An interesting magic system but characters I couldn't connect with | Touch of Power

Touch of Power (Healer #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Published: December 20th 2011 by Mira
Genre: Young adult, High fantasy

Goodreads summary: Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured 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, the 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.

REVIEW

Finally, I've read a book by this author, which is so exciting, because I have so much more to discover from her.

I really enjoyed reading about this world, I found the plague to be an original element. It was great to have healers in the magic system -they weren't the only ones but still- especially because I felt them to be so realistic, since when they healed someone, they suffered in their place, but recovered faster. Moreover, we learnt about how they came to be at the end of the book and what was all about with the plague. Nevertheless, I would have liked to read about a more diverse setting, because it seemed to be forest and caves <b>ALL. THE. TIME.</b> Maybe the world will expand in the rest of the series, we'll see.

Plot-wise, I never got bored, even if it involved a lot of journeying, which I found a bit strange, since I'm bored most of the time in that kind of plot, but it wasn't the case here, because it was full of twists and turns. When the characters stopped in certain locations, it would make secondary plot lines move, it was so nicely done. The last third of the novel was really different because of the situation the main character was into, I really liked it because again, it allowed a change of scenery and kept the plot interesting.

The characters were fine, but I didn't particularly cared for any of them. They felt a bit flat to me, but maybe some character development will help me with this in the second book. However, the family dynamics between the characters was well written and I loved when they talked of "Poppa Bear", it was so funny! I didn't like Kerrick, because he was such a jerk in the beginning and tortured Avry, I was sooooo mad about it. Okay, this book was set in a harsh world and involved serious topics, but still. I wouldn't have forgiven him, had I been Avry. He might grew on me in the second book, since he's less of a cold-hearted jerk. The secondary characters were full of humour and I liked them more, but I wanted more backstory on some of them.

I really enjoyed that the characters were older than in regular YA novels (apparently, Goodreads says it's young adult, so I'll believe), because their actions seemed more realistic. This book was easy to read, so it could be a young adult novel, but I'm not completely sure because of some of the topics involved. I think it was labelled wrong, but I don't know if I would have picked it up if it had been labelled as 'adult', which is pretty stupid, but I only read young adult books these days.

I was pretty 'meh' about the romance, because of what I said above. Moreover, another character wanted to get Avry and used his powers to mess with her emotions, please tell me it won't turn into a love triangle or I'll yell. It was a hate turned love kind of romance, but it didn't work that much for me, and I rolled my eyes a few times because I found some of the dialogues cheesy.

I really enjoyed the ending, which was fast-paced and full of surprises. It made me so eager to read the second book, which I'll get to next month!

Have you read this book? What do you think of Maria V. Snyder's books? Do you have favourites? Do you think Touch of Power should be labelled young adult? New adult?