Sunday, October 4, 2009

Review-- "Poison Study"

Pub. Date: March 2007
Publisher: Mira
ISBN-13: 9780778324331
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magic
Synopsis (B&N):
Choose: A quick death and hell or slow poison and hell.
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.


Other places to buy this at:

My Review:

4.5 STARS! Amazingly written, perfectly told, Poison Study is a spell-binding first book in a series that promises romance, fantasy, magic, suspense, and action all bundled together in one lush package, waiting for you to unwrap and enjoy!





Sorry that about the spacing problem (if it's showing up on your computers as well as mine...). Blogger keeps doing this to me every once in a while!

Thanks again to Harlequin Teen for sending Poison Study to me! :D




Enjoy!


Until Next Time,
The Book Queen





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First off, Ms. Snyder has an amazing talent at weaving a story together. The writing, the characters, everything that made Poison Study possible is amazingly done. Word choice, structure, descriptions, everything that makes this story more than just a story, but actually seem like a real world, one that the readers will wish to jump right into! And what better way to start off a fantasy novel than with painting a perfect picture for the readers, and making them wish to dive right in?
As a last chance to save herself from being hung for murder, Yelena agrees to take up the duty of food taster for the Commander. Who wouldn't want to stand around all day eating the finest foods for your betters, right? Except the job of a food taster is very.... deadly. Literally. Poison, of which is given to you the very first day in order to keep you from running off (without the daily antidote, it's said you will die a slow and painful death...), becomes an every day thing for you. Sounds like a wonderful job...
...But it's made better by her tasting mentor, Valek, who's trying so hard to not fall for the one girl that he knows he shouldn't have... That's right, on top of the amazing fantasy story and writing, there's also a nice dose of romance in it as well! Valek is a great hero, and the perfect match for strong willed Yelena. I enjoyed watching their interaction play out, and I cannot wait to read the following books in this series in order to see where their relationship goes.
As for the rest of the characters, they all left their impressions-- from Janco and Ari, who had me laughing a few times, to the mean old housekeeper, who, though evil, did provide us with someone to hate. All in all, a great batch, and I'm anxious to read more about them all, not just Yelena and Valek!

3 comments :

Teddyree said...

Great review, I enjoyed this one too and Magic Study but still haven't read Fire Study.

It's a pain isn't it when blogger formatting plays up, happens to me every now and again.

The_Book_Queen said...

Teddyree-- Thanks! I really enjoyed this one, and I'm only sorry I didn't read Snyder's books before this!

*SIGH* Yep, isn't that how it is though? Despite computers making our lives "easier", they often just cause more problems trying to get them to work right?

Thanks for stopping by and keeping track of my weekly goal-- so far so good!

Enjoy!
TBQ

Okie said...

This book/series sounds like tons of fun. I hope to get to it sooner than later.

Thanks for a great review.