Book 2:
Scent of Magic: Avry and Kerrick
Release Date: December 18, 2012
Purchase this book on Amazon: Maria V. Snyder - Scent of Magic (The Healers)
Summary:
From Goodreads.com
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:
As with the previous book we got a very clear picture of this world. Maria V. Snyder definitely knows how to paint a picture with words. You can clear imagine the textures and the feelings of the world you are immersed in. It is one of my favorite things from this series and one of the reasons I am determined to at some point go back and read some of her other works. This is a feudal, medieval, magical world, where two opposing forces are battling to govern and “unite” the 15 Realms.
Tohan is just as evil in the second book as he is in the first, he is slimy and will use any tactic he can to gain ground. He is definitely a good bad guy as in you just don’t like him and want him to lose and someone to lop his damn head off! LOL! His army is basically made up of zombies that he controls and are basically unbeatable. It is up the opposing forces to find a way to beat them but most of them refuse to even believe that the army is possible. Avry is immersed in the army life so we get an in depth look at the army life and army camps and it is not pretty. Ms. Snyder does not mind getting to the nitty gritty and doesn’t paint a rose colored world. There is good, there is bad and there are shades in between.
Avry is just as fierce in the second book as she is in the first. With her second chance at life she decides that they have to beat Tohan, so she convinces Kerrick to let her go to the opposing forces camp so that she can spy and get information to her allies. She decides the best way that she can do that and help is to infiltrate the army and start to teach them to go silent. Since she is technically dead and no one but Kerrick knows she’s alive she has no problem getting into the army, but getting them to trust her is a whole other monster. They know she is hiding something but no one can figure it out, which is exactly how she needs it to stay, but it is getting harder and harder to keep her secret. As the threat nears it becomes clear that Avry may be of the few that can come up with a place to fend off the army of dead. While she is living the army life she is separated from Kerrick and their new love, her longing and worry for him is palpable. Your heart aches for her a little each time she touches leaves in the forest seeking him. She knows that the chances of ever seeing him again are not high, and when everyone returns and he’s not with him…
Kerrick, had his own little sections in this book. I can’t remember if he does in the first because well I don’t remember a whole lot from the first book since I read it over a year ago. LOL But I enjoyed my time from his POV. He gets approximately a third of the book to himself. In the first book, well I hated him for about half of the book because he was such an ass, but he turned it around and his better behavior continued into this book. He shows a softer side of himself with the children that Avry rescued and he starts to think of Avry and if they will ever be able to have children if this ever ends. His love for Avry is a wondrous thing, you wouldn’t think someone so hard would end up being so good for someone but somehow these two make it work. When he and Avry separate he leaves a chunk of his heart with Avry. However, his troubles are just beginning. He barely makes it back North when a new threat is discovered. An army of the Northern Tribes is making its way to his home land. Everyone knows that the tribes are vicious and take no prisoners. Kerrick has an army of 400 versus over a 1000 of the tribes and for every 3 of Kerricks people it is worth 1 of their fighters. Kerrick knows he’s not walking out of this one alive, but true to form he has to try because his homeland depends on it…
This book is full of action at every turn. It is gritty and interesting and I’d say a bit more grown up than the previous book. I still think this could still fall in the Young Adult Category, but it was more suggestive than the first. The conflict with Trohon escalates and blood is shed. Everyone’s lives are at risk. We take many twists and turns, we lose some people that you may have grown to love but we are introduced and reintroduced to new characters that may take up residency in your thoughts. I had really hoped that we would have reached a conclusion in this book, but it’s looking like there will be at least one more book in this series. I am on the fence if I will read the next one, but I did really enjoy this installment and it had me in its grips until the very end.
This book was provided through NetGalley for an honest review. No other compensation was given.
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