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

Book Blurb :

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

Tash M

Review:

A week ago, Avry of Kazan was resolved to die but instead she’s alive and only one person knows that: Kerrick, the leader of the group of rogues who captured her all those months ago and is now her lover.

They need to focus on more pressing problems; stopping Tohon from ruling the fifteen realms and preparing for the war that is to come between good and evil. Tohon vs. Ryne and Estrid but things are not easy as everything is stacked against them. The two come up with a new plan for Avry to help Ryne that involves going undercover within Estrid’s army and teaching her army what she learnt from Kerrick and getting close to her sister who is in Estrids army.

I didn’t enjoy this continuation of the story as much as the previous book perhaps because this book introduces another set of characters who seem less exciting as the band of rogues coupled with the fact that Avry doesn’t move around the territories. I was hoping after the first book the magic journey would continue but it doesn’t on the same level. In this one, Avry and the group are separated as they put their plan into action. Kerrick returns home to Alga to see how things are and make sure that his people are ready to help Ryne and instead discovers things are way different than when he left them. There is a new threat to his people and he doesn’t know whether they will help or destroy the hard work he and Ryne have started. Ryne is plotting to take down Tohon and working on the knowledge Avry told him to take down his new army. Meanwhile the rest of the surviving rogues are posing as soldiers in Estrid’s army as they help them preparing to take down the true evil. Tohon won’t stop at anything and seems to be one step ahead of Ryne and Estrid who are trying to get ready for what he has in mind. Little does she know what he does have in mind.

By the end of the book, nothing really has changed except for another disappearance and the return of someone unexpectantly. But there is a repeat again of something that happened in the first book. So I must insert a SPOILER ALERT here.

In the second half of the first book, Avry is captured by Tohon and instead of killing her, Tohon puts her to work and she heals his army whilst trying to figure out what he is up to and discovering some of his secrets. She is thrust right back into the same position. Not much has changed from the last time except Tohon gets more greedy after what Avry did last time and so I was disappointed with that part of the book when she was captured by him as it seemed Snyder was trying to achieve something with this but nothing happens except she sees what she put in place before when she was there last. As for the rest of the book, it is about Avry travelling to Estrid and then teaching the squads how to evade Tohon’s new army and fight Tohon’s old army and setting up herself in the army under the secret identity so that she could be prepared to help when the time came for Ryne to make himself known .

There are elements I love in this book and I will read the next one with the hope it’s like the first one but I give this only 3 couples. Let’s just hope Avry travels and Snyder makes sure that it is as interesting and magical as the first book was, which was filled with secrets and intrigue.

Publisher : Harlequin Teen Australia

Source : Publicist Provided for review

Released : January 2013

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