Book Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

This story moves along quickly but I enjoyed the author's Study series much more.

Scent of Magic (The Healers)
by Maria V. Snyder

• File Size: 603 KB
• Print Length: 419 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0778314189
• Publisher: Harlequin MIRA; Original edition (December 18, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B009NEIAZG

Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: December 18, 2012
As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal 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 confidant, 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.

Review:
Avry is the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms. Because she is greatly sought after by enemies and friends she is allowing her revival from presumed death to remain a secret. Only her beau, Kerrick, knows she is alive and heading into dangerous territory to seek out her sister and do reconnaissance as he travels to rendezvous with other allies.

The realms are under attack by a brutal life magician, Tohon, who wishes to conquer the lands and be recognized as king of all. The people have suffered from a great plague and now Tohon is striking with armies of dead soldiers he has managed to animate. Different leaders, Estrid, Jael and Prince Ryne, are supposedly allies to fight Tohon, but no one is to be trusted. Avry manages to get accepted as a soldier and appointed to Estrid’s army where she has offered to train the soldiers in silent maneuvers.

I enjoy the fantasy worlds created by Ms. Snyder. In this series Avry is a healer and Kerrick is a forest mage. There are nine other magical powers which may be in use and controlled by the dastardly Tohon who is obsessed with Avry.  I especially like the magical features of the Peace and Death Lilies who have an interesting relationship with Avry. Avry eventually runs into several old friends and there is humor and warmth in that interaction. Meanwhile there is a very engaging thread of danger and change when Kerrick and a young unrealized healer, Danny, are captured by a violent tribe which doesn’t normally take any prisoners.

There are a lot of character connections and betrayals that make the story a bit confusing. I didn’t feel that a clear backstory was provided so this probably would be more enjoyable if the reader has read the first book. The story is told in first person by Avry and third person for Kerrick’s scenes. I would not have found this difficult except that the formatting in the version I read had no breaks between those scenes which caused disruption in the flow. Hopefully the final released eBook has proper formatting.

This story seems to be written on an lower reading level, perhaps for young adults, and it reads very quickly. I did not find this tale as enthralling as the Study series however Ms. Snyder has a wonderful imagination and the story is full of intrigue, betrayals, quick humor, action and adventure.This ends with a cliffhanger that makes you either want the next story or harrumph in frustration. :-)

I received this galley to review for Harlequin MIRA through NetGalley.