A Scent of Magic by Maria V Snyder (Fantasy, 9/10)

December 2012, Mira Ink 

400 pages, Paperback

Review copy 

Content: some moderate violence, tragedy, occasional romance 

Summary from Maria's website (It's not yet on Mira Ink website) 

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal 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 confidant, 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.

Nayuleska's thoughts 

I have a huge confession to make. Besides being a total fangirl with Maria's books,  I did not read the entire book. I read it from cover to cover, but I skipped the chapters which were from Kerrick's point of view. Book 1 was all from Avry's view. I'm pretty sure all of Maria's other books were from Avry's view. I was ill while reading this book, which gives me less tolerance for reading male pov's. I wanted Avry! So Avry was all I read (I read the first 2 and very last one of Kerrick's chapters). I understand I missed out some of the story, but I didn't care about Kerrick. Avry is so brave and it's hard for her to be dead. She takes huge risks which do pay off, but not without a price in this 9/10 read. It's 9/10 because of the Kerrick chapters. Bring back 100% chapters of Avry! 

You can find out more on Maria's website.

Suggested read

Make sure you read book 1, A Touch of Power.