Saturday 19 April 2014

Poison Study- Maria V Snyder

Publisher: Mira
Published: March 1, 2007
412 pages
Goodreads page

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..

I am somewhat undecided on my opinion of this book. Whilst the story line was interesting and the world had potential i found myself unattached to the characters.
The writing style is kind of simplistic to me, which is not necessarily a bad thing but i think when it comes to fantasy you need quite a bit of detail to really immerse yourself into the world.
I liked the magical elements and i found the poisons interesting, but i think it just needed something more.

I anticipated the 'twist' from the very beginning and i think most people would see it as quite obvious, although in the characters position i no doubt would have done the same thing. Hopefully for those who have read it you know what I'm talking about.

I was very interested in Yelena's back story and would love more details, which hopefully the next book provides.

I will be continuing with the series i just hope we get a bit more from the rest of the books.

Overall it didn't wow me but it was intriguing enough to keep me reading.

***
Three and a half stars