A review by bookiewithacookie
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Eeeekk I loved this book!

I picked up This Poison Heart in a bit of a reading slump. It was the perfect story to dive into and get wrapped up in. It was fast-paced, and towards the end became a real page turner. This has been my first Kalynn Bayron book, and I'm hooked on their unique writing style and gorgeous book covers.

Book blurb:

'Briseis’s control over flowers and plants wreaks dangerous consequences as she discovers long buried secrets in the garden of her rambling inherited home in this gripping, empowering fantasy from the author of Cinderella is Dead.

Ever since she can remember, Briseis has had power over plants. Flowers bloom in her footsteps and leaves turn to face her as though she were the sun. It's a power she and her adoptive mothers have spent her whole life trying to hide. And then Briseis inherits an old house from her birth mother and suddenly finds herself with the space and privacy to test her powers for the first time. But as Briseis starts to bring the house's rambling garden back to life, she finds she has also inherited generations of secrets.

A hidden altar to a dark goddess, a lineage of witches stretching back to ancient times, and a hidden garden overgrown with the most deadly poisonous plants on earth. And Briseis's long-departed ancestors aren't going to let her rest until she accepts her place as the keeper of the terrible power that lies at the heart of the Poison Garden.'

The first 80% of This Poison Heart I LOVED, but I won't lie I got pretty lost in the final 20%. The ending made minimal sense to me and felt oddly unexpected, but it wasn't enough to take away from this exciting, well thought out and intriguing book.

How to explain this book in a sentence? A fun, fast paced novel where Percy Jackson meets the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. My ideal VIBE. 
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