Poison Study (Study, #1) in WACKY READING CHALLENGES

Apr 18, 2024 Olivermagnus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2024, zapr-24, fantasy-romance

Poison Study is the first book of the Chronicles of Ixia. The story introduces Yelena, who is due to be executed after murdering the son of her former benefactor. However, due to the Code of Behavior, she has to be given the opportunity to be the Commander of Ixia's food taster. This could result in sudden death, but it’s much better than being hanged. From the moment she’s offered the job she is in danger. Every day brings some sort of test or challenge, administered to her by Valek, the Comman ...more

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Feb 09, 2017 Chelsey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star-books, read-in-2017

Spoiler free review

This is more of a 2.5 star read. I'm rounding up for now because I don't anticipate the series to become better and because it was an okay read.

The best aspect of this book is the unique story. I'm not an avid fantasy reader, so others may disagree, but I found the murderer turned poison taster to be very interesting. The magic aspect of this book was unique, as well.

Unfortunately, that's about all I /loved/ about the book. Despite the uniqueness of the plot, I felt like th Spoiler free review

This is more of a 2.5 star read. I'm rounding up for now because I don't anticipate the series to become better and because it was an okay read.

The best aspect of this book is the unique story. I'm not an avid fantasy reader, so others may disagree, but I found the murderer turned poison taster to be very interesting. The magic aspect of this book was unique, as well.

Unfortunately, that's about all I /loved/ about the book. Despite the uniqueness of the plot, I felt like the twists and reveals were rather obvious. The book was pretty predictable in many areas and I just never felt surprised.

The writing was decent. I'm not an expert critique of writing styles; I usually only have an issue with writing styles when it is blatantly bad. My one complaint with the writing here was the awful way the author tried to build suspense and mystery about Yelena's past in the beginning of the book. I feel like there were at least half a dozen times where Yelena would begin to reflect on her past, but then oh it's too painful to think about she had to stop. Once or twice that technique was fine, but eventually it just annoyed me. Either come out with it or don't; I don't need a shitty tease.

The characters were just meh for me. I liked Valek and I like Yelena but I didn't ever really care what happened to them. I'm easily emotionally invested in books, but this book just never allowed me to connect with the characters. Another reviewer described the book as emotionally distant and I 100% agree. Also, all the characters were just too black and white. Everyone was all good or all bad. The two characters the author did try to grey up just didn't work. Their motives were never solid and they just didn't convince me.

I'm reading the second book because I've already checked it out from the library, but I'm not sure if I will catch up on the whole series. I don't really recommend this book unless you just love all fantasy. The characters were bland, the plot was interesting yet predictable, and I just feel like there is much better YA fantasy on the market. ...more

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Jan 19, 2016 Aliza Glatter rated it it was amazing

It didn't sound like a book I would typically read, but I picked it up anyway and loved it! The concept is really interesting. All of the characters are great. Snyder makes the whole plot believable, even though there are magical elements. It's very suspenseful, and I could not stop reading. ...more

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