Who better to have on my side? Rand, the cook, whose food I'd be eating on a daily basis, or Valek, the assassin, who had a nasty tendency of poisoning my meals? Ahhh where do I even begin??? Is there even an adequate place to start? Wellll, first I'd like to give a shout out to my two vacant besties who did a wonderful horrible job of reading this with me-Hello, Bitches (you know who you are, my lovelies). They really missed out. While subtle in it's charm, this book sneaks up on you like poison in your veins (Muaha I went there). With a soft, languid pace, this book tricks you with it's addicting nature-It isn't rushed, hurried, nor overly stuffed with information, yet each chapter something significant happens that has you on the edge of your seat. Whether it's an attack on Yelena to abduct her, a poison lecture on what to watch out for, or an actual tasting for the commander, I was never once bored and found myself idly wondering how this book could so be wonderful with it's understated simplicity. Shouldn't, should, shouldn't, should. So easy to say but so hard to believe.I think that's my favorite part, if I'm being honest-aside from the romance, duh-the beautiful writing. I don't know why, but each page that passed had me begging for more even as plenty was happening. For such a simple job, Yelena has a lot of enemies, and with those enemies comes attacks, training, and so much more. I yearned for those moments when Valek had to come save the day because there was yet another threat on her life (and no, it wasn't a tacky nine-lives deal like the Kathleen Turner series...this chick had real enemies). But he's another story altogether... I moved. In a heartbeat I twisted her arm behind her back. She yelped as I raised her hand up high, forcing her to bend forward. "I am not a rat," I said through clenched teeth. "I've proved my loyalty. You will get off my back. No more nasty messages in the dust. No more prying into my things. Or the next time, I'll break your arm." I shoved her hard as I released my grip.Yelena. Omg I loved her. She was strong, determined, cunning, and brave. She was weak, scared, and the target of an evil man. She was so many things all wrapped up into one small package, and she was on the last leg of her life. A convicted and admitted murderer, she is next in line for noose. But then an opportunity arises where the next in line to die is to be offered the position of poison testing the Commander's food. He is a powerful man who has many powerful enemies-all who want to be his successor and take his position as their own. So Yelena has a choice-die by noose the following morning, or agree to be the guinea pig and possibly die by poison on any given day if she doesn't detect all traces of poison at any given time. But, in the end, there's really no choice at all-Live with danger, or die. Damn it, I thought, angry at myself. As if I didn't have enough to worry about. I shouldn't miss Valek; I should try harder to escape. I shouldn't figure out the bean puzzle; I should sabotage it. I shouldn't admire and respect him; I should vilify him.Valek. Oh gosh he was perfection. A trained assassin loyal only to the Commander, he is appointed with teaching Yelena the art of poisons so she can be the food taster for the commander. Up until Yelena, Valek has been filling in the position after the last food taster met his untimely end. He is fierce, loyal, and a total hardass when it comes to training Yelena...but the same could be said of his defending her. A convicted felon is nothing in comparison to keeping his commander safe, but what happens when she starts to show her strength and determination? Her willingness to do whatever needs to be done to stay alive? What happens when attack after attack, he grows more and more desperate to keep her alive....even as he implies it's nothing more than him doing his job and not wanting to have to train another poison tester. My interactions with Valek resembled a performance on the tightrope. One minute I was confident and balanced, and the next insecure and unstable.Come on, Valek, you adorably sly dog. We all know after training you should be moving on...Anywho, I adored them. They were absolutely adorable. He is a busy bee and she is doing everything she can to stay alive...but each time she thinks she's alone and there's no way she'll get out of her predicament, who's right behind her to save the day? A slow burn romance at it's finest, we see them gradually falling for one another as each day passes, more confusion and desperation in preventing each action that might cause them pain or suffering...I couldn't help but to become addicted, now could I? Even more than the romance, though, was the friendships formed. I mean, it was absolutely adorable when she befriends two soldiers and they do everything in their power to keep her safe when Valek can't. Loyal friends who train her in combat and watch out for her at every turn, I was almost as obsessed with them as I was the romance. It's not often I find a friendship addicting, but this one got under my skin. "It's a dirty way to fight, but I'm late for lunch."So, you know, I loved this one. And why wouldn't I? Romance, betrayal, a mercurial assassin, and a ton of action that never seems to cease no matter how breezy the pace, I was hooked from Valek's first smirk (Chapter one, duh). I know there was much more I wanted to say, but sometimes it's best to leave things be. I will try to chill out and let you all decide on your own if this is for you or not-but just know: It's not only a romance, though there is an ample amount of longing you'll do for she and Valek to just kiss already!!! It's a story of strength and strong-will, a determination to break free and save what you hold dear, and a wonderful world of castles and watching your back even though you have a group that supports your every move...I just loved it so much. Literally my only problem? I wanted more. Sigh...such a horrible predicament, isn't it? Ciao, Bellas. For more of my reviews, please visit:
