Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood YP FIC WOOD

Even the most harmless looking plant can be deadly, a fact Jessamine knows all too well. Her father is well known for his skills as an apothecary (what they called pharmacists in Ye Olden Times) and she has grown up fascinated by his forbidden poison garden. Her life changes when an enchanting stranger called Weed enters her family’s life and Jessamine seeks his love while her father seeks to control Weed’s exceptional knowledge of poisons.

This is a sort of treasure. It has wonderful descriptive language and a beautiful love story. The historical setting makes it all the more rich and magical a tale. This is the first part of a trilogy of books and readers will definitely want to know if Jessamine’s doomed romance can possibly survive after this book ends. Making it told mainly through Jessamine’s eyes works to really get you under the character’s skin, but the later chapters are also told through Weed and the personification of the poison Oleander’s perspectives and it gets confusing. Also, the ending is sudden and leaves things waiting for the sequel, so if cliffhangers freak you out, you should wait until more books are released. But if you like doomed love stories or historical fiction Poison Diaries is worth your time.

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