Touch of Power (Healer, #1)

by Maria V Snyder

THEY DESTROYED HER WORLD. BUT SHE'S THEIR ONLY HOPE...

Avry's power to heal the sick should earn her respect in the plague-torn land of Kazan. Instead she is feared. Her kind are blamed for the horrifying disease that has taken hold of the nation. When Avry uses her forbidden magic to save a dying child, she faces the guillotine. Until a dark, mysterious man rescues her from her prison cell.

His people need Avry's magic to save their dying prince. The very prince who first unleashed the plague on Kazan. Saving the prince is certain to kill Avry - yet she already faces a violent death. Now she must choose - use her healing touch to show the ultimate mercy or die a martyr to a lost cause?

• ISBN10: 0778313077
• ISBN13: 9780778313076
• Publish Date: 27 December 2011 (first published 20 December 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

ETA Reread: I remembered a good bit of this book but there was also a lot of little things i didn’t remember (and a few big things at the end). Some of it I ascribed to the second book so I’m not sure I remember that one at all.

This book is dense with story and a ton of things happening. It kind of makes i it feel like a really long book even though it’s not. And it’s got a good bit of character mixed in, enough to draw me along and keep the story interesting. And make me curious about what happens next.

********

This was an easy book to enjoy. [a:Maria V. Snyder|445303|Maria V. Snyder|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530814053p2/445303.jpg] fills it with dialog that brings the characters to life, keeps the pace interesting and is fun to read.

I really enjoyed the world and the sense of magic. I liked when it was surprising and how people battled with their magic and augmented it. Really cool stuff.

The characters were a lot of fun; the dynamic between the core group had a great camaraderie that really established their family dynamic. I even really enjoyed the comfortable animosity between Kerrick and Avry.

I'll probably read it again and likely give it four stars then. This time I was just reading so feverishly to see where it all went.

[Leigha]

A young woman finds herself falling in with a group of men intent on saving their dying friend, although the price could be her life.

I absolutely loved this book! The world building was interesting without being cumbersome, while the characters were intriguing and unique. Told in first person, Avry's unreliable perspective added mystery to an otherwise straightforward plot. Speaking of Avry, I really loved her spunk and resiliency. She is definitely one of my book girl crushes! Sparks fly between the two potential love interests, which I always find entertaining. The ending highlights where the series may go moving forward without giving too much away.

Fair warning, some scenes in the book may turn readers off. This book had several scenes depicting violence against women and children.

tl;d Strong heroine, political intrigue, and a slow burn romance make this a must read.

[nitzan_schwarz]

AHH I LOVE MARIA V. SNYDER.

[Nicole Lynn]

A great YA fantasy read. I'm excited to continue on in the series. Review to come soon!

So I randomly picked this up one day and did not expect to like this as much as I did. This was really entertaining to read, it drew me in from the first page and I just couldn't put it down! I was pleasantly surprised about this. A huge part of the story that drew me in was the romance, it wasn't obvious or cliche, well maybe a little cliche but not overly and not in your face. Because the romance was such a huge part of me liking this book I hope that doesn't mean I won't like book 2 as much.

[Artemis]

The characters are a little flat but its a fast paced adventure and I've got a soft spot for MVS.

Originally posted on Oh, For the Love of Books!

Wow.

Maria V. Snyder. ‘nuff said.
But if that doesn’t convince you, then hopefully this review will.



This book was fantastic! It had everything I love in a book!! ♥ I’m totally feeling the love! Since there are so many reasons I love it, I’ve decided to make a list of all the reasons you should read this.



1. Awesome Heroine:

Yes, Avry is awesome. She’s snarky, fierce, intelligent and doesn’t like being man-handled (you go girl!). She’ll stick up for herself and her friends and if you don’t like that then to bad! Also, she knows how to throw knives so it wouldn’t be smart to make her mad. However, her fierce attitude isn’t the only thing I loved about this girl. I loved her heart. Avry can be so incredibly kind and good-hearted. She’s willing to risk her life for those she doesn’t even know. For her, it isn’t just her duty, but what she wants to do. There were plenty of times that I found her actions quite admirable. She knew about sacrifice and would willingly do it for those she believed deserve it.



2. Hate turned love relationship:
What is it about a hate turned love relationship that I love so much? The snarkiness of the characters? The witty banter between them? The tension? Whatever it is, this is my favorite type of relationship. Yes, I do love the relationships where they get to know each other or where one may not like the other but eventually learns to love them, but for some reason, this time of relationship will always be on top. And this relationship doesn’t disappoint. I knew the moment they were falling for each other and I understood why and I loved it.