One of these things does not belong here:Well, one of these things does not belong in a fantasy novel. Hint - it is small, electronic, and blue!More on that later. So this is another one of many books...A story about an orphaned girl, whose been tortured and basically given a rotten hand that's full of all jokers, most likely dealt by some sort of sleight of hand magician or something. Rough life. Blada-blada-blah. After mysteries are introduced and back stories told, she encounters a mysterious character who reveals she is "special" and, imagine that, has a unique power.So as much as I hate to admit that this a FORMULA novel, I don't mind admitting that I LOVED it.So yeah, it's AWE-some!The reason these durn formulas exist is because they work. We like to read about special people, because we all like to hope that we are special too. The reality is that, while everyone is unique, we aren't all special. We don't all have superpowers or magical inclinations. Damn! It sucks. But we have to deal with it. What we don't have to do is read about it. Because let's face it, it dull to read about boring people. So I prefer not too.Yelena and Valek are anything but dull. I'm was very impressed with Yelena. She nev-er plays the damsel in distress card, expects anyone to rescue her or even to just help her. She takes responsibility for her past and future actions, accepting punishment when she has to and planning ahead when she begins to have options.When Valek enters the story, it isn't blatantly-hit-you-over-the-head-obvious that he will end up being a love interest. The relationship develops slowly. It simmers. He isn't the perfect boyfriend, over-achiever type. Yet he isn't the unpredictable and unreliable bad boy. He's mysterious and inscrutable. Makes you wonder what he's hiding with that quiet confidence. In other words: mmmmmm yea-ah!The technology and culture can be confusing. There is talk of a 10 tiered wedding cake, switchblades, and even a TRAMPOLINE. But they use candles and covered wagons? Like a mish mash of culture. Can you even make a trampoline without modern equipment? Then again, they do have magic.I realize this is just nit picking. However, unrelated metaphors or descriptions bother me because it takes you out of the story, out of the fantasy realm, and brings you back to Earth. And Earth is all well and good when I'm here. But when I'm reading, I prefer the blissful ignorance of the fantasy world.The main reason I brought this is up is because I was happily reading along, despite the 10 tiered wedding cake and switchblade references bothering me; I stuck with it until the trampoline. I was so confused about whether or not they would actually be able to MAKE a trampoline with their level of technology, that I felt compelled to stop reading and look up the history of the trampoline, which by our standard wasn't actually invented and named until 1936, after the onset of automobiles and electricity. Regardless, I think a more accurate description for the culture would have been a trapeze tight net, if the passage was even necessary at all.It disturbed me so much I actually had a dream about it. The characters in the book all had modern equipment like lightbulbs and cars but they completely ignored all of it and went about their business. Sorry about the long gripe but I have OCD when it comes to literature.I don't like anything in my books that isn't supposed to be there, including names written inside the cover, book plates, highlighting, and trampolines in fantasy novels!Imagine if Samwise and Frodo had stumbled upon a trampoline on their journey!? Uh, no. It's funny to picture but it just doesn't work in the context of the book.Why not just give Frodo a gold medallion, some extra bling, and put him on a professional basketball team? Well, what do you know?Anyway, there are already too many factors measuring into my reader's ADD. I get pulled away easily enough as it is, and I shouldn't need to worry about whether or not they should have trampolines. It was a completely unnecessary and distracting fiasco. But there is still a bright side: I feel like I learned something new.Despite my gripes, I loved it. The characters really got into my head. It is actually unusual for me to dream about characters from a book. Usually, my mind is inventing it's own bizarre hogwash, so the dream is actually a compliment to the author and her character development.Maria's prose is concise and creative. Apart from the aforementioned, her descriptions and metaphors are usually spot on and beautifully constructed. The characters are fully developed, each with backstories, subplots and their own unique quirks.There's Janco, a military man who trains Yelena. He also rhymes while fighting - and I mean it. Anybody wanna peanut? And then there's Ari, Janco's best bud who also helps with the training. I really loved the scenes with these two. They're a breath of fresh air. There's also Rand, the gourmet chef addicted to gambling. I felt for him...at first. There's Reyad, resident jerk, whose apparent weakness is (view spoiler)[the phrase "Be gone". Really? That's it? Also, I saw the antidote mystery coming, but not the one involving the Commander. Never would have guessed! (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Poison Study (2007)?
