Touch of Power by Maria V Snyder

Synopsis from Goodreads: 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...

My thoughts: Touch of Power has a strong female lead character, Avry, who is captured for her healing powers by a group of men trying to save their Prince from the plague. Along the journey to save Prince Ryne, Avry must decide if the Prince is worth giving up her own life for or if there is another even worse fate awaiting her. She also begins to wonder how the plague really started and what the Healers' Guild were really doing.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very reminiscent of Poison Study, Maria's first book which I absolutely adored.Once again I enjoyed reading an adventure story set in a fantasy world. The characters were really interesting and I love the way that the background characters made the story even more interesting.

I feel like I would like to know more about Avry and her powers, I'm really looking forward to more from this series! 

Reviewed as part of the Touch of Power blog tour.

Author Interview - Maria V. Snyder

Today I'm joined by Maria V. Snyder author of the Study and Glass trilogies and the Inside Out series.

Can you describe Inside Out in 3 words?
Fast-paced, action-packed, world-changing. That's three.....right? :)

Do you have any habits while writing?
A few – I need music on in the background or else it's too quiet. I put on pop music because I heard those songs so much, I don't have to listen to them any more. I usually have a cup of tea on hand, and I write down how many words I'd written each day.

A lot of your characters have unusual names, how do you come up with these?
I have about three baby name books that are very useful. When I start a novel, I go through my books and pick out one name for each letter of the alphabet for each gender. Then when I'm writing and need a name, I go to my list. I pick names that mean something special and, I would tell you what Trella means, but that would give away one of the twists ;). I have an article about my characters' names on my website. Here's a link if anyone is interested: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/advice/naming.php and I did a guest blog that gives more details here: http://www.readingrocks4me.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

In Inside Out Trella uses technology to help her on her quest. What technology do you think would make your life easier?
Somedays I think technology makes my life harder! I think having a smart house would be ideal. The house would keep track of food and when we run low on milk, it would automatically order another gallon from the store (which would deliver for free). The house would sense the laundry baskets filling up and would collect them and do laundry. Same with cleaning and cooking :)

If you lived Inside would you be like Trella and try to find out the truth?
I don't think I'd be that brave, but I would help her if I could :)

Thanks so much for inviting me onto your blog! If your readers would like more info about me and my books, I have the first chapter of all my books on my website as well as a number of free short stories they can read. I also have a page full of writing advice for any aspiring writers out there :) Here’s the link: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/ And my blog is: http://officialmariavsnyder.blogspot.com/

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Keep your head down. Don't get noticed. Or else.

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of the thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I just do my job and try to avoid the Population Control Police, who dream of recycling scrubs into fertiliser. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? It's not like it's dangerous...

Well, turns out it is. Because I know every corridor, pipe and shortcut I've become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. I know if we find a gateway to Outside it'll be suicide plain and simple. But guess who likes a challenge?

I should have just said no...

My thoughts: I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I'm a big fan of Maria's Study and Glass series but because this is a dystopian novel I worried that I might not like it. That was totally not the case however, I absolutely loved this book!
The novel is set Inside, which is like a big metal box with all sorts of corridors, rooms and pipework. Trella is a scrub and she works cleaning the pipework. As rumours grow that there is more than just Inside, Trella is roped in to helping discover the truth.
I really liked Trella and her friends and I was rooting for them all the way through the book.

The setting of this book is obviously a major part of the story. I found that the setting was described really well and you can quite easily picture in your mind what it's like.

Although the setting is very different to Maria's other books, the writing is still just as great, and there's another awesome female MC. So if you loved Maria's other books, I highly recommend this!

Be sure to stop by my blog again tomorrow when I'll have an interview with Maria!

Thanks to Mira Ink for sending me this book for review.

In My Mailbox 24

I hope all my American readers had a lovely Thanksgiving. No such fun for me I'm afraid, here in the UK it was just another day at the office. Not long until Christmas now though.
Anyway, to cheer myself up after hearing about everyone's Thanksgiving dinners, etc. I bought myself some new books.

