Poison

Poisonby Bridget Zinn

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart . . . misses.Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she’s certainly no damsel-in-distress—she’s the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon. (goodreads.com)

Poison  is a fun, quick, fantasy romp of a stand-alone novel. There's a good and a bad to that. The good is that it's rare to have a book wrap up in one shot these days and if you're looking for a light and fun fantasy read, then this is your book. The bad is that this probably wouldn't have been a stand-alone novel if not for the author's untimely and tragic passing. Just thinking about that makes my heart wrench and I feel horrible that someone so young is gone from the world and her passing meant that she didn't see her book published (at least that's what I think happened?).Poison is a book that haunted me until I finally broke down and bought it. I'd picked it up one day in a bookstore and although I was really curious and tempted by it, knew I couldn't spend the money at the time, so I put it down. Then Monkey emailed me about this book and asked if I'd heard of it because it seemed to be a very Cat sort of book. Then someone else asked me about it and I started seeing the book pop up in articles and photos and non-book bloggish places.Finally, when I was buying House of Secrets, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and clicked this one into the shopping cart, too. Shhh.Well, I read this one in a couple of hours on the train ride home from Toronto last week and I was not disappointed. The story made me giggle and snort and was just fairy-tale/fantasy enough to distract me from real life for a while. The little pig was cute, though not nearly as big of a focus as I was led to believe from the summary. I very much liked the banter between Kyra and Fred. I think they are one of my new favourite bookish couples now (and I don't mean couple in the romantic sense, I mean as a couple of people, friends, just two people who amuse me together. Like Eve Dallas and Peabody in the J.D. Robb mysteries! I love the dialogue and relationship between them!)Although Poison is considered Young Adult, it has a pretty Middle Grade feel to it so I think you'd be pretty safe letting a younger reader at it. Especially if your young reader gobbles up books like they have to breathe. ;)Oh, and I was actually somewhat caught off guard in the end, which surprised me. Things didn't turn out exactly as I thought they would and it was a nice feeling to be surprised by a book.And lastly, as much as I loved the story, my favourite part was the relationship between the pig and the wolf. Rosie and Langley just made me so happy. Sort of made me want a piglet and let my Jinx take care of her. I suppose there's Sophie, but she might object to being called a piglet. She's a PRINCESS FINNISH LAPPHUND, thank you very much. ;)