Book Review – The Poison Princess

Book: The Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles 1) by Kresley Cole
Original Release Date: October 1st 2012
Genre: Dystopia
Reading Format: ebook
Edition: English edition from Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers released in 2012
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis

She could save the world—or destroy it.

Sixteen-year-old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can’t do either alone.

With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side.

Review

I’m so torn about this book! And no that was not intended as a pun.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the high school drama start we got after a somewhat intense and completely different prologue. It threw me for a bit as I felt there was a lot of the typical roles. Good girl with the good guy boyfriend. Bad boy who she argues with and tries to seduce her. And though there were some elements that I truly liked with the main character like her visions and the events before the book, it doesn’t quite redeem the slow and typical start to this story for me.

However once the story truly gets going the story picks up considerably. I really like the idea of this dystopian world and the roles the various characters are playing, the tarot cards, and I instantly became a lot more invested. From there the pacing of the story is a lot better, and puzzle pieces start falling into place. I am very curious to see where this plot is going to go
As for the characters, I am quite torn on the two main characters, Evie and Jackson. In parts I do both like the characters, but I also see some problematic things. Jackson for instance seems to be pressuring Evie into having sex with him on various occasions, and gets angry when she doesn’t put out. That is not okay. As for Evie, she doesn’t accept most of it, but she still wants him. Also the change in her at the end was a bit too quick for me personally.

I liked Matthew. He was such a cutie. Selena I did not like at all, but that is how she is written. I understand it for the role she plays but with the love triangle it was put on too heavy. The other characters were mostly interesting.

I do have to say that Kresley Cole writes steamy make-out scenes though. Damn. I quite enjoyed those. I’ll be honest.