Review of Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Title/Author: Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V. Snyder
Publisher/Date published: HarlequinMIRA, December 18th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: 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.

***WARNING: SPOILERS LIKELY FOR BOOOK 1 TOUCH OF POWER***

Guys, I'm such a huge Maria V. Snyder fan! I've pretty much read all her books (not the novellas, but I'm not really a novella kind of girl) and she never fails to deliver an amazing story!
And with Scent of Magic she's done it again!!

Though I do have to say that for me this book suffered slightly from second book syndrome, I felt like there was just a huge build up towards the epic showdown that'll be in the third book and some parts failed to excite me as much as I'd expected. But with Maria V. Snyder, that still results in an REALLY GOOD READ!

In Touch of Power I absolutely loved the chemistry between Avry and Kerrick and Belen and the monkeys and with them all split apart, it just wasn't the same. Though I really love each of them on their own, as a group they're just better. Also: GAH, HOW could she split Avry and Kerrick up??? I mean, I get they both have their responsibilities, but to me it would have made more sense if they did it together instead of going off separately and landing in all kinds of trouble because no one was watching their backs! Also, because of this there was somewhat less romance than I would have liked.

I think I'm sounding rather negative, when I'm actually not: I really loved this book! Avry is still the same kickass, hands on, amazing girl that I've gotten to know in Touch of Power and I love that she's a healer! I could feel her struggle with the need to defend herself but the unwillingness to kill someone because it goes against her nature as a healer.
And I loved how Kerrick had his own chapters and we get to know him better through them and yeah, I'm just a big Kerrick fan in general.

Tohon's dead army and Tohon himself CREEPED ME OUT! I do not love zombies, they freak me out! Anything that goes on walking after you've practically cut it in half is BAD in my book. What I liked about them in this novel was that EVERYONE who'd seen them was as freaked out by them as I was, because really, they're not something to be casual about.

Maria V. Snyder added some twists and turns that completely took me by surprise! At some points I had to go back and read again because I was going wait, WHAT?! and I love it when that happens! I'm usually pretty good at predicting what's going to happen, so I'm always happy when I'm caught off guard by events. And seriously, the ending BROKE MY HEART! HOW can she leave me with that ending for another year?? I mean, SERIOUSLY? I should have known better than finishing it right before I went to sleep, I'm still shocked and heartbroken and I NEED Taste of Death RIGHT NOW because it needs to be ok again and just not like this!

I also kinda love that this is for a slightly older YA audience because of the subjects and the sexual references. It's a little more mature and the characters are as well and it adds a little diversity to the genre.

So yeah, basically I'm still in love with this series and even though I loved Touch of Power better, this one ranks among my favourites of the year and I'm pretty sure the wait for the third book will slowly kill me...

My rating: 4,5 stars