Review: POISON'S KISS by Breeana Shields

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Published: January 10, 2017

Genre: Young Adult - Fantasy

Source: Print ARC

Rating: 2.5

Blurb:
A teenage assassin kills with a single kiss until she is ordered to kill the one boy she loves. This commercial YA fantasy is romantic and addictive like-- a poison kiss-- and will thrill fans of Sarah J. Maas and Victoria Aveyard.

Marinda has kissed dozens of boys. They all die afterward. It's a miserable life, but being a visha kanya, a poison maiden, is what she was created to do. Marinda serves the Raja by dispatching his enemies with only her lips as a weapon.

Until now, the men she was ordered to kiss have been strangers, enemies of the kingdom. Then she receives orders to kiss Deven, a boy she knows too well to be convinced he needs to die. She begins to question who she s really working for. And that is a thread that, once pulled, will unravel more than she can afford to lose.

This rich, surprising, and accessible debut is based in Indian folklore and delivers a story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Review:

Marinda can kill a boy with just the touch of her lips. She's what you call a poison maiden; an assassin. And there's nothing in the world she hates more than the job of killing boys she's told to kill. Not knowing what they did to deserve such a punishment. She doesn't ask questions and does what she's supposed to instead. Even if it makes her feel guilty. Marinda is doing this for her younger brother, Mani, who is sickly. This is how she serves the Raja and this is her foreseeable future. 

That is until she meets Deven - a boy whose as mysterious as his counterpart, Miranda. Everything chances the moment she's ordered to kiss Deven, marking him to doom. But Marinda knows him and he can't possibly be bad enough to kill with a kiss. Marinda then starts questioning everything. And that's where everything starts to get good. 

Or so I thought. While the book has a great premise, it was too slow for my liking. It was slow throughout the book and in the end and it wasn't until the very end where it actually piqued my interest. Even though it has a low rating, I still want to read the second book so that way I can see what happens. If it weren't for that ending, I don't know if I would have been able to continue with the next book.

Now I know i gave the book a low star rating but that doesn't mean I absolutely hated the book. I still would like to continue and see where the author goes with everything.

*Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Buy the Book:

Amazon

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About the Author:

Breeana Shields graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in English. Her debut young adult fantasy, POISON'S KISS, will be released from Random House in 2017, with a sequel to follow in 2018. When she’s not writing, Breeana loves reading, playing board games and spending time with her husband, three children and an extremely spoiled miniature poodle. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where it drizzles, rains or pours nine months of the year, but then transforms into paradise during the other three. She’s willing to make the trade-off.