Lucinda has a talent for detecting poisons, and she can sense them in the aura around a person or a body or even in the air. In fact, the members of the Arcane Society each possess an unusual talent. But because her specialty is poison and her fiancé died from being poisoned, Lucinda is fearful that another poisoning death may lead to her arrest. She seeks help to clear her name and maybe even to restore her reputation from another Arcane member, Caleb Jones. While this novel can be read as a stand-alone, the books in the series do build on each other and will explain more aspects of the Arcane Society. With engaging characters and a good balance of mystery, intrigue and romance, this tale is quite interesting. If you jump into the middle of the series (as I did), you might find the plot a bit confusing but that confusion quickly disappears as you come to understand the paranormal nature of the characters. The novel is entertaining and good fun, despite all the dead bodies. Oh, man, this book. Let's say 2.5 stars. I should start by saying that it was definitely engaging enough to make the extensive driving that I do for tutoring less onerous. At the same time, it was kind of a mess. I have read my fair share (or maybe more?) of romance novels, and I get how the general plot goes. They meet, they fight, they fall in love, etc. The way this book was laid out made no sense to me, though. They meet, they have sex almost immediately, they kind of fight, then in the next scene they're not fighting, then he kind of proposes and she maybe misses it, or she got it and is being coy, and on and on. What? The execution of the romance component was a bit inexplicable. At no point did the characters seem like real people having feelings. They did things because the plot required it, not because they made sense. The mystery plot line was better, though some of the pieces there were odd as well. In one scene, the evil cabal is all "We have to make sure people don't find out about us!" and a few scenes later, the good guys are having a conversation about the cabal as though their existence is common knowledge. What? How did they find out? And also when? It felt like this book was cut down by about half, and lots of actually important information got left out. Overall, though, it was a decent way to pass the time behind the wheel, and I did enjoy some parts of it quite a bit. Which is why I rounded up to three stars. I will say that there is a big difference between reading a sex scene, and having a very fancy-sounding British woman read it to you. I giggled like a damn twelve-year-old every time anyone got close to getting naked. Sigh.
What do You think about El Veneno Perfecto (2013)?
One of Amanda Quick's best! Love The Arcane Society series. This was one of my favorites.
—GURYEL
I really like this author- some books are better than other, but always entertaining
—Ally0616
It's amazing, but I wanted other ending. Anyway, to me, was really good :3
—kfearington
