Rating: 5.0 stars
Thrilling, enchanting, and overall a magical reading experience.
Goodreads summary:
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...
When I picked this book up, I actually had no idea that it was high fantasy, so I was not expecting the complexity and world building that ensued. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least!
I had no idea that I would love Poison Study as much as I did. Yelena was a great main protagonist. She’s fierce, smart, likeable, complex, and undergoes some great character development throughout the book. The world built in this story was interesting, and the action/conflict exciting. There is some romance in this book, but it’s not the main focus. The story instead focuses on Yelena’s fight to survive her circumstances, confront her past, and understand her burgeoning magic. This, however, did not make the relationship and chemistry between Yelena and Valek any less electric! It was really refreshing to read about a romantic relationship where there was a very clear sense of partnership and respect between the love interests.
There was definitely some interesting plot twists in the story. Normally, plot twists don't surprise me much, but there was one plot twist in particular that I did not see coming (but LOVED!) because the topic has never been mentioned in any other fantasy book I've read. I won't reveal the twist, but if you read the book, you can probably guess what I am referring to.
The pace of the novel was fast and thrilling! Snyder really wrote such an captivating, exciting tale with incredibly complex, magnetic characters.
Poison Study is one of those stories that make you lose sleep because you cannot put it down. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out.
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