Poison Study - Maria V Snyder

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.

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…

Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V Snyder
Publisher: Mira
Page Count: 409
Series: Study Series (Book One)
Discloser: Bought

GoodReads: Link

This book I had doubts. It's one of those books that has been talked up so much that you don't know if your like. Because everyone is saying its so good. Like Hunger Games, it shouldn't be a surprise that I don't like the Hunger Games (I do like it more now that I 've read Mockingjay) But I've heard so much about Poison Study and I just kept putting it off and off, because I've heard so much about it. I was wrong. And I am kicking myself for not having book two and three. They are good. It took a good 150 pages to get into, I'll will admit that I thought of putting it down, but Nikki at YAReads.Com had been raving about this book to me for years. So I had to finish it, and boy I'm glad I did.

There's something in Yelana's past that's haunting her, she's been sentenced to death for killing the leaders son, and at first your not really sure why she's done this, you want to believe that she had good reason too, but your never quite sure until the middle of the novel.

This novel I found really cool because the Main Character is very secretive you never quite know what she's doing, but once you find out her reason's everything is clear. But the one thing she's sure of is that she wants to survive. Another thing I like is that she was learning something, she was learning about poison (as the name would lead you to believe) and it actually feels like your learning it too. Maria did an amazing job with that, her writing style is awesome.

The story takes place in a castle and the guards and cooks and maids are all really fun characters to have in the book, It almost feels like Beauty and the Beast. (the disney movie) The house staff all have then opinions of the new girl its been the same people for too long. Some people love her, others hate her. And its very easy to keep everyone strait in this book, there are a lot of characters but its not confusing.

The love story feels very much like Rose and Demitre in the first Vampire Academy book without the sexual tention seeping out of the pages. Valek is sexy, he's her teacher/boss and is in charge of giving her the antidote that will save her life, every day.