.Blog Tour #Review #Giveaway: Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Today, is my stop for the Second book in the Healer series
 Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder where I share with you my review and some awesome giveaways! Check out my review for the first book in the series Touch Of Power HERE.

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scent Of Magic
By Maria V. Snyder

Paperback, 400 pages

Expected publication: December 18th 2012 by Harlequin MIRA

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.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Purchase Links:

 

Goodreads:

Amazon

The Book Depository
Barnes & Noble

 

 

Maria's Bio 

 

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
 

Blog  

Goodreads
 

Facebook

A journey to discovering secrets, making new friends, as well as reconnecting with old friends. With lies, and deception,  and an imposing war, that include vile creatures, and zombie like soldier's,  Fantasy fans  will enjoy the next phase in the healer series, and will be left yearning for the the next book.

The second installment of the Healer series picks up right where the first one ends, Avry has escaped Tohan's  deranged hand, none to well. Lay dying, she is saved by Kerrick and he has brought her back from the brink of death, but as Kerrick is the only one whom knows what has happened to Avry, the others in her group are left to fear she has succumbed to her injuries, Kerrick comes up with a plan so only Avry and himself know she is alive, as they continue to fight Tohan and is soilder's.

Now, Avry must hide her identity, with magic as she ventures through part of the Nine mountains, alone, having parted ways with Kerrick, so they keep up their rouse, of her being dead, he must too, venture alone back to his kingdom, and the others whom await word from him, as to what direction needs to be taken as far as Tohan and his army goes.

Avry, knowing the only person left of her surviving family, whom despises her, is still alive, has left Avry with the need to save her, as well as trying to save another young girl, she heads off to where both girls are at, a place where Tohan has not yet acquired, in his journey to take over and rule all the kingdoms of the land, Estrid's Army.
Keeping her rouse Avry, becomes Irnia, as she squirms her way into the army of Estrid's company,  and explains to them she can teach them to move through the forest without detection, a valuable skill, they allow her into the army as she is now Sergeant Irnia, of the Gubkin Realm. Becoming close to the groups of leaders of the army, proving her worth leaves her with allies, as she teaches them the skill that was once taught to her by Kerrick, she knows this skill will come in handy while battling the army of the dead.


Kerrick in the meantime has to keep up his rouse of Avry's death as he is left to journey in the opposite direction as her and return to his kingdom to become what he is destined to become, King, a role he is not interested in. He also must keep up his rouse, and lie to his small ban of soldier's whom, have journeyed with both Avry, and Kerrick in the first book. These men have grown to love Avry, like a sister, and Kerrick whom also loves Avry, but as more of a woman,  must fake being sad, and lie to them about her being alive. Saddened, the small group has now separated and have their own duties in the role they play in the fight against Tohan and his army of the dead.


Because so much happens in this book, I'm not going to spoil it for you,  but  I will say that once you get into the story it does develop well and I enjoyed it more and more as the story continued. The last half of the book, had secrets revealed, battles, escapes, unlikely friends, and surprises, as well as death, hardship, and more. As the ending shared more than one surprise we are left with a cliffhanger, the next book in the series Taste Of Death, won't be released until 2014, oh woe is me....


Told in dual pov's throughout the book left me confused at first, as well as picking up from the last book, I felt I needed a refresher in the beginning, but once I got used to switching over of the POV's and I remembered the events from the last book, this one started to flow well at about the 40% mark is where I would say I started to enjoy this book. Being that Kerrick and Avry where not together, like in the first book, I wasn't too sure I would enjoy the direction Miss Snyder was heading, but she proved me wrong, and I did enjoy the story, as well as the many new characters throughout the book. As it seems the impending war has yet to begin fully, in this book it seems to be a slow build up to achieving friends or foe's who will stand up to battle and face Tohan and who will side with the evil monster. Miss Snyder has left me wondering, wondering what direction she will take the Healer series, and I highly anticipate the third book to be epic, as this book seems to be a stepping stone of sorts.

4/5 Fantasy Roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two different giveaways for this tour

US/Can only(but don't worry INT)-follow the tour for the INT giveaways

Harlequin teen will be giving away 1 copy of Scent Of Magic

as well as a second giveaway for

 Harlequin Teen Prize pack

Enter both rafflecopter forms to be entered in each giveaway

Ends Dec 22

International

Parajunkee

Read Now Sleep Later

We Fancy Books

The Starry-Eyed Revue

YA Reads

 

US/Canada

Paranormal Urban Fantasy Reviews

The Book Heroine

Two Chicks on Books

A Great Read

The Book Hookup

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway