The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood

The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood with The Duchess of Northumberland
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: YA
Formant: Hardcover, 288 pgs.
Release Date: Out Now
My Copy: ARC, 282 pgs.
Source: Publisher
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Review by: Alicia
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Summary:

In the right dose, everything is a poison. Even love . . .

Jessamine Luxton has lived all her sixteen years in an isolated cottage near Alnwick Castle, with little company apart from the plants in her garden. Her father, Thomas, a feared and respected apothecary, has taught her much about the incredible powers of plants: that even the most innocent-looking weed can cure — or kill.

When Jessamine begins to fall in love with a mysterious boy who claims to communicate with plants, she is drawn into the dangerous world of the poison garden in a way she never could have imagined . . .

Review:

The Poison Diaries was very different from what I expected. It took me awhile to get into the book, mainly because I wasn’t all that interested in what Jessamine was doing. Once all of the other characters were introduced—especially Weed—I was hooked.

Weed was incredibly interesting and very different. When he said that he could talk to plants, I wasn’t surprised. You could tell that there was something off with the way he reacted to plants and things that came from the earth. I wasn’t all that crazy about Jessamine in the beginning, but as the story continued, I liked her more and more. Her moments with Weed were my favorite. I did not trust Jessamine’s father at all. The fact that he wouldn’t let her near the garden and appeared to be keeping things from her didn’t sit well with me.

All of the information about the plants and poison garden were fascinating. Reading about what they looked like and what they could do creeped me out, but interested me too.

The writing was lovely and definitely set the feel of the book. Since The Poison Diaries is historical, I was worried that the writing would be boring and too wordy, but it wasn’t.

The ending had a killer twist that I both loved and hated. I loved it because I saw a little of the twist coming, but not most of it. And I hated it because it left me dying for the next book.

Cover comments: Pretty.

Overall: 4/5