Reviews with content warning for Gore - Poison Study

This book was the epitome of "go girl give me nothing" yet tell me why I blew through it?? Wanted to keep reading?? Enjoyed it???

This books is somewhere between good enough and so bad it's good. The characters have no character, I don't even feel like I had a solid description of their physicality let alone their personality (Valek suddenly had black curls three quarters of the way through??), the writing is so basic, even bad at times, literally repeating what's already been told before, the plot is pretty easy to pierce together, many points had obvious connections and YET I still had a fun time???? IDK WHY. This is the first book I've finished in over a month since spending a semester reading Austen and I think it's what I needed - something so bad that I can't in anyway compare it to Austen and can therefore actually read it in peace 🤣

I think a drive that kept me reading was to see the development of Valek and Yelena. It really had me until the last 50 page being like maybe... we're getting...a slow burn??? Even though all the reviews said otherwise 🤣 It's an insta love that you don't think is gonna be an insta love until basically the ending which is a very odd thing and I don't think I've read an insta love like that before?? Insta loves tend happen halfway through so you're very aware it's an insta love. I don't get why authors are so scared to have their mains confess their love in book 3, like give me a slow burn, three book arc, I'll read for the slow burn, I won't loose interest if you develop it well. With Yelena and Valek it was also odd cos they had a decent amount of time together, solid amount of interactions i.e. page time, but there was still no real romantic implication or development in that sense?? Which is why I really thought we were gonna get a "I don't want you to die and I will save you and protect you but idk pssh what are feelings" (think Kaz "I protect my investments" Brekker) and that's what we got for most of the book (from Valek especially), with Yelena feeling a bit more which I'll give it to her cos he really was saving her life left right and centre, Yelena could not catch a break, everyone wanted to kill her 🤣🤣 But we had to have a love confession come from nowhere and ruin the potential 😭😭😭 The ending has me 👀👀 and it would have worked so well with the above slow burn but now it's like...do I...even...care to see it through??

In speaking of them tho, I cannot not mention the age gap !!! Gahhhh WHY. Honestly this whole story could have been aged out of YA and be adult. Yelena goes through terrible, horrific, traumatic experiences, and it would have just made sense to have her older, with the bonus of balancing the age gap. Or Valek could have been younger and the plot shifted a little but gahhhhh I pretended not to see it so I could continue 😬😭

One thing that did surprise me was Yelena being (ambiguously) a person of colour, and considering this is veryyyy earlier YA, I was impressed.

Overall, not a great book but I had a great time! 😂 Now to continue with the second book or read an actually good book is the question....

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lisa_m's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Don't get me wrong, this was a good book. I might even say it was a great one but it was just nothing special. I really wish I would have enjoyed it more. This could have been a five star read but something was missing. I liked the writing, loved the characters, loved the plot and magic system. My only real concern was that the romance felt rushed and underdeveloped. Since the rest was good I don't really mind though.

I think the reason I didn't like it as much as I could have is how much YA Fantasy I have already read. At some point it just starts to become repetitive. I really hope that is not true though because I love YA Fantasy. :( If I read this book 2 years ago I would have probably liked it more.

Another concern I had was that certain serious topics where discussed quite graphically which I don't like and which always makes me uncomfortable. It was used to establish Yelenas character and her past trauma but still I wished it had been less graphic.

Nonetheless I will definitely be reading the following books of the series. I also hope Ari and Janco will be in the next booka as well since they were my favourite characters. (Btw. I thought their friendship could have been established better. They basically went from not knowing Yelena to wanting to die for her which felt very rushed.) I guess I just wished it was longer but since it is the first book of a series that's not really a big issue.

Edit: One more thing. I didn't expect the romance to be Between thlse two people for two reasons. 1. it was underdeveloped and 2. he is 33 and she is 19!! I didn't even realise it that much while reading the book but at first I did think he was going to be a sort of mentor/father figure. When they started hinting at a romance I aged him down in my mind but now that I finished the book I looked it up and he really is 33! Idk what to think about that tbh

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mediocre_omen's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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somberliving's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Everything seemed a bit rushed in the 2nd half. It didn’t give me enough time to love the characters, catch up with the feelings of the MC, or truly care about the love interest. Idk it seemed cliche when she found her “found family” in so far that the bonding went from 0-100 real quick without a proper flow. Another fast pace was the

I love you scene

, which I found very random and out of place. It’s like it was thrown together just so there was an ending to their relationship arc. There was also no fun or humour to balance anything out.

I see why people could like this, but I struggled to finish. I’m not planning on reading the second book, sadly.

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