Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder (Healer #2)

Scent of Magic (Avry of Kazan, #2)

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. 

This is the first Maria V. Snyder book that I haven't put down and though "Wow, that was AMAZING!". Don't get me wrong it was totally enjoyable but it was a little slow at times and I've come to have such high expectations from this author.

Scent of Magic had a slower development than the first book in this series and the pace seemed to stay steady and didn't seem to have any moments of crazy excitement, even in the climax which meant that it did take me quite a while to push through and whilst I did enjoy it and never wanted to stop reading I was able to put the book down, which is a shocker considering that Snyder's book have always been so unputdownable for me.

Maybe the main problem with the pace was that Kerrick and Avry were away from each other for most of the novel and so whilst the step back from romance meant we could focus on the action it also meant that the book had to be told in two narratives and whilst we were with Kerrick i wanted to be with Avry and whilst we were with Avry i was wondering about Kerrick.

Nonetheless, Scent of Magic was a good sequel to Touch of Power as it seamlessly continued the story and introduced us to fantastic new characters as well as bringing back old characters from the first book, some of which I was not expecting to meet again.

I know this review may have seemed critical but this is a great book, it's just not amazing, which is what I had been expecting from this author. Still, I will definitely be reading book three.




Book released 18th December by Mira Ink
eBook received for review (NetGalley)

Other books by this author:
Touch of Power (Healer #1) 
Inside Out (Insiders #1)

3 comments

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. I loved Scent of Magic, but I did miss Kerrick and Avry's dynamic, for sure. I love the world in this series so much, and the magic. It's fabulous!

    Karis @ YA Litwit

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  3. i totally loved this book too and at first i too felt it a bit slow since Avry and Kerrick were in different parts but they did come together at end...and god that spoiler at the end was just too much..

    Le' Grande Codex

    (my review of the book)

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