Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder

Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder

Healer #3

Release Date: January 3, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin

Source: Publisher (NetGalley)

Star Rating: ★

Rating: Bland

She's fought death and won. But how can she fight her fears?

Avry knows hardship and trouble. She fought the plague and survived. She took on King Tohon and defeated him. But now her heart-mate, Kerrick, is missing, and Avry fears he's gone forever.

But there's a more immediate threat. The Skeleton King plots to claim the Fifteen Realms for his own. With armies in disarray and the dead not staying down, Avry's healing powers are needed now more than ever.Torn between love and loyalty, Avry must choose her path carefully. For the future of her world depends on her decision.

Okay, so this entire series has been one giant letdown for me. I am a huge fan of Snyder's Study and Inside series, but the Healer series has been disappointing me the whole way through. Why did I keep reading? I hear you ask. I hoped it would get better. Like I said, the previous two series of Snyder's (that I have read) were fantastic. Poison Study remains one of my all time favourite books. I couldn't not try. 

Scent of Magic by Maria V Snyder

Scent of Magic by Maria V Snyder
Healer #2
Release Date: December 18, 2012 (UK)
Publisher: Mira Books
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads Stars: 4
Rating: Enjoyable

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avery 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, Avery 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, Avery 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 Avery is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again. - Goodreads

Anyone who's been reading my reviews and tweets for a significant amount of time will know that I am a huge fan of Maria V Snyder's books. I've read all of them apart from the Glass trilogy and have really liked to loved them. Scent of Magic is no exception.

That said, I did find the beginning of this novel quite boring. The first two thirds were dull, and nothing really happened to make me excited to continue reading. It was my love of the author's other works that kept me going. In the first part of the book the characters just went around doing one thing and then onto the next, with no real action or any heart racing moments.

Scent of Magic is a little different from Touch of Power, in that it is told from both Avry's and Kerrick's points of view. I found Kerrick's parts to be a lot more interesting than Avry's, probably because there was more happening and more to be discovered in his adventure. Despite really not liking the guy for hitting Avry in Touch of Power, I really enjoyed getting inside his head. His scenes were more interesting than Avry's by far. That doesn't mean I like Kerrick, though. I'm one to hold a grudge on someone for hitting a woman.

The pacing and excitement picked up when Tohon reappears. His wit and his overall insanity was hilarious. I love him a lot, and he's definitely my favourite character out of all of them. I like psychos in fiction, okay?

My favourite scene was definitely the big one towards the end with Avry, Tohon and other characters. Without giving spoilers, I will tell you that I found it funny and exciting and quite thrilling. I can only wish the whole book had been this good!

Despite not liking the majority of this novel, I'll definitely be continuing with this series. I love Maria's writing style too much not to!

Touch of Power by Maria V Snyder

Touch of Power by Maria V Snyder
Healer #1
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Publisher: MIRA Ink
Source: NetGalley
Rating: Enjoyable

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.


Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life.... - Goodreads

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 was going to spoiler block this next bit, but I think it needs to be said... Kerrick lashed out and hit Avry at one point in the novel. This is unacceptable, and the fact that they went on to be lovers really grated on my nerves. If a guy hits me, there is no way I would go on to falling for him or starting a relationship with him. NO WAY. Even if he was stressed, that is no excuse. 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.

Book Review: Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
Release Date: May 16, 2008 (UK)
Publisher: MIRA (UK)
Series: Study #2
Rating: 5 out of 5
Recommended? Yes!
Buy the Book: Amazon US

Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.

But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges—;and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life…or be her downfall.

With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can't help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways—and her new-found friends and relatives don't think it's for the better.

Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training—especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince—and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.

If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies. - Goodreads page

Okay, warnings. More heavy gushing (obviously, did you expect anything else?) and spoilers from book 1. If you want to read my spoiler-free review of Poison Study, then go and do so!

Magic Study picks up a few weeks after Poison Study ended, with Irys taking all of the kidnapped children home to Sitia. Yelena is the next one to be reintroduced to her family, and she’s worried. She’s been away for fourteen years – what if they don’t want her? Or, what if she’s not really a Zaltana? Luckily, she is.

