HelEinir's Books

Hello, Deven, welcome to my book boyfriend list.

Okay. Let's be honest. The story and the characters in this book are nothing super unique or special or even that original. Not even Deven, my new book bf (I just have a weakness for sweet, gentlemanly guys).

But that doesn't mean a book can't be enjoyable. A lot of YA books these days are having a hard time finding anything in their stories that set them apart and it's a tough genre for that kind of thing as books come along in trend waves and they're all just a slight variation of one another.

You know what, though? Ultimately what matters to me is that I find the story entertaining, that I don't want to strangle the characters and that the story FUCKING MOVES ALONG (I'm eyeing you, Maggie Stiefvater) and Poison's Kiss delivered all of that. The pace was fast, the characters were (if not the most original) bearable and interesting enough.
Marinda wasn't kickass but I appreciated her honesty and even though she almost got sucked into the martyr complex of other misunderstood assassin heroines, she was grounded enough that she knew that she wasn't the only one having it rough.

Marinda was selfless, caring, honest, brave and down to earth for the most part and I appreciated that so very much.

Deven was sweet and there's so much more about him that we need to learn still, same with Iyla, who I don't think is half as bad as they make her out to be.

Mani... uh.. Mani was... okay...

So I don't very much care for siblings in YA fantasy/dystopia/etc. They're always the same: fragile, adorable and naïve things whose only role is to be the MC's primary weakness. Can we get rid of this trope already? Can we stop using little brothers/sisters as fodder to the big bad guys in these stories. I'm just tired of it.

Anyways, I appreciated the diversity in this book and the fact that so far, I haven't seen one single white character yet, that's something new, even in stories heavily influenced by different cultures.

I definitely will keep an eye out for the publication date of the next book.