Review of Poison Study

Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder 
Published: 2005
Pages: 409
My Rating: 4/5


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.
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 . . .


I had heard good reviews about this book, and after reading Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder, I was keen to read this. I was lucked out when I found the whole Study Series for sale at £5 (or £1.99 each)! 


There were two things that really made me like this book. First of all, I liked the strong female main character. I've read plenty of books with female leads and strong female leads, but it really takes a lot for me to like them. Yet somehow, Yelena won me over. I also liked the dynamic of the other characters (Valek, Ari and Janco).


This brings me to the second point that made me like this book. You get a lot of cliches with YA books, especially in the fantasy genre. But Snyder was able to avoid them in this book. None of the romance was obvious or forced and there was none of the usual love triangles that you get in a lot of YA novels, which I loved!


I did find some of the details a bit confusing and sometimes got a little bored wondering where the story was going. But there were clever non-obvious plot twists and back story told in portions to keep you wonder and reading on.


Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Even though I'm not dying to read the next, I will get to it eventually, and look forward to it when I do!