Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 368pgs

The Story

#1 New York Times bestelling author Kresley Cole introduces The Arcana Chronicles, post-apocalyptic tales filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance. 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 . . .

The Review

A big thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia for sending me an ARC copy of this book!

POISON PRINCESS, the first installment of the Arcana Chronicles series, is a post-apocalyptic book and it was so unique within its own genre. While I expected this book to have a much more end-of-the-world kind of feel to it, but clearly it's not of your 'typical' kind of book because it was much, much more than a post-apocalyptic book. In fact, it was seriously twisted and yet so engaging. All in all, this book is very hard to describe to another reader but I can actually describe this book and put it into one small, simple and a single word: Brilliant.

From what I can recall in the past, I don't believe I've ever read anything of Kresley Cole's before (at least I don't think so) but considering this is her first young adult book as she's better known for her adult paranormal genre, I have to say I'm pretty impressed with this book and with the writing alone, and I will definitely need to read more of Cole's work sometime in the future. She is seriously amazing! But it's more than the writing itself that impressed me - it was the characters, the detail, and not to mention the great amount of research the author had obviously put into her own work. Man, what a ride this book was!

Character-wise I absolutely loved the main character, Evie! Sure she was frustrating, spoke her mind all too often (at the most inappropriate times too) and doesn't exactly give into her true emotions for people that she clearly cares a lot about, but when it comes down to it she's a pretty strong character, at least she tries to be for the sake of herself and for others too, even when things seem to get out of control for her and be to tough to handle alone. She was great! Simple as that. As for Evie's love interest or rather her only helper by her side in this post-apocalyptic world they now live in, that being this boy named Jackson, he was someone I truly questioned like . . . all the time. Sometimes I loathed him, other times I loved him . . . but that's the whole fun in Jackson's character: You don't know what to expect from him. Being a mystery or not, he's a very intriguing character and I love the interactions going on between him and Evie because I love a lot of the commotion they start together . . . it's great to have. While Jackson isn't the perfect love interest that we all look for for our main heroine, whether he's throwing insults or being a douche, Jackson still plays a very prominent role in the book and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more about his and Evie's journey in the upcoming sequel.

Overall, I didn't believe this book was going to be for my own personal taste but boy was I wrong! So WRONG! Brilliant in every aspect, POISON PRINCESS will certainly be a book everyone will fall in love with, even when you have no idea what is going on and yet you do as crazy as it sounds! Devastating, violent, crazy, confusing, and  a little bit in-between, this book will be one you will NOT want to miss out on! It's one hell of a ride, let me tell you that!

The Rating

5/5 stars