Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

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....

Review:

Plot:

Again, I'm a sucker for great plots, and how the author ties everything together at the end. I totally can't do that...(at least now in the first book) I loved all the twists and turns, I loved all the places they went. I just love SF and Fantasy!

Characters:

Avry was a great character. I liked her, she was stubborn, but not too stubborn, I wasn't annoyed when she tried to stand up for something and be stubborn, I agreed with her.

I was Team Kerrick from the start. He was totally mean in the beinging, but Avry totally softened his heart. And it wasn't insta-love either. It was down-to-the-last-chapters-love. The BEST kind of love. It always makes you want the second book a whole lot more.

The monkeys were hilarious, how they all worked together, and accepted Avry, Belen was so sweet, Flea was awesome, and all the others were just great, I wish I could meet them! haha

Tohan, when we read about him drove me nuts with his 'my dears'. And he was so insane and boastful. O.o

Writing:

It was good writing. It wasn't horrible, or perfect. The only I thing I didn't like, was the lack of action. Like all the characters did half the time was: I said. how did she say it? Did she look at something a certain way when she said it? It was like they had no emotion on their voice. And also how it looked like the author was trying to make scenes shorter, for sake of words and pages. But the writing didn't make me hate the book. I was just a little disappointed.

Romance:

The romance didn't start to the very end of the book, and that was totally ok with me. I enjoyed it alot! Could use a little less on one page, looks like their relationship went too fast. But otherwise than that, it was kind of like MG romance, not describing everything in huge detail. I liked it!

Wrap up:

I loved Avry's healer powers, even though they had a catch, this book was awesome. It was MG until the last few chapters, and I liked it that way. YA authors should write like that a lot more. And the swearing wasn't huge either, which was a HUGE relief. I cannot WAIT for book 2!!

Rating:

4 stars.

-M.