Taste of Darkness

by Maria V. Snyder
4/5 stars
Harlequin Mira, 2013
458 pages
Adult Fantasy Romance

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've eagerly followed Snyder across many worlds including the one of this Healer series and while I adore her introductions and the exciting worlds they set up, I've tended to have problems with the second book and especially with the conclusion. Thus it was no surprise that I adored Touch of Power and had some reservations about Scent of Magic. I hoped this finale would be the one to prove me wrong though. And happily it was as I felt this was a very strong conclusion to the Healer trilogy.

At first I worried. I didn't really remember what had happened at the end of the second book and basically the only two people I remembered were main character healer Avry and her lover Kerrick. Many of the other names mentioned flustered me but thankfully as I kept reading, most of the characters came back to me especially the lovable jokers who have been present in this series from the start.

I can't go too in-depth for fear of spoilers so I will just mention some elements that seem notable. For instance I think I can reference two moments that had a big impression on me. One is when Avry sets out to do something small and ends up doing something much bigger that has huge repercussions on Prince Ryne's mission. The other is Avry getting entangled with cannibals. The former was more of a fist-pumping moment while the latter horrified me for obvious reasons.

One of the biggest threads for the book has been Avry's connection with the evil Tohon. I'm not sure I liked the way it was handled as I have been consistently uncomfortable with the manipulations he performs on her, making it difficult for me to read some sections. In this case I thought the final confrontation with him was a bit easy though the very last pages made up for it presenting me with just the ending I wanted.

Another point to mention is that Scent of Magic left me disappointed with the separation of Avry and Kerrick. These two certainly do not live in easy times so it is certainly no surprise that they don't get to spend nearly enough time together in this book but what parts they did were intensely romantic. I really wanted them to get a happy ending :)

Overall I think this has been Snyder's strongest trilogy throughout and I am eager to see what she has in store for us next!

Scent of Magic

Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder
4/5 stars
Harlequin MIRA, 2012
414 pages
Adult Fantasy Romance

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Spoilers for first book!

I adored the first book in this series, Touch of Power, last year, speeding breathlessly through every little scene. So yes I was excited for this second book...except I remembered how much I loved Poison Study while being disappointed with its follow-up. What if the same thing happened here?

I'll admit that at first I was a little listless and picking this book up to read just a chapter or two. It was certainly not as gripping as the first book...but after maybe about halfway through, I was hooked again and racing through to the cliffhanger ending!

When we pick up this book, pretty much everyone thinks Avry is dead, a situation she decides to take advantage of by disguising herself and ingratiating herself with Estrid's army to see what they're facing against Tohon. Her lover Kerrick is against this plan but accepts her decision to do this while he returns to Prince Ryne. This time the book mostly focuses on Avry with every one of her chapters being followed by a few pages detailing Kerrick's adventures.

As a big fan of their romance, I was disappointed that Avry and Kerrick spent most of the book apart. Another sadness was the lack of favorite characters from the first book-they're all mentioned and they're on Avry's mind but she's busy meeting a lot of new people, who I fortunately found to be charming additions. I really loved Avry being undercover, attempting to avoid drawing attention to her unique healer powers but still driven by compassion in addition to her cunning. At this point, I think I might like Avry more than Yelena (maybe).

As for Kerrick's story, I was surprised by how much I ended up liking it. For those who have read, his scenes with Danny up north were killer. I loved the short glimpses we got of Danny growing and learning about what his future might be like.

Cover: Just now as I was typing did I realize that Kerrick was on the cover. Before I had only seen thumbnails, I guess, and focused on Avry with her yellow pouch (I assume it holds the seeds, which makes much more sense than my original conception of them as being the size of huge pumpkins and wondering about their portability.)

Touch of Power

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
Mira, 2011
392 pages
Fantasy
4.5/5 stars

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big Snyder fan (Poison Study is one of my top 5 books of all time) so it was a no-brainer that I would be picking up this book. And I ended up being so satisfied, getting a heroine with plenty of similarities to my beloved Yelena from Poison Study while being a completely different character.

In this world, Avry has tremendous power being a Healer; however she also has a bounty on her head, due to the anger felt by the populace against healers after a devastating plague wiped out most of the population while healers did nothing. Avry has been on the run for three years but is caught after healing a little girl; she calmly faces her execution only to be taken by a group who desperately need a Healer. The leader, Kerrick, demands Avry's assistance in healing Prince Ryne, someone she loathes. Despite her refusal, she is brought along, fending off mercenaries, rival leaders, and her own attraction to the dashing Kerrick.

I'm not really sure how to start this review because there was so much I loved. Maybe I could start with the writing, which flows so well and absolutely swept me away. I meant to read only a few chapters to get a taste but I ended up reading nearly half the book, sleeping while my Nook charged, and then diving back in to finish. I did not want to put it down; I just wanted to know what Avry would do next.

Of course the characters were a big reason for my loving the book. Avry was always proud to be a healer and it pains her so much to be unable to heal people; it's what she is meant for. Happily we get to see several instances when she does get to exercise her powers and it's so exciting to see her live the life she was meant to. Besides that, she is fiercely intelligent and eager to learn more, something I always support in a MC.

