Scent of Magic(Healer 2)Publisher: Harlequin MIRA, 2012Genre: YA FantasyAs 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.
Scent of Magic picks up right where Touch
of Power left us, with Avry and Kerrick recently reunited but still on
the run from Tohon. Now that people believe she’s dead Avry wants to use that
to her advantage. She wants to infiltrate Estrid army’s camp, and learn all she
can before Ryne arrives with his own troops. But it means separating from
Kerrick for who knows how long. As fate would have it, it turns out to be a
long time indeed. Kerricks meets with Ryne only to hear the kingdoms in the
north have been invaded by the northern tribes, it is now up to Kerrick to stop
them. Avry has a hard time keeping her identity secret in the war camp, and
with Tohon’s spies infiltrating the camp it isn’t easy to tell friend from foe.
In this riveting sequel to the Healer
Series,
Maria V. Snyder brings on the action, the humor, and the romance to whole new
levels. With both Avry and Kerrick’s POV in the mix, this book is seriously
unputdownable.
Avry is as resourceful and clever as
ever. One thing I remember loving from Snyder’s Study Series was the
‘army humor’ and the close bonds between the characters. And that happens here
too, as Avry has to win the troops and the other sergeants trust as she trains
them. But though she shows a brave face to the world she’s also scared of Tohon
and keeps having nightmares about him. She knows she’ll be in big trouble if he
ever finds her again.
I can’t even begin to tell you how
ecstatic I was when the narrative suddenly changed to Kerrick’s POV. I squealed
a bit, swooned a bit, and I think it made this sequel that much more
exhilarating. The only bit that I didn’t like, is that the timelines don’t
match. Like, for example, on one side we leave Avry on day four of her
adventure, but when it switches to Kerrick he’s still on day two, and so on. It
took a little brainwork to keep the timelines straight, but honestly, I was way
into the story for it to become a major bother. Anyways, Kerrick was just
awesome in this book. He’s brave, and just, and still learning that just
because he orders it to be so, it doesn’t become so. Haha. Dany and Zila
certainly are a handful.
Secondary characters worth mentioning,
aside from the regular crew of the first book, are: Ursan and Saul, two
sergeants of Estrid’s army who become friends with Avry. Dany, who disobeys
Kerrick but turns out to be a great asset with the northern barbarians. And
Great-Aunt Yasmin, because at ninety she still kicks ass.
A lot happened in this sequel, lots of
things put in motion than I’m sure will be touched upon in the next book—like
the northern tribes strange magic, and the Skeleton King on the south, but a
whole bunch of other things. That ending chapter...Well first, it left me
reeling. I could not believe that twist. I’m talking jaw dropping, cursing out
loud, and reading the paragraph five times kind of event. I did not see that
coming and for a moment I thought everything was lost. Then the ending-ending, meaning the very last
page, broke my heart. Waiting for book three is going to be torture!
*Arc copy
provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
Favorite Quotes:
~Growing
Roots~
“You’re supposed to be grieving, so it
should be obvious even to Quain why. But if anyone asks, just give them that
stony stare and they’ll back right off.” I met his gaze. “Yes, that one.”
“I’m not happy about this,” he said,
but he handed me a pouch of coins. “There should be enough for a couple of
months.”
He wrapped me into a fiercely
protective hug before kissing me. His magic shot through me. If I were a plant,
I’d have grown roots.