3. Kerrick:
Actually….I really almost hated him at the beginning. Yeah, you read it right. I didn’t like him. Oh, of course I knew that he’d change and that he wasn’t showing his true self, but he was a real jerk at the beginning and I definitely understood why Avry didn’t like him. However, I grew to love him right alongside Avry. He’s fiercely loyal, strong and intelligent. He’s a good leader that is used to telling people what to do, so you can understand why he butts heads with Avry. He is swoonworthy. It just took a while to see it.

4. Fantastic secondary characters:
Yes, the MC’s are the most important part of the book, but it’s fantastic when I can fall in love with the secondary characters as well. Flea, Quain, Loren, Belen! They are all amazing in their owns ways. When they’re together, they are like one big family. Yes, they don’t always get along, but in the end they would do absolutely anything for each other. They were funny and quirky and protective. I adored every single one of them.

5. Ridiculously crazy awesome villain:
Yes, I realize that “awesome” and “villain” probably don’t go together, but he was awesome. I like my villains to be bad. I don’t like when the author’s just tell me they’re bad, I want to read it and feel their evilness for myself. When I read about the villain, I want to be able to really see that he truly is evil, or insane or crazy. And believe me, when it came to this guy, it was very easy to see that he’s got a couple loose screws. He’s a psychopath! And man did I love it! Having a sociopath of a villain made this book so much more interesting. The parts with him in it were heart-pounding and just plain crazy!

6. Intriguing and engaging plot:
I personally thought the plot was fantastically unique and intriguing. Magicians, kingdoms, KILLER FLOWERS!! Yes, killer flowers. So cool!! While this book has many of the same elements of many fantasies, something that Maria brought to it made it unique. What exactly? I can’t quite put my finger on it. However, throughout the book I was constantly going through emotions. I’d be on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding one moment and then I’d be laughing at the Monkey’s. I’d be saying “Go Avry!”, then having my heart torn. I love when I can feel these emotions right alongside the characters. To me, this makes a book truly amazing.

7. No shortage of action!
I like my books like I like my movies: action-packed. If its got action, I’m pretty much guaranteed to at least enjoy it some. This book is fast-paced and action-packed and I loved every moment!

8. While I’m not sure this is actually a spoiler, you don’t learn about it till later in the book so read at your own risk: THERE ARE ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, although I’m definitely feeling the love for this book, there were a few things that bugged me.

1. The modern language:
When you read this book, there is a distinct historical feel to it. They have the old houses with taverns and inns, they fight with swords, they have kindoms, ect. So what’s with the modern language? No not all of our phrases that we say today, but there definitely were no “twas” or “thy” or “tis” and whatnot. Overall since the book was so utterly fantastic, it didn’t really bother me. However, I know that it will bother some people so I thought I should let y’all know.

2. The bad part of the otherwise fantastic world:
I actually thought the world-building was fantastic! But one thing that bothered me again had to do with the historical feel. While I love historical feeling books, I do care when they add some modern things to it. Yes, its not actually historical fiction, but when that is the feel the book gives, then it sometimes bugs me when there are a few modern things in it. Again, it didn’t bug me to much because of all the awesomeness that is this book, but it did nag me a bit (but thats just me personally).

Overall:

If you can’t tell from the review above, I’m definitely feeling the love when it comes to this book. I absolutely love Maria V. Snyder’s books and this one does not disappoint. Between a snarky kick-butt heroine, an engaging plot, non-stop action, fast pacing, hate turned love relationship, hot men, fan-freaking-tastic secondary characters, and a psychopath for a villain, this book is a must-read.


All the best ♥
Mackenzie

[Amber]

Touch of Power was a pretty good book. I love all of Maria’s books, and I really enjoyed this newest one from her.

The Poison Study trilogy is one of my all time favourites, and I was so pleased to learn that Maria was bringing out another fantasy novel. Touch of Power had a very similar feel to Poison Study, and I was incredibly happy about this!

Avry was an awesome character, and I enjoyed reading things from her point of view. However, much like the other characters in this novel, she reminded me a lot of the protagonist in the Study trilogy. Avry is smart, kickass and just generally an all-round good person. Much like Yelena.

As for the love interest, Kerrick, I didn’t like him AT ALL. He was horrible in the beginning, and I just couldn’t get over how he treated Avry. I am really disappointed in the way their relationship was handled, and I would have loved for Avry to have gone down a different road and fallen for someone unexpected.

The side characters, as mentioned previously, were too much like the characters in the Study trilogy for my liking. I kept comparing them, and the huge similarities were a bit too much for me to handle and I found it to be really distracted.

The villain of the novel was creepy, and pretty awesome. I liked him well enough, and I thought he was a good antagonist for the story.

I loved the fantasy elements of the novel and, as always, Maria V Snyder handles these very well. I can’t describe how much I adored reading about the different types of powers and the people who wielded them. I’m always interested in these types of themes so I was pleased with this!

