REVIEW: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Saturday, February 06, 2016



 

BLURB
Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince, the leader of a campaign against her people.




As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for.

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Rating Clarification: 3.5 - 4 Stars

I know everyone loved The Study series, which I've yet to finish but honestly... I enjoyed Touch of Power a lot more than I did Poison Study. Unlike the depressed and melodramatic atmosphere that I got from Poison Study, Touch of Power was a breath of fresh air. Don't get me wrong the first scene has the heroine listening to the tortured cries of a dying baby and contemplating whether or not she should heal her. But I loved Avry's "glass is half full" outlook on life. I've been trying to coin a term for this book because at a glance I would place it under the fantasy heading but personally it felt like I was reading post-apocalyptic (the plague) with zombies (the dead soldiers) against a medieval setting. Does that makes sense?

Avry is healer on the run, since the outbreak of the plague and the death of so many, healers are seen as the cause and what's worse it seems as if they decided not to heal any of the plague victims.
That's beside the point though because Avry is the last healer. When she's imprisoned after healing a child, things look pretty bad for her until Kerrick and his band of misfit (LOL) save her... for a price. Kerrick expects Avry to heal a dying (plague) Prince Ryen for his trouble and he isn't nice about it.

"You really have a low opinion of me, don't you?"
"No one else has backhanded me, starved me, manacled me to a tree and let me freeze each night. Therefore I don't have anyone else to compare you too."

I loved Kerrick and Avry's banter, I mean Kerrick was pretty mean and down right cruel in the beginning but I have a weakness for these types...


But I did have a few issues, the author kind of neglected their relationship, so although it was a slow burn, any real progress between them was closer to end, making it seem rushed in my opinion. Be that as it may the other characters like Belen and Flea were fantastic, I loved how they were with Avry, their camaraderie was cute, I loved how protective they were of her, especially from Kerrick.

"No. I hate you. Remember?" I teased.
"Couldn't possibly forget." He grinned. "Just so you know, the feeling is mutual."
"Gosh," I said with mock horror. "We actually have something in common."
Kerrick laughed. "Let's not let it happen again."

I'll definitely be continuing this series, but like Poison Study I'm not itching to start the second book (Scent of Magic), so I'll be reading something else. But it was a good solid read.

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