The Magic and the Healing Review
The Magic and the Healing
by Nick O'Donohoe
BJ Vaughan is in her last year of vet school--and in the first year of mourning her mother's death. Her grades have slipped, and she wonders if she really is capable of working with animals after all. Then her mentor, Dr. Sugar Dobbs, asks if she will join a few other select students to treat some very unusual animals. They go offsite, to Crossroads, a world where the creatures of imagination live and breathe--and hurt. And where BJ, tending to centaurs and griffins and magical cats, will discover the joy of healing and the wonder of magic.
This book could've been so much better than it was. The premise showed so much promise, but everything else was off. The vet parts were interesting, but felt like a fantasy-version of a James Herriot book and were weighted down with terminology. I almost stopped reading this one several times.
The narrator, BJ, really got under my skin. She was so obsessed with the fact that she might be losing her motor skills due to her Huntington's Chorea that she pushed everyone away. I might have liked her more if she at least gave Stefan an explanation, but instead she just pushed him away and let him think that she wouldn't get with him because he was a faun.
Brandal's story actually intrigued me more than BJ's through the first half of the book, but by the second half I was wondering why he was even king. My favorite character by far was Stefan. He was very well done and I almost wish the book had been about him instead. I loved Morgan and the Griffin. Morgan was an excellent villain.
Overall: 5/10. This book had so much potential but it fell flat for me.
by Nick O'Donohoe
BJ Vaughan is in her last year of vet school--and in the first year of mourning her mother's death. Her grades have slipped, and she wonders if she really is capable of working with animals after all. Then her mentor, Dr. Sugar Dobbs, asks if she will join a few other select students to treat some very unusual animals. They go offsite, to Crossroads, a world where the creatures of imagination live and breathe--and hurt. And where BJ, tending to centaurs and griffins and magical cats, will discover the joy of healing and the wonder of magic. This book could've been so much better than it was. The premise showed so much promise, but everything else was off. The vet parts were interesting, but felt like a fantasy-version of a James Herriot book and were weighted down with terminology. I almost stopped reading this one several times.
The narrator, BJ, really got under my skin. She was so obsessed with the fact that she might be losing her motor skills due to her Huntington's Chorea that she pushed everyone away. I might have liked her more if she at least gave Stefan an explanation, but instead she just pushed him away and let him think that she wouldn't get with him because he was a faun.
Brandal's story actually intrigued me more than BJ's through the first half of the book, but by the second half I was wondering why he was even king. My favorite character by far was Stefan. He was very well done and I almost wish the book had been about him instead. I loved Morgan and the Griffin. Morgan was an excellent villain.
Overall: 5/10. This book had so much potential but it fell flat for me.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
I didn't really buy Stefan and BJ's first kiss. I didn't feel any chemistry between them prior to it. In fact, I had no idea they even liked each other like that. Despite that, I wish we'd found out whether they ever end up together.
I don't understand why Morgan doesn't just get one of the Wyr to show her the way to Crossroads and draw her own map and then lead the armies through on her own. I know the roads change, but it doesn't seem like they would be able to change within a couple days or even a few hours if she could do it that fast.
I can't believe how long it took them to realize the Griffin was the Inspector General. I knew it after the sheep attack when justice was written on the truck in blood. It was obvious no one else was around to do it so it had to have been Griffin.
I didn't really buy Stefan and BJ's first kiss. I didn't feel any chemistry between them prior to it. In fact, I had no idea they even liked each other like that. Despite that, I wish we'd found out whether they ever end up together.
I don't understand why Morgan doesn't just get one of the Wyr to show her the way to Crossroads and draw her own map and then lead the armies through on her own. I know the roads change, but it doesn't seem like they would be able to change within a couple days or even a few hours if she could do it that fast.
I can't believe how long it took them to realize the Griffin was the Inspector General. I knew it after the sheep attack when justice was written on the truck in blood. It was obvious no one else was around to do it so it had to have been Griffin.
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