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A review by jmeyer376
The Poison Diaries by The Duchess of Northumberland, Maryrose Wood
3.0
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Jessamine lives with her father on the outskirts of town. He is the local healer who works with herbs and is respected because, unlike the doctors, he will not bleed a person or leech them, he uses the old ways to heal. The father has a mad obsession with learning all the secrets of plants and collects plants from all over the world, creating a locked poison garden. One day a man rides to their door with a boy. The boy, Weed, has a special, mystical relationship with plants - he knows their secrets. When Jessamine falls ill it is up to Weed to save her, but things are not as they appear and no one is innocent.
I'm really conflicted about this novel. One way I know how much I love a book is how quickly I read it or, I should say, how difficult it to put down. This is the first of a trilogy with the first two books written by one author and the concluding book written by a different author. That makes me nervous and I almost didn't read the book because of that but I bought it so I figured I should read it. I put the book down more often than I should have but not a ton. The book is strange. It is good. It's an entertaining read and I for the most part I really liked it BUT (you saw that coming, right?) it's not amazing or new. The last section of the book wasn't great either. Once Jessamine got sick the story took a turn that was just ok and sometimes annoying.
Really, I wanted more from this book. The title and concept is really interesting but the story itself is just so-so. Typical love story in someways, a bit jumpy and strange in other ways (and not the good strange). I really wanted something creepy and riveting but this just didn't deliver. It's still a good read and worth reading - I gave 3 out of 5 stars, I just wanted more. I might check out the next book and see what happens.
Jessamine lives with her father on the outskirts of town. He is the local healer who works with herbs and is respected because, unlike the doctors, he will not bleed a person or leech them, he uses the old ways to heal. The father has a mad obsession with learning all the secrets of plants and collects plants from all over the world, creating a locked poison garden. One day a man rides to their door with a boy. The boy, Weed, has a special, mystical relationship with plants - he knows their secrets. When Jessamine falls ill it is up to Weed to save her, but things are not as they appear and no one is innocent.
I'm really conflicted about this novel. One way I know how much I love a book is how quickly I read it or, I should say, how difficult it to put down. This is the first of a trilogy with the first two books written by one author and the concluding book written by a different author. That makes me nervous and I almost didn't read the book because of that but I bought it so I figured I should read it. I put the book down more often than I should have but not a ton. The book is strange. It is good. It's an entertaining read and I for the most part I really liked it BUT (you saw that coming, right?) it's not amazing or new. The last section of the book wasn't great either. Once Jessamine got sick the story took a turn that was just ok and sometimes annoying.
Really, I wanted more from this book. The title and concept is really interesting but the story itself is just so-so. Typical love story in someways, a bit jumpy and strange in other ways (and not the good strange). I really wanted something creepy and riveting but this just didn't deliver. It's still a good read and worth reading - I gave 3 out of 5 stars, I just wanted more. I might check out the next book and see what happens.