N. K. Traver

The cover and premise of this beautiful book left me with no doubt that I'd love the adventure and characters waiting for me on these pages and now, after finishing way past my bedtime last night, I need book two now. I've already marked the sequel as to-be-read long before I reached that cliff hanger of an ending that left my chin and heart on the floor of my living room.

Zahru is so real and makes a fun protagonist to get to know and travel with through all her adventures. She is snarky, show more acts and speaks before thinking (her impulsiveness makes for exciting edge-of-seat reading time), kindhearted, smart, and loves her family and friends with such strong loyalty. The first person point of view from Zahru immeditely pulled me into this stunning and believable world and never let me go.

Jet--I now have a new book boyfriend! I so love when an author can create characters that pull on my emotions like Jet.

The themes of doing greater good than self, friendship, family, and learning self acceptance make this fantasy novel a well-rounded tale. The author never skimped on the depper issues or showing the emotional turmoil. She twisted the plot in surprising ways for me and that always makes me love a book even more. The world building is some of the best I've ever read and the magic seemed like it really existed and was easy to understand. I highly recommend this book for fantasy lovers and anyone who loves character-driven stories. show less

From the very first page, I was drawn to the world built by Natalie Mae. Orkena is a beautiful, magical place, as wonderful as it is flawed and as intriguing as it is mysterious. It is no mean feat to create a fictional setting in which a book takes place, and an even meaner feat to craft a world with its own religion, culture, and sense of tradition. I would say that Mae went above and beyond when it came to making the reader feel like they were really in a strange desert land filled with show more danger and semi-murderous, slightly entitled royalty.

The characters were equally engaging – passionate and independent Zahru, bold and brash Hen, cold and unhinged Kasta, stubborn but compassionate Jet, and wild and determined Sakira. You know characters are well written when you can’t help but feel you know them – their hopes and fears and aspirations. I loved that each character felt like they had redeeming qualities and even the villain of the story wasn’t all bad.

I also really appreciated that as much as Zahru wished it was different, her powers were always consistent. I’ve found that a lot of YA fantasy novels set the main character up to be someone with lackluster powers who, through some hardship, discovers they actually have awesome powers unlike any the world has ever seen. Although there’s nothing wrong with that particular angle, I liked that in The Kinder Poison, Zahru can still be her own hero without having to come into a rare ability – it’s enough that she’s a Whisperer.

The fantastic world-building, captivating characters, and overall fast pacing made The Kinder Poison a quick, fun read that kept my attention from start to finish. It’s everything a YA fantasy should be, and I simply cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

*Thank you BookishFirst and Razorbill for the opportunity to read a copy in exchange for an honest review show less

Recommended: yes!
For magic! always for magic! And for characters who all have their complexities examined and everything is in shades of gray. For a story that matches the absolutely brilliant cover and title.

Thoughts:
What's most impressive is how much story was told in this one book, and how quickly I read it. Yes, I've been looking forward to this book for months at this point, but it read so easily and I just couldn't stop! In the rare moments where I did have to put it down, I found show more myself thinking about it and wondering what would happen next. Absolutely loved that!

Perhaps equally impressive is the balance of time given to examining each of the main characters, and even several of the side characters. They all had intricate backstories and motivations, hidden aspects of character that required insight to truly see. I honestly couldn't predict what they might do or why. Although the premise of the story might lend itself to some cliche good-versus-evil dichotomies, they never arose. This was entirely shades of gray, and that's exactly what I had hoped for.

On a personal level, this totally reconfirmed my belief that talking to animals is one of the coolest kinds of magic possible. Even if that's not a belief totally reinforced by the characters themselves, I adored seeing the way Zahru used her magic for the mundane and the ingenious. Her journey is one that I thoroughly supported and she's remarkably consistent in her core values, even as she grows. One prime example is that she does often think about her father with worry, despite the life-or-death-magic craziness she's thrown into. Elements like that were not forgotten about, nor the fact that all of this took place within the span of about a week.

Overall a really fun read that will hook you from the start and only gets better from there! show less

I really liked it, but hated the romance.

Let me tell you, this would've been a solid 5-stars had it not been for the romance. And other people might have liked this book for that very reason, but I'm not other people.

Other people, are people who like love triangles. And like them between two brothers.

And let me tell you something about me: I hate love triangles, with very few books making the 5-star cut for me. And between brothers? Absolutely hate them. And if the girl keeps changing her show more mind every time she's away from one and near the other? (I don't think there's a superlative for hate)

All within a single week.

It's one thing to break someone's heart because you're actually in love with someone else, but it's a completely different thing if it's the brother of the guy you're in love with. And it is a really, really other-wordly thing, if it happens within the span of a single week. It's a big no-no for me, and I only make exceptions if I didn't actually know it was going to happen, or if I liked the other plot devices advertised to me more.

This book would be perfect without the romance. That's my opinion.

Now, other than the romance, this book was just awesome!! The was really good world-building, the plot was really interesting, you were constantly being forced to change your opinions of the characters depending on what new disaster came about, learning all kinds of secrets that made you doubt yourself so much; I just really loved it!

I'm really intrigued about what happens next, since that was one hell of a cliff-hanger we were left with, and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!(when will you be here 2021?)

So, I really liked it overall, and I recommend it to people who like love triangles( between brothers), or can ignore the aforementioned love triangle; awesome world-building, characters with cool powers (even though they don't make sense sometimes), books set in deserts (I was really surprised by this revelation, but I actually have not read a lot of books set in deserts), and cases of mistaken identity. show less