Early Review – Scent of Magic (Healer, Book 2) by Maria V. Snyder (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 416 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Release Date: December 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0778314189
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Healer series
Source: eBook from Netgalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the second book in the Healer trilogy by Snyder. I didn’t like this book as much as the first book, it was pretty much a war and strategy fantasy read. It’s missing a lot of the mystery, adventure, and romance we saw in the first book. I recommend reading the first book before picking up this one.

Avry leaves Kirran and infiltrates the holy army both to try and catch up to her sister Noell and to do what she can to fight against Tohon. Kerrick is sent back to Alga to deal with a different invasion and battle.

I didn’t like this book as much as the first in this series. Nearly the whole book has Avry fighting in one part of the battle while Kerrick is sent to Alga to deal with a battle on a different front. I honestly thought the whole thing was pretty boring. Lots of battle strategy talk and intrigue but not a ton of action. We don’t get any of the tense interplay between Kerrick and Avry; the monkeys are split up for much of the book as well.

I didn’t feel like any of the characters grew or changed much throughout this book. Avry does learn more about the Lilies and she does grow some in power. Kerrick does finally realize that he neglected his home kingdom while he was trying to find a cure for the Prince. Outside of that it was all preparing for battle and then a face-off between Tohon’s undead army and the holy army.

There isn’t a ton of action. Avry is masquerading as a sergeant and spends a lot of the book teaching soldiers how to move silently through the forest. When she isn’t doing that she is trying to hide what she is, and she doesn’t do a very good job keeping her secret.

The best part of this whole story is the mystery surrounding the Death/Peace Lilies. Avry does interact with the Lilies quite a bit in this book. Rather than get answers though, we are mostly left with more questions.

The book is decently written, I just had a lot of trouble staying engaged with the story. Not a lot happens and I didn’t care much about the characters by the end of it all. Since most of the major characters are separated we don’t get the fun rapport between characters that we did in the first book.

Overall an okay addition to the series, but lacking in the adventure, mystery, and romance of the first book. The book is well written but mostly focuses on battle and strategy…not things I enjoy reading about. We don’t get the witty dialogue between Avry, Kerrick, and the monkeys since they are separated most of the book. So in the end I had a lot of trouble engaging with the story and caring about these characters. At this point I am uncertain whether or not I will read the final book in this trilogy. I would recommend reading Snyder’s Poison Study series instead of this one, that is a much better story.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Zombie Reading Challenge
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge