Title: Poison Princess
Author: Kresley Cole
Series: The Arcana Chronicles, #1
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Simon, Simon & Schuster
Date Published: October 1st, 2012
Edition: Hardcover
Rating:
She could save the world—or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.But she can’t do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side….
My Review:
As a huge fan of Kresley Cole and young adult books I couldn’t pass up reading her first young adult novel to hit the scene, Poison Princess. Seeing as Kresley is one of my top favorite authors, I knew she wouldn’t let me down.
Poison Princess takes us into a world where the characters on the tarot cards are very real and are directly connected to the apocalypse and end of days. We follow Evie, who has always struggled with weird and unexplained abilities but now is seeing them come through even more in scary ways with each passing day.
I went into this book expecting various things just because of what I’ve come to expect from Kresley’s Immortals After Dark series. But this was a very different book than I expected. I thought there would be more sarcastic humor, but was surprised to see not much. This wasn’t a bad thing and really shows how versatile of a writer Kresley is, but it was also a little disappointing because I love that about the Immortals After Dark series.
That’s not to say the book wasn’t good though. It is such a different world than anything I’ve ever read before that it made is to much fun to dive into and keep reading from cover to cover. This was one I literally got so sucked into that I couldn’t put it down from the moment I sat down and literally read it in one (long) sitting.
Evie I liked for the most part and found her reactions and personality to be more realistic than some of the young adult females we get these days. I think a lot of us would like to believe that we’d be brave she-warriors when the time calls for it, but most of us would probably be pretty darn scared — at least at first. I actually liked this about Evie and found her gradual growth into a stronger person more realistic than having that inner strength from day one.
As far as Jack is concerned, I really really didn’t like him at first and found him to be a complete jerk in more ways than one. For one-third of the book I really didn’t see myself warming up to him anytime soon. But trust me when I say that you will warm up to him whether you want to or not, and even though he can be a jerk, he really does care about Evie in his own way.
The other characters were hit or miss, but I think that’s what it’s supposed to be at this point. Evie is at war with those like her, so it’s hard to know who to like and who to trust. But overall I thought we met a good mix of characters who I’ll look forward to getting to know more in the coming books — a few in particular.
Overall this was a great read, but one that is very hard to explain without giving away spoilers. Let’s just say that if you’re looking for a very different world that doesn’t feel like a carbon copy of a million other books you’ve already read then you’ll probably enjoy this one. It’s inventive, well-written, and the world is already well-built — basically everything I’ve come to expect from Kresley Cole. If you haven’t read anything from Kresley I highly recommend her Immortals After Dark series which is a really fun paranormal romance — and psst they’re even better if you read them in order.
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