the army to fight against Tohon's zombies. As she stays around with the army, Kerrick tries the rally the army. Unfortunately, this is when we run into a problem: my description is exactly the same as the blurb, right? Yes, because that's all that happens!

Basically, everything I loved about Touch of Power is lost in this lack-luster sequel. The witty banter between Avry, Kerrick, and Kerrick's gang is gone when everyone is separated on their own missions to save the kingdoms. Avry seems to no longer try to take control of her life anymore, and instead leaves it up to the people that surround her; her sister, her commander and the soldiers she is around. In other words, this was incredibly boring to read.

I am hoping that this is just a filler book between an epic beginning and a grand finale. Of course I totally plan on reading the next book in the series, Taste of Death, but I sincerely hope that Maria V. Snyder will reach her A-game next time around, because honestly, Scent of Death was a scrambled jumble of events that left me feeling empty when I finished. 

E-ARC courtesy of Harlequin MIRA via NetGalley. Thank you Harlequin and NetGalley! 


Pre-order Scent of Magic here: Amazon/ B&N/ TBD





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