I also loved Kerrick, the brusque and competent leader of the pack. He takes good care of his men and is fiercely loyal to Ryne. Although he starts out exceedingly cruel to Avry, he begins to reform. I loved every instance when she challenged him, forcing him to consider other ideas (usually ones that were better!) The other men in the gang (Belen, Flea, Quain, and Vinn) were also great personalities. Belen is probably my favorite as the "poppa bear" of the group while Flea's irrepressible spirit brightens up the group; Vinn and Quain are also reliable supporters.

There are also a whole host of other characters as Avry remembers her family and mentor and we get a picture at the stakes. There are three major rivals for control over the fantasy land created here: King Tohon, a power-hungry mage with evil intentions; Estrid, the religious dictator; and Ryne, who could be a real player if he weren't in stasis to ward off death. Ryne is presented as the best choice while Tohon comes off as the worst. Estrid is somewhere in the middle and hopefully the second book will touch on her more.

As for the setting, we have a crazed world with so many dead and power vacuums. Much of the book is spent journeying around as they try to reach Ryne with lots of different locales and adventures. This contributed to my flipping the pages as I just had to find out what came next.

It sounds like I love this book, right? So why not a perfect 5? Well, I was very uncomfortable by one of Tohon's powers, which was the ability to force Avry's desire for him. He repeatedly kisses her and has the ability to make her want him such as she almost sleeps with him, if not for other interfering circumstances. If she had a genuine interest in him, I'd be okay but the element of coercion makes me so sick.

Overall: Highly recommended for fans of Poison Study!

Outside In

Outside In by Maria V. Snyder
Harlequin Teen, 2011
326 pages
YA
4/5 stars
Sequel to Inside Out-check out my review!

Source: Received a free e-copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Now that Trella has helped overthrow the Inside leadership, a Committee of 19 uppers and scrubs has assumed control.  Yet the divisions are as defined as ever and unrest is growing.  When a threat from the Outside emerges, Trella has to unite everyone in order to overcome it.

I have attempted to write stories but I am always stymied by my unwillingness to put my beloved main character in danger; Maria V. Snyder does not have this problem.  In fact, she is remarkably clever at putting the main characters into repeated instances of danger (especially torture) as well as getting them out.  Every time I thought I could relax, Trella made a new move that thrust her in to danger.

Now I did think the beginning was a little slow, maybe because it's been a year since I read the first book and I had to re-acclimate myself to the world but once I was in, I could not stop reading!  I just wanted to know more, wanted to figure out how she could block the Outsiders (who by the way sound quite scary).  I would say that the story really gets going once Trella returns to the pipes; the demands of creating a new governing system had limited her time but I think we know that she belongs there!

Besides Trella, we get to spend more time with other characters from the first book.  I don't really like Riley, her love interest, because I thought he was a bit over-protective and demanding but I can see other people liking him.  I did love Logan, computer genius, who also ends up in some really bad situations.  And more time is spent with Dr. Lamont/Kiana Garrard, possibly Trella's mother (we do find out if she is) SPOILER: I think I liked her because she is in fact Trella's mother and her attempts to mother this very independent, opinionated, determined young woman whom she had betrayed grabbed my heartstrings.

I thought this book was brought to a solid conclusion and a fitting end to Trella's story; saying that, I would certainly read a third book if Snyder wrote one.

Read for ebook challenge.

Inside Out

Inside Out by Maria V Snyder

Harlequin Teen, 2010

315 pages

YA; Dystopian

1st in series; Second book Outside In due next year.

Source: Bought

Summary: Trella is a scrub, a worker, a loner, a nobody. She has one friend and he happens to believe in a better future. When a prophet shows up, Trella is roped in to assisting him, mostly because she wants to prove him wrong. But her search leads her deeper in to her world and sparks a revolution.

Thoughts: I've loved Snyder's work since I read Poison Study so I'm excited to finally get my hands on this book especially because I've seen ecstatic reviews of it around the blogosphere.

I think one of the things I enjoy most about dystopian fiction is the mystery aspect. I love mysteries, as you can see in my reviews, even if I'm not good at solving them. There are lots of questions here. How did people end up in this box and what exactly are the divisions separating scrubs and uppers? What is the power structure? How will they figure everything out? What will happen in the second book???

Trella was a prickly character. She knows the pipes that help run the Inside but beyond her one friend Cog, she avoids people as much as she can. But she still believes in something more and she grows in her interactions with people tremendously. At the start of the book she would say she has one friend; by the end, I think she'd have difficulty counting all of the people she cares about. Her family issues are another of the questions explored; she has a different background than most of the other scrubs.

I also really liked the other characters:Riley, an upper who befriends her; Cog, her best friend; Logan and Anne-Jade, tech savvy people who assist; even the villains, Commander Karla and knife-happy Vinco.

Overall: I think if you like Snyder's previous work you will like this too. I think this would also work as an introduction to her writing so 4.5/5. Unfortunately I now have to wait probably at least a year for the second one.

Cover: I think the girl looks kind of like Miley Cyrus. I've seen some Miley hate but I don't share in it so I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Her blue eyes are important for the story.