Review:Poison Study

Poison Study (Study #1)

by Maria V. Snyder

 Blurb:

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…

Links: Amazon,BD,Indiaplaza

Source: Borrowed 

Note: Younger Readers cautioned due to mentions of physical abuse and some  scenes.See this review  for more content information. I'm Pretty sure this book is YA but a LOT of people have classified it as ADULT so younger readers proceed keeping that in mind.

My Thoughts:

This is the second Maria V. Synder book I've read and I have to say that so far I've really liked what I've read. This book was very well written and even though this book was not a light read,I really enjoyed it!

I was expecting a serious book in which the heroine would be trying to escape all the time and we would feel sorry for the heroine all the time (and I was pretty sure the heroine would whine A LOT too) but THAT WAS NOT THE CASE! What I discovered instead was a book which had me at the edge of my seat  ,a heroine I admired and a new world(filled with assassins, commanders etc.) that I loved!

 I admired Yelena  greatly.There are very few female characters you can look upto in YA and she's definitely one of them .She's been through hell and she's broken but she never whines about her fate to anyone.

Valek is another character I loved! Throughout the book I wanted to hate him,I really did (He's an assassin It shouldn't have been hard ) but I just couldn't. Even though sometimes I wanted to shake him because of his treatment of Yelena I couldn't really blame him.Also the guy is an excellent fighter.*SWOON*


Ari and Janco were also such great characters! I LOVE them.

The Commander is also another character that surprised me.I had mixed feelings towards him throughout the novel but I'm pretty sure I like him now.

One thing that pulled me in from almost the first page itself was the  poisons! I found it fascinating to see what a food taster had to go through and I really liked the parts in which Yelena was trained how to identify poisons. The book didn't really focus much on Yelena's magical abilities but I think the author is going to explore those in Magic Study(Book 2)

This is also the first time I've actually noticed the world building in a novel . Usually I don't pay much attention to world building as by the time the author has finished and/or started explaining the world I'm either too engrossed in the plot or am not really interested in the world the characters are in. But in this novel, the world building was crucial to the plot and Maria V.Synder beautifully sketches a portrait of the world in our minds .

Overall, this is one book I would highly recommend to people who like strong heroines, fantasy lovers and  anyone who loves Maria V.Synder( even if you don't I'd tell you to give this book a chance)

My Rating:

5 /5

Loved it!