by Hope Ann
publisher’s synopsis
Kynet never planned to be at the forefront of the rebellion. That was her brother’s hobby: rallying the people. Plotting against the leaders. Running into dangers she’d have to negotiate him out of.
That was before the Poisoner tried to kill her.
Left with strange powers in the aftermath of his attack, Kynet is even more convinced the rebellion isn’t worth it. For every life her healing saves, ten more are wasted.
But her quest to stop the carnage before war breaks out will bring her face to face with the man who tried to murder her… and with her own helplessness against a grim reality she may not be able to change.
Reviewing Healer’s Bane is a little tricky because there was a lot of potential for the story, but I don’t feel like it reached that potential. Whether that’s because of its shorter length as a novella, or something with the writing, I don’t know.
The idea of a girl in the middle of a revolution winding up with healing powers is a super neat idea. However, I never really connected with Kynet. While I liked her desire to try and help and heal as many people as possible, her logic didn’t always make sense to me. Plus, it felt like she accepted her healing powers a little too quickly. Personally, I would be a little more freaked out at first if I suddenly had healing powers and a voice in my head.
The setting and magic system had some neat elements to them that I would have liked to explore more, but that’s not realistic with a novella. 🙂
With the story’s shorter length, the plot keeps moving along and doesn’t drag.
Like I said at the beginning, Healer’s Bane had a lot of potential to be a really cool story. But the story seemed to be missing the “push” it needed to move it from a good story to a great story.
Cautions: moderate violence
Hailey Huntington 