Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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

Book 2 in the Avry of Kazan series

This is such a great fantasy series, from such a talented writer. Maria Snyder is (in my opinion) the queen of fantasy fiction. Her writing transports me into other worlds that I can feel and believe in, and just makes me fall in love with her characters. All her characters have a spunky quality about them, and a lot of warmth and humour.

This book picks up where Touch of Power left off, with Avry and Kerrick heading off in different directions with their plans to defeat King Tohon's powerful army. Packed with non-stop action, thrills and magic, this series is completely engrossing.

Each chapter is told from alternating points of view split between Kerrick and Avry, and always leaves the action hanging at a good bit at the end of the chapters! I think that Avry and Kerrick together are such a great couple, and it was so sweet how even though they spent most of the book apart from each other, they were constantly thinking about the other.

The friendships and camaraderie between all the characters is just fantastic, and through their hardships they grow so much closer in this book. I love gentle giant Belen, and the banter between Quain and Loren (affectionately called "the monkeys"), and just how protective they all are of each other.

Again there are betrayals, and unexpected plot twists and turns, and evil king Tohon is still trying to claim Avry and her power for himself. Along with the mystery of the power of the Death Lilys, and the battle against an army of Tohon's risen dead.

Okay, I feel bad confessing this because I absolutely LOVE Maria Snyder and all her books- and I did love this one too- but it just felt a little laboured in places, and didn't flow as smoothly as usual.

That is my only minor niggle though, I will still say that this series is fantastic, and I can't wait to see what book 3 is going to bring. Not as awesome as book 1, but still awesome.

Alternate cover:

This is the UK edition, published by Mira.