Touch of Power (Healer, #1)

by Maria V Snyder

[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.