Book Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Scent of Magic (Healer #2)
Author:  Maria V. Snyder
Publisher:  Harlequin MIRA, 414 pages
Publication Date:  December 18, 2012

From Goodreads:
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 (spoilers for Touch of Power):
A great sequel to Touch of Power, but I didn't love it as much.  The main reason is because Kerrick and Avry are apart the entire book.  Why why why does that happen so much in the second book?  They finally get together and realize they love each other, and then Avry is like, hey everyone thinks I'm dead so we should take advantage of that and I'll go do my own thing and spy and you go do your thing and we'll see each other someday.  What??  I just didn't like that.  I want to see the couple work together and fight together.  There's so much adversity that I didn't feel like they had to be apart.  There's war, Ryne's dead army, evil Jael, political backstabbing.  And the rest of the gang is not in it as much either.  Instead, we have new characters and while I did enjoy getting to know some of them, I still wanted the old ones back.  

On the plus side, there's plenty of action and adventure, magic, and you learn even more about the world and other groups.  Avry is still a fantastic character, she's so selfless and strong.  And she's not a whiner, that's for sure.  She just keeps taking all of the horrible things that happen and rolls with the punches.  And we do get alternating chapters showing what's happening to Kerrick (Avry's chapters are in first person and Kerrick's are in third).  That was actually both good and bad.  Good because it's Kerrick, but bad because every single chapter ends in a cliffhanger and you have to wait to read the alternating chapter before you find out what happens.  Which makes it virtually impossible to put the book down.  Maria V. Snyder is becoming one of my favorite writers and I'm so glad that the last book is out because that ending...gah!  Kill. Me. Now.

Posted by:  Pam