Review- Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Title: Touch of Power
Series: Healer 
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Published: December 20th 2011
Book 1 
(Sent by Harlequin Publishers) 
In the enthralling yet mystical tale of Avry, Healers were a hated race of people. They were believed to be the cause of the Plague that took the lives of a large part of the population in the world. They were hunted and treated like animals if they weren't already killed upon sight. Avry is a Healer, she has been running for several years, stopping from town to town and forest to forest. In one of the several towns she has visited, Avry offers to babysit a small child who is extremely sick. In the dead of night, Avry healed the child, absorbing the sickness into herself. Avry became weak with sickness and slept through until the remnants of the illness was out of her system. Her healing abilities allowed her to heal faster than any normal person and by morning, she was in perfect health. Instead of being grateful for the health of their daughter, the parents called soldiers upon Avry because they had a suspicion that she had healed their daughter. The soldiers rained upon Avry, capturing her and putting her in a prison cell while she awaited her execution. During the night of her capture, four men came and visited Avry, requesting her help to heal an important friend of theirs and in return, they would save her from her execution. Avry agreed and accompanied them on their journey to save the life of their friend. Throughout the journey, friendships were made, hardships were faced, battles were fought and betrayals were committed. 

I am going to begin by speaking about the characters. The protagonist, Avry, is extraordinarily created with the sheer talent, imagination and creativity of the author. Along with the protagonist, Maria V. Snyder has also created a talented group of characters that each are unique with different qualities. Aside from the characters, a number of exotic plants and animals have been newly introduced to the readers. Death and Peace Lilies play significant roles in parts of this novel as their properties are, on various occasions, used for different purposes. Towards the end of the novel, there are zombies introduced which gives this novel the extra genre of Paranormal and it makes it all the better. Maria V. Snyder has provided us all with another novel that we must add to our To be Read list.

The only minor thing that I didn't like was the fact that the novel was very slow-paced in various moments. Especially when the group was travelling, the plot of the story became repetitive at rare times but then it improved not long after. Despite these minor drawbacks, the novel was a complete success written by a talented author. 

Overall, I give this novel 5/5 outstanding stars as the plot of the novel was unlike any other that I have read and it was one of my favourites. Maria V. Snyder is an extremely talented author who is obviously passionate about her work and puts a lot of effort into producing an excellent novel.

Rating: 5/5

Review- Tredan's Bane by Lita Burke

Title: Tredan's Bane
Series: Tredan's Bane
Author: Lita Burke
Published: June 30th 2012
Book 1 
(Sent by the Author)
Lanith is the wife of a former enchanter who is lost throughout the midst of a war between Church Magicians and fellow Enchanters. Lanith is on a quest to seek her missing husband after discovering their store and overhead apartment emblazoned in flames. There is nothing left of her possessions and she had specific instructions from her husband to find the Enchanters if anything happened to him. Taking him up on his word, Lanith seeks to find an Enchanter who will help her find her husband and stumbles upon Enchanter Nyle. A friendly relationship develops between them as they embark for their quest to save Tredan. Along the way, Tredan's journal is found and it contains dark magic on ways to torture and Enchanter, remove his/her powers and other horrific ways to cause any Enchanter harm. Questions without answers are left flowing throughout Lanith's mind and she begins to wonder if her husband is the man that he claimed to be.

The first thing that I loved about this novel is the pure originality of the plot. It leaves you in awe and makes you wonder how the author came up with such an amazing tale. The way she descibes how the characters feel or react to certain situations is expressed in a way that I have rarely ever seen before. I also loved how some characters have their own murky pasts that always ends up catching up to them in the future. The characters are unique, have great personalities and there are twists, betrayals and more.

I mean no offense to the author, but I disliked the cover of this novel very much. It does not show any excitement or talent that is portrayed in the content. The cover does not do justice to the novel and it doesn't show any symbolism of the actual plot except for the picture frame with Tredan's Journal. It is really bland and should show a little more colour and the main image should be more symbolic. I did however love the amount of magic in the book. It just overflows off the pages and it is a perfect example of the originality in the book. The only thing wrong with the new magic introduced is that it is not all explained. I am left guessing what the properties of the types of magic actually do.

Overall, I absolutely loved the content of the book and will be eagerly awaiting its sequel. I recommend it to all the "magic-lovers" out there. All that I think could be improved is the cover of the book and the explanations of the magic. The positives of the book however, rule out most of the negatives and I am rating this novel:

Rating: 4/5