Meeting Yelena’s family was, in a word, strange. I had expected them to be like Yelena, but they were nothing of the sort. Although, it is explained how Yelena’s love of walking amongst the treetops came about. Hint: It’s in her blood. Anyway...

After a few major events, and Yelena getting into even more trouble, she makes her way to the Keep, where she studies magic with Irys. She’s not very good, but her mind reading skills are incredible. It’s obvious she has a lot of power stuffed in there. But will she tap into it?

Magic Study was fast paced, emotional and – in some places – very mysterious. It felt very different to Poison Study, but it also felt the same. I’m not making much sense. But I think the whole “feeling different, but feeling the same” thing was intentional, as Sitia is a very different place to Ixia. For one, no one wore uniforms in Sitia. Secondly, there were no beggars in Ixia. Which did I prefer? To be honest, I love Ixia a little bit more, and I’d prefer to live there. As long as the Commander and Valek liked me, of course ;)

Which brings me onto my next point. Valek?! Where were you? Sure, he’s in this book, but not as much as I’d hoped. He shows up over 250 pages in, and we hardly see him! And when we do see him, we don’t see him being the intelligent self he was in PS, we just hear about his ventures. And whenever Yelena and Valek are together, all they seem to be doing is having sex. Sure, this may be realistic, but can’t they do something else? Like go on a proper adventure, or have Valek save Yelena... not that she needed it anymore, because she was badass with her magic skills. But anyway, when he was in a few of the scenes, he was HOT. And the way he showed up was just... *swoons some more* Hilarious!

I did love Magic Study, but just not as much as Poison Study. I can’t wait to read the next book, and I hope Valek, Ari and Janco are in it a lot more! I love them all. Best. Cast. Ever. Oh, and Kiki was the best horse in the world. I want her <3

Book Review: Poison Study by Maria V Snyder

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder
Release Date: September 21st, 2007 (UK)
Publisher: MIRA
Rating: 10 out of 10
Recommended? YES!!!!
Buy the Book: Amazon US

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear… - Goodreads Page

Oh. My. God. I’ve read Maria V Snyder’s other series, Inside Out, so I knew her writing and storytelling skills were great, but this was just incredible! Why has no one forced me to pick this up before? *glares* I loved it! So, as you can probably tell, this review is going to be full of gush. And swooning over Valek. Just a warning ;)

Our main protagonist Yelena is about to be executed for killing a General’s son, when she is taken to meet a man who offers her the choice to become the Commander’s poison tester. Yelena, not wanting to die quite yet, accepts, and from there we see her go through her training, tests and getting into lots of trouble.

The characters were, for me, the main draw of this book. There’s Yelena, who is a strong protagonist and looks out for herself really well. Then there’s Valek, the Commander, Janco, Ari, Rand, Brazell and more who are all incredibly well developed characters with more sides than a tetracontagon. I don’t know how Snyder does it, but she always makes me fall in love with (almost) every single character in her stories. Sheer brilliance, ‘tis.

Move over Dimitri Belikov, and create a space on that 1^st place podium you’re currently standing on, for *drum roll* Valek! Oh my goodness. *swoons* How is it possible to hate a character so much in the beginning, only to love him at the end? Okay, I’ll be honest, I saw what Snyder was doing, and I never hated Valek. Yeah, I may have been a bit weary of him and scared, but I could never hate him. He’s badass. He’s incredibly intelligent, he’s a badass fighter, he’s good looking, he’s the Commander’s second in command... I could do this all day. I love him.

Need I say more? I think you get the gist from all of this gushing. This book was fantastic, and has soared to the top spot of my list of favourites. I’ve read the second book as well, which is also brilliant. I highly recommend buying this RIGHT. NOW. and if you have  it sitting on your bookshelf waiting to be read, then what are you waiting for? Bring this to the top of your TBR piles, because this is TOP PRIORITY. *breathes* Yeah, read it ;)  

Book Review: Outside In by Maria V Snyder

Me? A Leader? Okay, I did prove that there's more to Inside than we knew. That a whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion - between worker scrubs like me and the snobby uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we're free. I thought that meant I was off the hook, and could go off on my own again - while still touching base with Riley, of course. He's the one upper I think I can trust. But then we learned that there's outside and then there is Outside. And something from Outside wants In. - Visit Outside In's Goodreads page

My Review:

The plot was very nearly as awesome as the first book, Inside Out.