Bought
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Dead in the Water by Carola Dunn
The Counterfeit Guest by Rose Melikan

Mooched
Regeneration by Pat Barker

For Review
Inside Out by Maria V Snyder

That's probably the last bunch of books I'm going to buy myself now until after Christmas. I need to start buying presents for people soon!

Talking of Christmas, there's only a few more days to sign up to my Greetings Card Exchange, please join in, it's going to be fun.

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren

Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder

Warning: This review may contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

An undercover mission leads to danger, adventure and an impossible choice...

After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, Opal Cowan has lost her powers. She can no longer create glass magic. More, she's immune to the effects of magic. Opal is an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had, powers that make a difference in the world.

Suddenly, the beautiful pieces she makes flash in the presence of magic. And then she discovers that someone has stolen some of her blood - and that finding it might let her regain her powers. Or know it could be they are lost forever...

My thoughts: I received this book from the publisher for review, and I was so pleased when they contacted me because I've been dying to find out what would happen next to Opal. This is the third and final book in the Glass trilogy featuring Opal Cowan the glass magician. At the end of the second book (Sea Glass, read my review here) Opal lost her powers, and in Spy Glass she is on a quest to find her blood hoping she can regain some magic.
I was pleased to see that some of my favourite characters from the previous books were also in this one. I was especially pleased to see Ari and Janco again because I really love them.
I mentioned in my review of Sea Glass that there was a confusing appearance of the Bloodrose clan that I hoped would be cleared up in the third book. They did reappear in this book and the mystery surrounding them seems to have been resolved.

One last point to make is that if you've been following the series you'll know that Opal has been torn between Kade and Devlen. By the end of this book she has finally made the choice. I don't want to give anything away, but I think after reading the book I can understand her choice.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think it was a good end to the series. But there were some new characters introduced in this book that I really hope Maria is going to write some more books about!

In My Mailbox 15

I got two books this week, they're both ones that I can't wait to read.

First up, I got a review copy of Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder. I'm so excited to read this one!

An undercover mission leads to danger, adventure and an impossible choice...

After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, Opal Cowan has lost her powers. She can no longer create glass magic. More, she's immune to the effects of magic. Opal is an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had, powers that make a difference in the world.

Suddenly, the beautiful pieces she makes flash in the presence of magic. And then she discovers that someone has stolen some of her blood - and that finding it might let her regain her powers. Or know it could be they are lost forever...

The second book I got was A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly. This has been on my wishlist for ages, so I was really pleased when someone on bookmooch offered it to me as a swap for one of my other books.

When Mattie is given letters by a guest at the hotel where she has a summer job, she thinks the guest is simply upset. But when the woman is found drowned next day, Mattie must decide whether she will read them, or burn them as requested. A touching funny surprising novel set in 1906 and based on a true story.

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren.

Sea Glass by Maria V. Snyder

Synopsis from back cover: Student glass magician Opal Cowan's newfound skills to steal a magician's strength make her too powerful.

Kept under house arrest, Opal dares defy her imprisonment to search for Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because she is sure another man - now her prisoner - has switched souls with Ulrick.

In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn't sure whom to trust. And now everyone is after Opal's special powers for their own deadly gain...

My thoughts: I enjoyed this book, although I did think it took a long time for anything exciting to happen. Opal seemed to spend a lot of time travelling or sitting around thinking and waiting to do something.

It was good to see Opal standing up for herself more than in the previous book (Storm Glass), but it’s obvious that she’s still quite unsure of herself and who she should trust.

I love that we get to see more of Janco in this book. He’s definitely one of my favourite characters. Unlike Kade, I really didn’t like him as much in this book, he just seemed so bland.

I found the Ulrick/Devlen thing a bit confusing, especially towards the end when they were both being referred to by name and I didn’t know which one was which. But, that’s what happens when people switch bodies.

The whole sea glass sub-plot thing was really weird. It was looking like it was going to be a major event and then it just fizzled out into nothing and I was like “what the hell was that all about?!” I assume it was the start of something that’s going to feature more in the next book, but it was so strange.

The ending of the book has some major twists, and I’m really looking forward to the next instalment. Can’t wait to see what happens to Opal next.