Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1) by Kresley Cole

Review:

When Evie's visions of the apocalypse become true, she has to team up with the resident 'bad' boy to find the way across the continent to her grandmother, who may or may not be alive, in order to learn the truth about herself.

However, it is the journey itself that helps Evie discover her strengths and weaknesses, while struggling not just with the new reality of the world in which the voices in her head are all too real, but also her conflicting feelings for Jackson.

Poison Princess was my second birthday gift from my friend who shares my love for Kresley Cole's IAD series and knew I wanted to try this one as well.

I read the first half of the book in one sitting, but then life got messy and I only managed to squeeze a chapter in now and then, so I am not entirely clear about how I feel about Poison Princess. I think I will reread it at some point, if for nothing else to get a better grasp on the newly introduced mythology, and my thoughts may change on a reread, but for now I can say I really liked it.

Due to fractured reading, I can't really write an in-depth review, but I would like to point out a few things I loved that stayed with me:

• A fantastic mythology that Cole is a master of,
• Evie struggling with her powers and the world of magic and supernatural she has discovered: in most YA books the protagonist accepts the new reality with ease, finding little difficulty in embracing their abilities and manipulating them, which I find ridiculous. I love that Kresley Cole made Evie struggle with it all, both emotionally and physically.
• And, related to the previous point, I loved that Evie does overcome her doubts and insecurities and embraces her new self in a new world and that she, ultimately, does it on her own.
• All too many YA books have the classic 'boy helps the girl make it though', but in Poison Princess, while Jackson does help Evie with some things, she is a hero for herself and she doesn't need him to 'save' her after all. 

Of course, there is a necessary love-triangle (or at least hints of it), typical of YA literature, which is perhaps the only down-side of the book, if I can even call it a down-side, since I went in knowing about it and I also think Cole handles it very well.

Although I was sometimes annoyed with Evie's romantic struggles, I found them only as annoying as they are supposed to be, since this is a teenager discovering romance and love for the first (or the second time), and, hence, it wasn't really a bother for me.

All in all, Poison Princess is one of the better YA novels I read, and so far I am highly intrigued by the premise of this new series and am planning to continue reading it (unless I change my mind after rereading Poison Princess.)

Originally posted on Bookslikes.