Review: Healer by Lisa Renee Jones
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 10, 2012
Healer is a novella at about 48K words.This is one of the few books I have read that I am not sure how to convey both the well written plot and complex story along with the editing errors in both continuity and good old fashioned grammar, spelling and punctuation. But I am keeping in mind that this was early work for this author and she has gone on too much bigger and better work with the Zodius series.The story begins in Area 51, always a favourite place for conspiracy theorists, and a great mysterious setting for a sci-fi fantasy novel. Combining alien DNA with adult humans has created a super-race of soldiers. Depending on the predisposition of the participants some of the soldiers are on the side of good and some have gone over to the dark side. Diego is a force for good and has been tasked with finding a healer, Marcella Alexander, who has gone into hiding. The forces for good need her special talent for healing in order to win the battle and retain order. Marcella wants nothing more than to be left alone and even though she herself is in hiding from someone who is stalking her, she has trouble believing that there are bad guys after her. Unbeknown to either of them they are destined to be together and against all odds fall in love.The story is interesting but I think the author may have tried to get more into the novella than she had room for. It made for complex situations being resolved with simple solutions that didn't work for the reader. A few too many characters were introduced which meant they didn't develop fully and a couple of them didn't seem to advance the plot or add anything to the story and could have easily been left out.Overall I enjoyed the story. It would have worked better if the continuity problems were solved and the grammar, spelling and punctuation need some editing but overall the story is good. I liked it enough that I will read the first novel of the Zodius series to see how her writing has matured compared to this early work.Karen Bryant Doering