Poison Study (#1) by Mary V Snyder
Published by: Mira on October 1, 2005
Audibook Published by: Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. on November 1, 2005
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Paranormal
Pages: 416 (10+ hours)
Format: Audiobook
Source: Downloaded
Synopsis: Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison…
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She’ll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren’t so clear…[x]
Review: This is probably one of the best YA books I’ve read in a while. It was written over 10 years ago which is probably why I hadn’t heard of it. I just so happened to stumble upon the audiobook and was intrigued by the cover. So I started the book and looked up the synopsis and knew I was going to enjoy it. This is a great fantasy book and I would recommend it!
What I liked:
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No insta love!
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Narrator was so good! Her voices for characters were so good I would read another book voiced by her in a second
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The characters and plot were well written
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Yelena is a great main character
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Great world building
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Unique… food taster for poison? Cool
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Romance stayed in the background and the fantasy and action took the stage
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The research and development of the poisons
What I didn’t like:
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The rape didn’t need to be in the story
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How old is Valek? He sounded like he was a much older man and wasn’t Yelena like 18 or something? Weird love
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I would’ve liked it to be a adult book instead of YA… it could’ve been just that much better
I need to get my hands on the second book in this series. I’m hoping to find the audiobook and I hope it is narrated by the same person.
Note: There are themes of physical and mental abuse.
Rating: 4/5 stars!
Shelves of Spines 
This sounds soo Good. I'm going to add it to my TBR, I haven't heard of it either, but it's in the genre's I usually review.
Tori @InToriLex
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