From the Stacks: Poison Study

I almost feel like this week's From the Stacks has some similarities to last week's. Okay, yes, last week with Grave Mercy the main character was an assassin and in Poison Study the main character is a food taster who is basically trained by an assassin, but still, it is a similar feel. And strangely enough, I'm reading another book right now, Tangled Web by Crista McHugh, which also deals with an assassin. Now I feel like I should mention that the review for Tangled Web probably won't be for several more weeks, and by several more weeks, I mean November 9th.

Knowing that I was getting ready for NaNoWriMo, I tried to plan out what books to read and review for November so that I might get a little bit of a jump start on them. The plan worked better than I thought because I was also able to plan what books I will review in December as well, so, I should be able to keep going with my From the Stacks posts at least through 2012.

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
ISBN: 978-0-373-80257-9

Summary

"Choose: A quick death... or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. As a food taster, 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..."

My Thoughts

Okay, first thing I should mention is that Poison Study is the first of the Study series which is actually a trilogy, and is then followed by a spin-off trilogy, the Glass series. Several months ago I bought the Glass series on my NOOK and fully intended on reading them, but then I realized that I should probably re-read the Study series. Anyway, long story short, I never got around to it thanks to other books. Then, the Vaginal Fantasy book club picked Poison Study as their main pick for October, so it made things a lot easier for me.

Now, I should probably add a quick disclaimer: Poison Study is NOT smut. In fact any big romantic moment happens "off-screen" and we just skip to the next morning. 

I first read this book back in either late December 2006 or early January 2007, and I loved it. You know those books that you read and then you think about almost constantly for several weeks, and then even years down the line you find yourself remembering bits and pieces and you can still remember the lure and excitement that you felt the first time you read it. Yeah, Poison Study does that to me. Yes, compared to a number of the books we read in the VF book club, this is mild, and could actually be classified as YA (though I assure you it is found in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy area in book stores, not in YA), but it is still a great book.

The world is so fascinating to me and this first book just scratches at the surface of what Yelena is capable of and her developing magical ability. This book introduces you to Valek, who I'm sorry, I find to be one of my most crush-worthy men in novel-land. It also introduces you to Ari and Janco, who are two of the most amusing soldiers I have ever met and it would be extremely awesome to have them as friends, not going to lie. 

Yelena has a lot of struggles to overcome and though she does work her way through some of them, you can tell that she will go through a lot more before she truly becomes free. Personally I found the book leaving me wondering what was going to happen next, and so I ended up devouring the next two books: Magic Study and Fire Study. 

And perhaps now that I have re-read Poison Study, I can finish up the Study series and finally dig into the Glass series. Overall, Poison Study gets a 5/5.

Poison Study at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/poison-study-maria-v-snyder/1100344302?ean=9780778327110

Poison Study at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Study-Maria-V-Snyder/dp/0778327116/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351267394&sr=1-1&keywords=Poison+Study

Other Readings:

Well, I just picked up The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa on Wednesday, so I'm reading it now, and I'm already about 1/3 finished. I'm also really digging into Tangled Web by Crista McHugh, and Master of Crows by Grace Draven. I'm slowly but surely making more progress with Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, and I'm really anxious to jump into City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, so I'll have plenty to review over the next weeks.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have my books picked for my From the Stacks reviews through the end of December, but I'm always open to suggestions for stuff to read. Though I mainly tend to stay in Fantasy and Science Fiction, I also read quite a bit of Paranormal, YA, and of course, the Classics of Literature. However, if the premise draws me in then I really am open to any genre.