24 May, 2016

REVIEW: THE HEALER by C. J. Anaya

Title: The Healer
Author: C. J. Anaya
Series: The Healer #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Beau Coup LLC
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 265

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SYNOPSIS: #1 Hot New Release in Multicultural Folk Tales
#2 Hot New Release in Folk Tales & Myth Collections
Top 10 Amazon Bestseller in Teen & Young Adult Country & Ethnic Fairy Tales & Folklore

A girl, a prophecy, and two warring gods equals destiny!

Hope Fairmont longs for a normal teenage life, but with a gift like hers, normal equals healing illnesses and injuries instantly. Keeping a secret like that isn’t easy, but a small town is the perfect place for her to heal those who can’t heal themselves, and an even better place for her father, James Fairmont, to hide his daughter from the rest of the world.

Life takes an unexpected turn when two handsome strangers move into town and begin unearthing other secrets concerning Hope's future and past, revealing to Hope that her gift for healing may be the fulfillment of an ancient, Japanese prophecy gone wrong.

Staying away from these mysterious newcomers would be the smart thing to do, but Victor's gentle, easy manner, and Tie's mixed signals and strange mood swings draw her hopelessly closer to revealing the secret she and her father have been so desperate to hide.

Hope's life is complicated further with visions of a previous life and the arrival of a supernatural demon sent to assassinate her before she learns what she is truly capable of.

With the support of her father, the fiery loyalty of her best friend Angie, and the child-like love of Kirby, a ten-year-old patient, Hope must fight against the forces of a relentless demon god while unwinding the tangled pieces of her past, proving to herself and those she loves that destiny isn’t determined by some cosmic reading of the stars, but by the individual choices one makes.
I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. The thing that attracted me to this book was the Japanese mythology/curse part. I love reading about mythology and I knew nothing about the Japanese one so why not try?


THE WORLD: The normal world but The Gods are real. In this case the Japanese deities but I am guessing the rest should be just as real too.

CHARACTERS: Hope Fairmont, normal high school student except that she can heal people. She can actually 'connect' with people's brain and cells and give them orders, tell them how to heal themselves or perform certain tasks, etc. As far as she knows she's the only one who can do this and her father, James, doesn't want anybody to know because a) she would be a freak and b) probably put in a lab by the government... so they hide her powers by making her a cleaning worker at the local hospital where she can heal people safely. She has two best friends, the bestest is Angie who she saved from death when they were children, and the other is Kirby, a leukemia patient she cannot heal because he's actually supposed to die (when people are supposed to die she cannot heal them because their bodies don't respond to anything). Up to here there is nothing too interesting... but then two really hot guys appear suddenly, Tie Hart and Victor, and that's when things get messy because there are also Japanese gods involved. There is a Japanese prophecy that is supposed to be fulfilled and you can already guess who is going to be involved right? *wink wink*

I don't want to reveal it because it would be super spoilery and nope, you should read it and learn about this Japanese prophecy and the Japanese gods...

LOVE: Now this is super confusing. At first it's kinda insta-love (ugh!) and then for an awful 10-20% of the book it looks like an insta-love triangle (double ugh!) *panic! at the bedroom* but then there is a kind of plot-twist and it seems like it's actually not insta-love and nor a triangle... I don't know it's difficult to explain!

PLUS: I was not familiar with Japanese mythology so it was very interesting to read! I mean there is not that much going on in this book (it's only the first) except in the last half when all the mythology starts playing a part and explaining everything that should happen.

Kinda plot-twist? You see it coming though but it makes you very curious about how the next books are going to develop. Going against prophecies is not easy hehe.

MINUS: The first half was not so interesting and also the insta-love panic!moment got me almost regretting reading it but no, then the love part was clarified and the story picked up quickly. Phew! relief...

OVERALL: 4 stars. I am very curious about the next books because this one ends in a cliffhanger. Oh yeah, cliffhangers are the worst I know.


What did you guys think about THE HEALER?