ARC Review--Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder (Tour & Contest)

Hunted, Killed—Survived?

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.


I received this e-arc from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


**WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ TOUCH OF POWER, BE FOREWARNED OF SOME SPOILERS**


Oh how I LOVE Maria's book! Maria Snyder can do no wrong! Scent of Magic was a breathtaking and thrilling read that had my heart pounding the entire time I read it! I am so glad I got to read this and yet by the end I was left wailing, because you know, it's the end!

We pick up where we left off in Touch of Power pretty much. Avry and Kerrick are together and Avry had been brought back to life by the Peace Lily when she had taken on healing the plague from Ryne. It's a miracle, yet their time together is cut short, there is still a lot of work to be done and for now it's best that everyone continues to believe that Avry died. Including her friends, and more importantly here enemies, such as enemy #1 Tohon.

Avry though wants to help people, being a healer that's her calling, yet this time she wants to help the soliders fighting against Tohon train, so that they are better and can be silent in the forest, much like Kerrick taught her. She goes incognito with a new identity and appearance, help she received from Mom and goes to the troops and begins helping out. She gains new unlikely friends from the other soldiers, it was unexpected since she was a newcomer and all.

Kerrick has his own plans, he needs to check in on his remaining family; his brother and great aunt, see that Danny and Zila are okay and then he needs to get back in touch with Ryne and his fellow soldier to continue the battle against Tohon. But there are many obstacles in his way, and then he even gets taken hostage by a tribe out while scouting with Ryne's soldiers.

Like I said, the book was nonstop heart pounding action! I was jittery the whole time! What's better is that this time Kerrick gets some narration in as well! His is told in third person, to help distinguish who's who. Although, my e-arc made it very hard since there were no paragraph or chapter breaks. It was all mushed into one. Made stopping hard too, but that won't happen with the final copy people! Trust me!

The pacing of the book was deliciously good! Maria knows how to weave a good story, bringing in many plot twists and turns, yet it never gets confusing or overwhelming! I said it before and I will say it again, Maria Snyder rocks! She writes the best fantasies, you fall into these worlds where magic exists and it's never simple, not that magic ever is. But it's never complicated or complex either. The writing just flows easily and there's nothing that requires overthinking and puzzling over what these new and strange things are or what they mean. It's simply done beautifully!

Each segment, they may be chapters but I have no way of knowing, tended to end on its own cliffhanger, which was easily remedied by the next chapter or segment when the character returned to narrate. It was a constant battle, Avry would be in the middle of danger, then bam! back to Kerrick who had his own thrilling story and something major was just revealed and then bam! back to Avry to see how she got out her mess!

Tohon returns as well and that man scares me! The way he treats Avry is downright chilling! Maria writes villains just as well as her heroines and heroes!

And the romance, while Avry and Kerrick were apart for the majority of the book there are nice tender moments in the beginning and ending that made it all worthwhile.

What I did not expect was the ending. It was epic! And shocking! Things were going down quick, new enemies were popping up and danger kept lurking in every corner and just when I think our heroes would get a short break, while not the HEA ending, BAM! BAM! BAM! Cliffhanger ending! I kid you not! I wailed in agony because I realized I was going to have to wait over a year until I get to read the next one! More than a year! The curse of reading an arc! Oh Maria, how you plague me! You give me a killer story filled with action, romance, laughs, thrills and chills and then bane of every reader's existence, a cliffhanger!! But don't worry, you know I will be back for more, hoovering at your website waiting for release information and then hoovering over Amazon and Goodreads for confirmation information. And then--yes there's more--hoovering back at Netgalley waiting for an e-arc!

That being said, Scent of Magic was beautifully written! Maria Snyder has cemented herself into the fantasy world for life! I christened it! Her books take you, literally, these magical worlds that are breathtaking and the characters are unforgettable. You will be touched by her words and worlds. I know I was from way back in the beginning with Poison Study.

So when's the next book coming out Maria? Next month maybe? ;)


Overall rating 5/5 stars! Okay, 6/5! It was really that GREAT!!

Tour Schedule:

*12/10/2012 Parajunkee  http://parajunkee.com/      review and a Q&A

12/11/2012 Paranormal Urban Fantasy Reviews  http://pnrurbanfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/    review

*12/12/2012 Read Now Sleep Later www.readnowsleeplater.com   Interview with Maria

12/13/2012 The Book Heroine  http://www.thebookheroine.com/  review

*12/14/2012 We Fancy Books http://wefancybooks.blogspot.com/  Playlist

12/17/2012 Two Chicks on Books  http://www.twochicksonbooks.com/    Guest Post From Belen

*12/18/2012 The Starry-eyed Revue  http://starryeyedrevue.blogspot.com/   Guest Post

12/19/2012 A Great Read  http://jessica-agreatread.blogspot.com/    Review

*12/20/2012 YA Reads http://www.yareads.com/ Guest Post

12/21/2012 The Book Hookup http://thebookhookup.com/  Review

*These blogs are hosting contests for international winners! Please go there for contest entering if you apply! ;)

Maria V. Snyder changed from being a meteorologist to a novelist in 1995, when she began writing to keep her sanity while raising two children. Since then, she has published numerous freelance articles in magazines and newspapers, and teaches fiction-writing classes at the local college and area libraries. The classes give her the wonderful opportunity to encourage fellow writers, and to keep improving her craft.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria always had a fascination with big storms. Dreaming of chasing tornados, Maria earned a bachelors of science degree in meteorology at Penn State University. But she discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills. In order to chase tornados you had to predict where they might form. Creating fantasy worlds where she has complete control of the weather was more agreeable to her.

Maria's research on food-tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing Poison Study.

Maria has a brown belt in Isshinryu Karate, and enjoys playing volleyball and the cello. Traveling in general and via cruise ship in particular are her biggest distractions from writing. Maria has traveled to Belize, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal.

Maria lives with her husband, son, daughter and yellow lab, Hazelnut, in Pennsylvania where she is at work on more LUNA novels. She is also pursuing a master's degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University.

Readers are welcome to contact Maria at the following email address: maria@mariavsnyder.com.

 

Where you can find Maria:

Website: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/index.php

Blog: http://officialmariavsnyder.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/445303.Maria_V_Snyder

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mvsfans?fref=ts

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Can't wait for the contest to end? Want to get a copy regardless? Check out these websites for buying options:

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12027429-scent-of-magic

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Magic-Maria-V-Snyder/dp/0778314189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354993513&sr=8-1&keywords=scent+of+magic

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scent-of-magic-maria-v-snyder/1111674301?ean=9780778314189

The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Scent-Magic-Maria-Snyder/9780778314189