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Title: This Poison Heart (This Poison Heart, #1)
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Pages: 400
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Release Date: 9th June 2021
Blurb from Goodreads:
Darkness blooms in bestselling author
Kalynn Bayron's new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly
power.
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds
to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated
estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind
for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will
finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they
could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an
old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals
in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family
lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking
for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating
them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends,
only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate
and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than
she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a
nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality
elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri
must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes
another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the
power to conquer the dark forces descending around her.
Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop
My Review:
*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) and NetGalley*
Teenager Briseis lives in Brooklyn with her parents, helping them with their flower shop.
Bri is no ordinary teenager - she has the ability to affect the plants around her and can transform them from seeds to fully grown in seconds.
One day Bri receives the news that an aunt she didn't know she had has died and left her estate to Bri.
Bri and her parents decide to swap Brooklyn with the run-down estate for the summer.
It doesn't take long for Bri to discover that there's more to the house and her family history than she could ever have imagined as she finds herself being hunted by a group of people searching for a deadly poisonous plant that can be used to make an elixir for immortality.
Can Bri learn to control her power and use it to protect her loved ones?
I was a little hesitant going into this book as I had mixed feelings about the previous book I read by the author, however, I ended up enjoying this one more.
Bri was a likeable and relatable protagonist, but I did find her to be too trusting and a bit of a hypocrite at times. However, I also felt sorry for her as she didn't really have any friends in Brooklyn and was struggling with her powers.
None of the characters really stood out for me, but I did really like the relationship Bri had with her parents, when she wasn't lying to them.
The setting of the house and gardens were interesting, and I liked the concepts in the book.
My favourite thing about the book was the diversity.
The plot was interesting and held my attention throughout, but there were some plot points that I didn't like, and I wasn't gripped or invested in what happened.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read.
