Holding out for a Healer – the anthology

Remember my laments about my ill-fated attempts to find fantasy books featuring male healers? It’s super easy to find books about girls with healing powers. But guys with healing powers? Specifically, guys who are the main characters and not shuffled off to a side role? IMPOSSIBLE. In fact, as I was getting ready to write this post, I was recommended another couple of books with a male healer … who is a background character in book 2. Make my point for me a little harder, why don’t you?

Anyway, my writing group observed my struggles. After humorously assisting me in my search and realizing how difficult it was, they suggested writing an anthology of male healer stories. To my amazement and delight, they actually did it. And the anthology is actually available for other people to read!

Artwork by yours truly

Available on Amazon and all other retailers

The stories within:

Of Blood and Stars, by P.M. Argent. Humanity is at war with the fae. The fae occupy one side of a giant rift in the land, humans occupy the other. But the fae are hungry for more territory and magic, and their attacks grow ever more relentless. The heroine, a healer for an elite mage unit, meets their new replacement healer, and he’s a cold-as-ice professional with incredible powers and knowledge. But of everyone in the human military, this healer may hold the key to ending the war.

A Song and a Blessing, by Shari Branning. A young soldier returning home from fighting a war happens across a gang of men about to murder a fairy for no reason he can see. He rescues the fairy at great personal cost. As a reward, the fairy gifts him healing powers. But upon his return home, he finds that evil fairies have been ravaging the land, and it’s up to him to rescue those captured–which would be impossible without his new powers.

Spellbeasts by K.M. Carroll. The princess of Brand has fallen ill, and the king has put out a call for all healers in the kingdom to come try to heal her. Answering the call are a couple of summoners who were banished for practicing illegal magic. However, the master summoner is confident that his healing powers, combined with the power of his spellbeast, can sort out whatever sickness lies upon the princess. His apprentice is less confident, but they smuggle their dinosaur-like beasts into the castle and havoc ensues.

Suntala, Shard Therapist, by K.M. Carroll. In a world of superheroes, whose powers come from shards of magic inside them, Jayesh Khatri is a healer who works in a hospital. His shard was turned into a tiny dragon named Suntala (it’s a long story, told elsewhere in the After Atlantis books). Anyway, one night in the hospital, Suntala hears the shard of a wounded man calling to him. It tells him how the man was wounded trying to save a woman from being kidnapped, and asks Suntala’s help in saving her. Suntala proceeds to drag Jayesh into all kinds of mischief, first hunting down this girl, then fighting off the thugs trying to capture her for nefarious purposes.

Unable to Get Hired As an Adventurer Because I’m a Healer, I Set Out to Become A-Rank! by Aaron DeMott. A light novel inspired by popular isekai anime, a young healer tries to find work with the adventurer’s guild, but gets turned down. He teams up with a catgirl who isn’t very good at fighting, and together they take the lowest missions in an attempt to earn some money … and discover that healing magic can be used in offensive ways, if you’re creative.

Combat Medic, Pocket Edition, by Heather M. Elliot. Imagine a gritty World War II novel of soldiers fighting in the rain and mud in Italy. Our hero, Medic Caffey, is trying to bind wounds while avoiding sniper fire, when suddenly a portal opens and a well-dressed woman steps out. She drags him and the rest of his squad into this portal just as a bomb drops, saving their lives, but endangering them at the same time as the pocket dimension begins to collapse. Caffey begins having flashbacks of lives he never led, and healing powers begin to flow from him at a touch. The woman takes them from pocket dimension to pocket dimension, fleeing the evil forces chasing her, as the reluctant soldiers try to wrap their heads around the magic affecting them.

Synergy, by Alexandra Gilchrist. In a world of superheroes, our hero is just a medic, the guy who puts supers back together after someone has been thrown through a building … again. But today as he mends a young woman, she binds him to her with psychic powers and tries to compel him to help her defeat a villain. Naturally he’s opposed to this, but she discovers it’s not that easy to undo a psychic binding. Now they have to work together with this uneasy push and pull between them … and maybe use it to their advantage.

Bloodthirsty Healer, by Bogna Jordan. Another videogame-inspired story. Our hero is a very good healer, but he gets passed over by adventuring groups who only want cute girls as healers. He finally persuades a group to hire him, and naturally they all don’t like each other very much, but they have to work together to kill a chimera. Sometimes the healer is the most bloodthirsty one on the whole team…and sometimes that’s a good thing.

Healer of the Wolves, by Janice Verhoog. An assassin with medical training goes to rescue his source’s daughters after they get kidnapped.

These stories are about the coziest of cozy reads. Happy endings, good guys, bad guys, and loads of hurt/comfort. Grab a copy and curl up with a nice cup of tea!

Available on Amazon and all other retailers