Book Review : Touch of Power 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?


I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Have you ever gone into a bookstore and just browsed through the books? And you think the synopsis looks great so you buy a book? And you completely forget about it once you take it home? That happened to me with this book. So I was just re arranging my book self when I realised I had this book. So I started reading it and it just sucked me in. I did not expect it from this book. I had heard of the other books written by Maria V. Snyder, like the Study series and the Storm glass series, and that they were good. But I fell in love with this book.

----------There might be Spoilers ahead---------

If you see a pattern in the books I usually rave about, they have really strong female characters, for example - Cinder from Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Vin from the Mistborn Trilogy (which I'm yet to finish). You get the idea. And this book has Avry. She is a healer on the run, because healers are considered outlaws. They are thought to be the reason the world is in shambles - that they are the reason the plague spread. So she has had to hide her true nature, till she heals a little girl and she gets outed. Then she gets sprung by a group of people who want her to heal Prince Ryne. Ryne who could be the key to saving the Fifteen Realms.

This is how she meets Kerrick and his merry band of men. There's Flea, Quain, Loren and Belen. Most of these characters are a bit of a cliche but Maria spins the story around them in such a way that you don't really notice. And the back story of each characters are told to us slowly. There is always something that we learn about all of them. The love between Avry and Kerrick isn't insta love, for which I am eternally grateful. She truly dislikes him at the start. But he kinda grows on her, and I guess he kinda grew on me too. But I still liked the parts where Avry interacted with the others in the gang than when she interacted with Kerrick.

And this book was a mix of genres of sorts. I mean it is fantasy, but it also had a bit of the medical genre, covert spy genre and ZOMBIES. Yeah, you heard me Zombies. I couldn't believe it when I read it. And I didn't think it would actually work in this book but it did.

Coming to the villain. Tohon was creepy. He was a good character, for a bad guy. He is a complete sociopath. Which keeps things interesting.

I would also like to see how Avry is going to reconcile with her sister Noelle. I understand why she is pissed off with Avry but going to the extreme that she did seems a bit much. Maybe I'm saying that because I've only heard this story from Avry's POV. Another thing I'm looking forward to in the next installment is a little more explanation on the Death and Peace Lilies and their involvement in the plague and the walking dead.

I am now waiting for the book to be shipped to me. I already put in an order for the Scent of Magic, and I cannot wait for the 3rd and final book Taste of Magic either. All in all I'd rate this book a 4.5+ out of 5.