Poison’s Kiss (Poison’s Kiss #1) by Breeana Shields
“If the heart is as light as a feather, the person can enter the afterlife. If not, the heart is fed to a wild beast. My heart will sink quickly even against a brick.”
Poison’s Kiss was the story of a Visha Kanya, a poison girl, who was raised to kiss and kill. Living her life essential as a free prisoner, Marinda has to kiss at her handlers bidding per the request of the Raja. As much as she wants to escape, she can’t because of her brother and the man she just might be in love with, and who happens to be her latest assignment.
This was a really quick, easy read. The world building was simple, but adequate as you are introduced into a Indian land with four different entities that are worshiped. The Hindu inspirations were intriguing as well as the words that were incorporated into the book: visha kanya – poison girl, rajakumari-princess, janu-sweetheart, vish bimari- poison disease. Having foreign words to me always adds in a little more flavor and culture into a book. I loved how mithridatism was incorporated into the book that someone could become immune to poisons by slowly introducing it into their systems.
The characters were alright. Marinda was a little too trusting and was a little annoying how she relied so much on her handler for medicines. She was naive to think that the people who would hurt her or her friend would be telling her everything honestly. Deven was all fine and dandy like a good antagonist would be, but their romance wasn’t quite believable. I felt that it could have been built up a little bit more, but their relationship was sort of shallow at best. Iyla was an interesting character and I liked her relationship with Marinda, how her character was used, and how understandable her feelings would be to those that were involved with her life.
Although predictable at times, it was still a fun read full of culture, loyalty, and friendship. I would read the next book just to see where the story is going.
