Review: Poison Princess

Author: Kresley Cole
Date of Publication: October 2 2012
Pages: 369
Source: Personal copy

She could save the world—or destroy it.

Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can’t do either alone.

With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side….

AMAZON / GOODREADS

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole impressed me. It was an entrancing and mysterious story that refused to be put down. I started the book with the intention to read it slowly just for fun. I was not expecting Poison Princess to demand my attention like that.

One very strong aspect has to be The Arcana. The mythology was completely original and so fascinating. While I do enjoy the vampires and werewolves in YA, I sometimes long for something different but just as entertaining. I got that here. There's a lot going on between the apocalypse, voices, and visions, but everything is well meshed together. I would love to go in depth on why I enjoyed the mythology but that would inevitably spoil some important plot twists and I think part of this book's charm is trying to decipher the truth and learn of the mythology.

I also ended up enjoying a lot of the characters. Evie started out a bit clichéd but what I love is that the author slowly expanded Evie's character. It was all too easy to relate to Evie considering what she was going through. I understood Evie. I loved some of her quirks like the way she used acronyms sometimes or when she swore. It's genuinely interesting to read about Evie and her character had this awesome, unique voice that just grows on you. Evie is stubborn as hell; she's impulsive; sometimes she doesn't makes the best decisions because she doesn't know what to do, but all in all she's a memorable character.

Judging by the cover of this book you're probably expecting there to be a love interest for Evie who's supposed to be hot. You'll love meeting Jackson. But sometimes you'll also hate him because he isn't very good at communicating so he's sometimes a jerk. The thing about Jackson is that he challenges Evie and he's so resourceful. He protects Evie all the time. They both have chemistry and their relationship is slow but so much fun to read about. They're a couple that is so easy to like. Also, Jackson is Cajun so he speaks French and has an accent. He was able to win me over... most of the time.

The way the story is told is very interesting. It starts in the future with Evie recounting how she got to that point. I was very impressed with the storytelling and the plot's pace. Frankly I was never bored and at the 50 page mark (a useful indicator for how well the plot is moving) it seemed like a ton of stuff had already happened. There is something nicely circular about the story and it ends up being satisfying while remaining very clearly the first in a series (hopefully a long one). There were many elements that appealed to me personally like the inner conflict Evie was battling through and in the end I was very happy with this book.

Ultimately, Poison Princess is the first in what I hope to be a new favourite series of mine. There was so much good stuff like an intriguing mystery and a likable cast that this series is definitely one to watch for. 4 hearts,

-P.E.