Title: Scent of Magic
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish date: December 18th 2012 by Harlequin MIRA
Source: Received from the publisher for review via NetGalley
Buy it from: Amazon
Goodreads summary:
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.
Review:
I was cautious going into Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder. I had very sincerely enjoyed reading the previous novel, Touch of Power, but in my mind, things had seemed kind of… wrapped up. Looking back, I’m not sure why I felt that way because the Big Baddie is still alive and at large, with an army of the dead at his disposal.
But in Scent of Magic, we jump back in here Touch of Power left off. Avry and Kerrick have only just been able to get together and have ze sexytimes, when they must part for equally important and dangerous missions. There was a lot of exposition to explain what had happened in the previous book and I know it needs to be there to remind us, but it was dry and had a very this-happened-then-this-happened feel.
I still really enjoyed Avry in Scent of Magic– appreciated how in touch with her emotions she was and how determined she was to completely her missions, but my believability was stretched a little thin. Avry goes into disguise in the army without many people seeming the wiser which didn’t mesh with my take on her personality.
I was extremely excited to see some familiar and funny faces again, but they were a little lost amongst a cast of new characters. It’s one of those cases where I was overwhelmed and had trouble keeping everyone straight. I did, however remember Tohon aka the Big Baddie and was just as repulsed by him this time around. He’s sexually manipulative and every time he showed up I was about ready to vom in my mouth. He’s terrible and sickening.
The POV of Kerrick was interesting as well– he got to explore a side of the Fifteen realms that we hadn’t seen before and it was a cool side to see. There were conflicts that didn’t have to do with the war we were so focused on and I’m interested to see where that goes in the future.
To sum up: I don’t want this to be a review where you’re left wondering: “So did she like it , or what?” I did and if you liked Touch of Power, I recommend you continue on with Scent of Magic, but in my opinion, it has a slight case of Second Book Syndrome.
Need a second opinion?
“Scent of Magic is the second installment of the Healer series, and I loved it even more than the first one.”- Alexa Loves Books
“With this entry in the series, I really feel like Scent of Magic is approaching the ‘Study’ series level of awesome.” – Book Brats
“The infodumping was IN your face. Like no effort was made whatsoever to hide it.” – Great Imaginations
Haven’t read Touch of Power yet? Catch up with my review.