2.5 to 3.0 stars. Let me begin this review by saying that I think I’m becoming much harder to please when it comes to fantasy stories so please keep that in mind. Having read quite a few, the standard fantasy plot elements just don’t produce the same warm and fuzzy feeling that I used to experience when reading these kinds of stories. I must have hit my tolerance threshold for the fantasy “drug” because I find that I am needing greater and greater amounts of awesomeness in order to get that "special feeling" I used to get. Part of the issue may be that I have read a number of fantasy books that were "Oh My God, I will never stop loving you" good and they have raised the bar on fantasy books in general. I am now more selective in what I read in the fantasy genre and generally try and seek out books that have truly exceptional characters or unique and memorable world-building or just "off the chart" quality writing and dialogue. These books are more difficult to find but the payoff is worth it. For example, Joe Abercrombie's "First Law Trilogy" or Guy Gavriel kay's The Fionavar Tapestry or.....or.....or.....or.....or...... ...Um....um.....sorry about that......I was just remembering the first time I read The Lies of Locke Lamora and, uh...I mean....where was I?...Oh, oh, the Poison Study review. Anyway, for those new to fantasy or those that are true fantasy junkies, you may love this as it is certainly a QUALITY book. I had no problems with any of the critical elements (i.e., characters, writing, world-building, magic and plot). I just wasn’t blown away by anything and when I was finished I didn’t feel like I had experienced anything new that I would remember much beyond writing this review.
—Stephen
I remember seeing Poison Study on the shelves when it first came out, but passed it up several times because of, yes, I admit it, the cover. It was this older mass market paperback cover and not the lovely new trade paperback one. The girl on the old cover looked just a little too haughtily seductive for me. And I knew that Luna was the fantasy division of Harlequin and so I was suspicious it was a romance thinly disguised as fantasy. So when the new trade paperback came out, I went and read a few dozen more reviews just to "make sure" and decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I'm so glad I did. You'd think I'd have learned by now not to judge a book by its cover. Archangel, anyone?Poison Study opens with a young woman named Yelena imprisoned for murder. A murder she freely admits to committing. When a pair of guards yank her from the dank dungeon she's languished in for almost a year, Yelena is certain she faces imminent death. She even welcomes it in light of the hell her life has become in the past few years. More to come on that bit of nastiness later, we learn. But instead of the gallows, she finds herself in the office of Valek, the chief of national security (i.e. the Commander's Personal Assassin) being offered a choice. To be hung by the neck until dead or to become the Commander's Personal Food Taster. The last one having recently died on the job. Yelena chooses life and immediately begins a crash course in the art of poison detection. To complicate matters, Valek slips Yelena a deadly poison known as Butterfly's Dust to ensure she won't attempt to escape the first chance she gets. In order to survive, Yelena must show up at Valek's door each morning for the antidote. Skip one morning and she'll be dead within 48 hours. And all of this happens within the first few pages of the book. I was completely sucked in by page ten.The pace never slows throughout the rest of the book as we come to care more and more for this young woman who is forced to court death on an hourly basis. Piece by piece we learn more about why she was in the dungeon in the first place, her complicated background, and the demons that haunt her. Fortunately, her unquenchable will to survive and her quick mind earn her a few choice friends within the compound and these supporting characters are delightful and funny. Then there is Valek, the ruthless assassin who employs his vast array of frightening skills to protect Yelena even as he poisons her, convinced she is the missing piece of the puzzle in his quest to discover who is attempting to overthrow the government and why. I loved this book and I can't wait to read the sequel, Magic Study.
—Angie
I picked up this book last night. It was late and I couldn't sleep.I didn't intend to read it all, but just a bit, just a chapter or two, to clear my mind. Oh, what a terrible mistake :DWhat I didn't know is that you can't read just a bit of it. This book is like glue - you hold it in your hands and you can't put it down.There is not much I could say right now about it because I'm literally at a loss for words.. but let me tell you this: - It's addictive, it's beautiful, it's an amazing story about the best female character I've probably ever read about... - It's magical, it's sweet, it's full of action... - It's wonderfully well written, it has a great pack of characters, it's unpredictable, and it will steal your heart... "This sounds more like a poison than a [book]""Exactly. You have poisoned me" This review can also be found at ReadingAfterMidnight.com____________________________________________Blog (EN) | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Bloglovin' | Blog (RO)____________________________________________I would also recommend:
—Ariana
