Poison Study (Study #1)by Maria V. Snyder
What is it about:
Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison…
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear…
What did I think of it:
I will confess that when I borrowed this book from a friend I thought it would be the gazillionth Young Adult Fantasy with yet another love triangle. The food tasting thing sounded cool though, so I set aside my misgivings and decided to give this book a try.
And I'm so glad I did: This book is amazing!
No teen angsty love triangles here. In fact: This book might be marketed as a YA book and Yelena might be about seventeen when the story starts, but I wouldn't call it YA myself per se.
The writing is decent, but it's not the writing that makes this book, it's the story. It has everything I want in a good fantasy:
A likeable heroine who's damaged, but not broken and willing to fight.
A cool, mysterious and dangerous love interest for said heroine.
An intriguing, detailed setting and decent world building.
Some adequate baddies.
And an action-packed, suspenseful story.
What more could you want?
When I finished Poison Study I immediately ordered my own copy, because I know I will want to reread it often and there's only so much times you can bug a friend to part with their copy ;-)
Why should you read it:
It's really cool Fantasy with amazing characters.
3 comments:
Awesome! I've had this book on my shelf for a while and I was dreading the typical YA tropes. Glad to hear it's better than most. Great review!
I've read about food tasters (and sin-eaters) from a historical perspective so this book does sound intriguing.
I'm so glad you reviewed this! I got a copy of it for myself not long ago, not having heard much about it, but thinking it sounded interesting.
Now I can't wait to read it!
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