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Book Cover

Veena’s review of Poison Princess (Arcana Chronicles Book 1) by Kresley Cole
Young Adult published by Simon and Schuster 2 Oct 12

Poison Princess is author Kresley Cole’s foray into the Young Adult genre. Having read and enjoyed the author’s adult paranormal series and reading the rave reviews for this book, I picked it up. Unfortunately, this book is definitely not my cup of tea, and try as I might, I could not read the book past the first six or seven chapters.  The story opens after an apocalyptic event referred to as the “Flash” that has changed the landscape of the world.  Tired and hungry, our heroine Evie walks into the home of a psychopath who has set up a lure to trap young people so he can do unspeakable things to them. She proceeds to relate her life story, which is such a stark contrast to the first chapter that I got a little lost.

The Flash still had not occurred at the point that I stopped reading, so it never was clear to me what happened and how Evie got to where the story started.  Evie is sixteen, born to a life of wealth and privilege and has started to have fearful dreams. Her mother finds sketches of her memories of the dreams, and, fearing for her sanity, commits her for treatment. Now she’s subject to the usual young adult neurosis: grades, boys, clothes, along with maintaining her sanity and hiding any occurrences of the weird stuff from her parent. The star quarterback is her boyfriend, but she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to one of the rough boys from the bayou when some of the children from the other side of the tracks come to attend school with them.

Interwoven into normal teen angst are weird events like Evie’s affinity to plants and creepers. There are hints of supernatural events to come as she tells her story. I kept thinking this flashback will end soon and the story will pick up and continue, because the possibilities of her battle with the psychopath and rescuing all the other trapped young people sound intriguing. However, that never did occur. Her story continues and I gave up waiting for the flashback to finish and the promise from the excerpt and back cover to be realized. That never happened.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

The characters on Tarot cards are real.

The Huntress, the Fool, Death, the Lovers . . . and eighteen other Major Arcana all exist. These warriors, femme fatales, magicians, and devils each have uniquely lethal powers.

And they’re coming for me.

To survive, I’ll have to embrace my own terrifying abilities—and team up with dangerously handsome Jack Deveaux, one of the few people I know that also survived the Flash. But if Jack ever beholds what I truly am, will he abandon me to my fate . . . ?

Read an excerpt.