Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Title: Touch of Power (Healer #1)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publisher: Mira
Release date: December 20th 2011

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read an excerpt here

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....

I don´t read too much epic fantasy as I should, and Touch of Power is the first book I´ve read by Maria V. Snyder, though I've read good reviews of Poison Study (a book by the same author), and because of this, I decided to read this series or trilogy.

Touch of Power tells the story of  Avry of Kazan a 20 years old young woman, she´s strong, smart, stubborn, strong-minded, she can take care of herself. She´s a healer that can heal by simply touching a person, the only drawback is that she absorbs and suffers the illness or injury of the person she´s healing, the gift that she has, at some time was well appreciated by everyone, but after a plague that killed two-thirds of the population of the Fifteen Realms,the healers were blamed for the plague and persecuted, so Avry for the last three years has been in hiding and trying to survive but at the beginning of the story she is about to give up. But when she is rescued-captured by a group of men led by Kerrick, with the sole intention of taking her  to heal a prince who has the plague and to which Avry has no respect or care about, but it is thanks to this group of "bandits" that she finds some meaning in her life

Within the group of "bandits" Kerrick is their leader, he´s just as stubborn as Avry, hard to understand, as he almost never shows any kind of emotion and his only goal is to save his prince, and at first I didn´t like him very much because of the way he treats Avry, but my opinion of him changed as the story goes on.

Other important characters in the story are the rest of the gang, which are Belen, he´s my favorite character in this book, he´s Kerrick´s best friend, he has a huge heart and he´s Avry´s protector, there are also Loren and Quain, they´re funny and ease the tension in the group and finally we have Flea, he´s the youngest of the gang and is a character that is impossible not to love.

I  loved Touch of Power!  is a great book, it has action, intrigue, a subtle romance with great characters, even the villain is great (a little bit mentally unbalanced but I like him as a villian) ! I highly recommend this book.

UK Book Trailer