Touch of Power (Healer, #1)

by Maria V Snyder

[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.