As usual, Maria’s writing had me hooked from the get go. I’m a HUGE fan of her writing style, and will definitely continue to read everything she comes out with. The world building in this novel was fantastic, and it was an excellent setting for a story such as this one, with all the different plants, conflicts and political challenges. The history of this world was also rich, and I can’t wait to learn more about the Healers in the next book.

I think if you haven’t read the Poison Study books then you’ll adore this novel, but I think those who have read them before will probably see where the plot and where the characters are going. This story was excellent, but it was missing the unique feel that Poison Study had when it pulled me into the world. I’m definitely going to be reading the next books in the series – trilogy? – but I feel I must warn those of you who may be expecting something completely unique.

[celinenyx]

I've always wanted to read on of Maria V. Snyder's books, so when I got the opportunity to read Touch of Power for review, I jumped on it - I wanted to know what I've been missing.

Touch of Power is the story of Avry, a healer in a world where healers are despised. They get the blame of causing the plague that has killed thousands of citizens. When she meets Kerrick and his gang of outcasts, she wants nothing to do with them. But what if she is the only person that can save someone that can save her country?

This is a solid fantasy read. It has an interesting magic system (consisting of healers, forest magic, earth magic, life magic, death magic, etcetera) that has a lot of potential, and there is an interesting conflict. I really liked the concept of this book, but I felt there was something missing.

It felt a bit like it was mixed with a bad paranormal romance. You know, the kind with an excuse of a plot and two characters that are nothing more but cardboard puppets. With a romance that seems unlikely and petty problems that keep them apart. Sometimes I felt a bit of this bad paranormal romance shining through. I didn't absolutely hate the love interest, but I didn't like him either. I guess I'm just not the person for hate-to-love kind of stories. I was rooting for the big teddy guy, but he never stood a chance.

I also feel like at times there are some plot holes. My main one annoys me quite a bit. When someone has the plague (which is highly contagious) they don't take any precautions to not attract the plague. They just act like nothing is wrong at all. I can't imagine that a person that has seen dozens of people die of the same illness can just stand next to someone that has that contagious disease. I don't know, doesn't seem plausible to me at all.

The reason I give Touch of Power a high rating even though I didn't really like the love interest and was a bit irritated by the holes in the story, is that it is a very engaging read. You just have to know what will happen next, because anything can happen. I also enjoyed as a person that has read her fair share of fantasy, that it offers a different take on something that has been done countless times.

The story doesn't end on a cliffhanger, but there are more than enough story lines to make a second book in this series. I'm looking forward to read that one, and to see if the problems I have with this book are just a one time thing, or something structural.

[inlibrisveritas]

This being my first experience with Synder and having heard so much about the Studies series I was expected a lot out of this. I try not to do that with books as I find it unfair to judge something based off of previous works, but I did with this and was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it but there were some issues that I had while reading it.

But first with the good. The cover is stunning!! I love the colors and the softness of it, and I want a physical copy of this book badly. I love the magic system that Synder created, with there being various 'classes' like Earth, Air, Death, Life, etc. Of course it includes the Healers but they are more of an outcast class, which I also enjoyed learning about. I thought that the way they come into their powers was a really cool idea. I also loved the way the plague became a sort of character in this, and one of main things that keep me turning the pages (or in my cases clicking the arrow button) was trying to find out how the and why the plague started. The fact that people feared Healers during a plague was at first a curious sort of reaction but I can say I understood it, they are capable of healing people, they don't contract the plague and yet they can't heal it. To someone who doesn't understand that power it seems more of an unwillingness or a call for responsibility. I thought that little tidbit was kind of genius. Then comes the Peace and Death Lilies. I love the thought of a flower like this...though I did picture it as one of those killer flowers from Mario more then once. And of course there are the characters I adored reading about. Belen, Kerrick and Tohon. Belen is a wonderful and caring character that you can't help but like, Kerrick took some time to get use to but I grew to love him just as much as Belen, and then finally Tohon...who is kind of an unexpected favorite. I suppose it was his suave personality that got me even though he was a little juvenile.

Now for the things I wasn't fond of. First off I wasn't fond of some of the characters, like Avry or Sepp. Avry was nice and likeable but she was very...one note to me. Since she was the narrator this kind of brought down the story in some areas since she sometimes shrugged off horrors and dulled down excitement with the way she explained things. She was also in some serious denial for most of the book. I didn't like Sepp because he was completely see through, and yet no one else seemed to catch on. I suppose all this ties into my main dislike. The lack of explanation and details. At times situations were glossed over and it caused some confusion with the world building that was occurring. For instance I was picturing a Middle Age kind of world but then a more modern invention would slip in and I'd be confused. I wish there had been more details relating to the world itself so that I could have gotten feel for that as well.

Overall I enjoyed it and I do plan on reading the next one when it comes out. I will also pick up Poison Study at some point too. I do recommend it to Synder fans and those who enjoy a more "historical" fantasy type of adventure.

I received this from Harlequin and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.