There is a couple of twists, which was nice. If you were watching my updates on Goodreads, you probably know that I now consider myself psychic as I predicted what was going to happen before it happened. Then again, does that mean that the twists were rather obvious? I’ll let you be the judge of that one.


The ending left me wanting more, I wish I could have seen more of what was going to happen after the events in this book ended. Is there going to be another book? Because this did seem like the end, unfortunately.


The ending did seem slightly rushed, and it did seem like the author just wanted to put a lid on this story. However, I may well be wrong, as this may not be the end of the series *crosses fingers*


As with the first book, Trella was a brilliant female lead. I have not got much to say about her to be honest with you, as she stayed pretty much the same throughout the course of the book. Being the evil person that I am, I did love watching her struggle with her new role in this society. 


As for Riley… I wanted more Riley, darn it! He really wasn’t in this novel as much as I expected him to be, and I was a bit disappointed. But, when he was in it, he was just as amazing as he was in the first book. 


Jacy is also a character I wanted to see more of - but that’s mainly due to the slight crush I seemed to develop for him in the first book. He’s badass. Yup. And I do still think he and Trella should get together. This is one love triangle I would be supporting.


The antagonists - not to reveal any spoilers - were very interestingly done. I loved reading about them, and then finally meeting them after reading about them for so long was just mind-blowing! 


As usual, Snyder’s writing style leaves nothing to be desired. Truly splendid, it really is!


Overall, a strong 4.5 out of 5 stars for this novel, and I just wish I didn’t have to leave Trella’s world just yet. 


Recommended!

Rating: 4.5/5

You can buy Outside In here:

Amazon US | Book Depository

Series: Inside Out #2

Published on February 15th, 2011 by HarperTeen

Edition: eBook; 320 pages

Thank you to HarperTeen for providing me with a galley of this book!

Book Review: Inside Out by Maria V Snyder

Keep Your Head Down.

Don't Get Noticed.

Or Else.

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. - Goodreads

My Review:


Having never read any of Maria V Snyder’s works in the past, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book when I bought it from Amazon. However, what I found was an epic dystopian novel packed with a fast paced plot and fun, interesting and well developed characters. 


The world in which the novel is set was brilliantly described by Snyder, and I felt so absorbed in the book it was as if I was actually there in the Inside, living through Trella’s eyes. There was history behind everything, and I loved delving deeper and deeper and learning so much about the scrubs and the uppers. The division of the classes was brilliantly done, along with the descriptions of the levels and just the Inside in general. 


Trella, our main protagonist, is a scrub who lives on the lower levels, earning her living through cleaning the pipes that are all over the Inside. She’s a fantastic main character, I really loved her voice and her personality, and I felt she was the perfect choice to lead a rebellion against those who control her. Usually I dislike female lead characters as they tend to have a very annoying voice, and are extremely whiney. However, Trella has neither of those qualities which is why I loved her.


As with every teenage novel, Trella also has a love interest whose name is Riley. Their connection is clear from the start, and Riley was a great character and was fun to read about.


There were plenty of secondary characters, which would normally be overwhelming, but Snyder pulls it off very well and I found it easy to differentiate between all of the minor characters, and they each had their own distinctive personality. My favourite secondary character was Jacy, and although we didn’t see as much of him as I would have liked, I was kind of ‘shipping him and Trella. *Grin*


The ending was a huge surprise, which I did not see coming, and it left me wanting so much more! Luckily I had a galley of the second book, Outside In, waiting for me to open and start reading! 

Rating: 5/5

Amazon|Book Depository

• Series: Inside Out #1
• Paperback: UK edition; 320 pages
• Publisher: Mira Books (1 Jan 2011)
• ISBN-13: 978-0778304111