REVIEW: POISON STUDY by Maria V. Snyder ~ P.S. I love that book!

Title: Poison Study

Author: Maria V. Snyder
Series: Study #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Mira
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 409

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BLURB:
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...

So I have seen this book around for awhile now and everybody kept saying how great it is...yeah overhyped book syndrome once again.

THE WORLD: The world actually reminded me a little bit of high fantasy type of world. The main kingdom is ruled by a commander who has outlawed magic some time ago and now is trying to keep his firm hand. However, other kingdoms do still have magic and so things get a little bit complicated here. Frankly, the world was okay at this point, I missed its development but this is so common in YA book that I was not surprised too much.

CHARACTERS: The main character of the book goes by the name Yelena. What happens basically is that Yelena kills a son of one of the big man of the commander and so she is given a choice: die or become a poison taster. Of course she chooses poison taster and so a big chunk of this book is about her learning the poisons and being tested and all that. Not very interesting if I am being honest. But Yelena also has a secret - she is a magician. Now nope that is not a spoiler, you get to know this in the first pages of the book. To my big disappointment, this fact never gets developed. It is more like yay she can do magic. That's it. I don't know, I really felt like Yelena was just one of these plain and boring main characters. What or rather who I did like however was Valek. Of course a man with a tragic background, but he is a right hand of the commander. He is also the one that trains Yelena. And of course he falls madly in love with Yelena because you know what main character that everybody is not falling in love with? Tho, as I said I did like Valek, he is strong and smart at most times. I really think that if not for him I would have DNFed the book.

LOVE: What kind of YA book without romance right. And even better, a forbidden one. If you like romance I guess it is good but for me who is beyond sick of YA illogical love...it is just boring.

PLUS: It was an alright book but nothing really stood out for me as something big.

MINUS: I expected magic! Where did my magic go! Also, how do you rule the kingdom and be all know for your smartness and sharp mind and then get totally brain washed without anybody even really trying? Beyond me.

OVERALL: It was an okay series for YA. I might continue with it eventually after I take a break from the YA but till then it is really not a priority. And also, reminder to myself, do not read overhyped books. 3.5/5 stars because I was feeling generous.