Kresley Cole

In the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, sixteen-year-old Evie, from a well-to-do Louisiana family, learns that her terrible visions are actually prophecies and that there are others like herself--embodiments of Tarot cards destined to engage in an epic battle.

Poison princess

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces The Arcana Chronicles, post-apocalyptic tales filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance. She could save the world—or destroy it. Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux. But she can’t do either alone. With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him? Who can Evie trust? As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side….

Poison Princess

Monicap

This book is a really strong, for being the first in the series. The opening is a bit long and a bit slow, but Arthur is a compelling first-book villain, and the frame for the narrative allows world building to occur in a really cool way.

The world building in this novel is, if I may say, amazing. The apocalyptic scenario is described so well and lends a very atmospheric sense to the novel. Jack's Cajun tongue, the font the novel is published in, Matthew's repetition of "Obstacles, field of battle, arsenal, foes" all reinforce to atmosphere of the story in an incredibly compelling way.

... However, I kind of hate the characters as presented in the novel. Evie's consistent overreactions get annoying, Selena's caginess, Jack's inability to communicate well... all these things wear on the story. Another weakness of the story is that too many characters are introduced--I don't think this novel had space for both Selena AND Finn. 

The way that hints were built in for later novels (Vincent and Violet, Arthur's tape recording) were all masterful. 

In other words... great world, fairly well structured, and too many characters that are too one-dimensional.

Briar's Reviews

Poison Princess is one of those books that takes you by surprise, pulls you in and won't let you go until you finish it.

I actually found this book (originally) via Gena Showalter. She was always talking about her author friend Kresley Cole on Twitter, so I decided to pick this book up. They seemed to get along so well, so why not pick up her book? I doubt author friends who hated each other's works would talk so great about each other. And to no one's surprise, Gena's suggestion was on point. (Keep in mind I love Gena Showalter. I'm quite sad I haven't been able to read any of her books recently, due to my busy schedule).

This is a dystopian, apocalypse novel is for sure a YA novel - but that doesn't mean adults can't enjoy it. It's not R rated, if anything it's more of a PG/PG-13-esque novel. It's an easy read, and it's totally addicting. There are some cringy YA moments (silly romances, ironic comments, and all the joys that come with being a teenager) but it's still an enjoyable book. If you keep in mind it's a YA novel made for a YA audience, it's not to heart breaking when silly teenage plot lines go on. It's like a soap opera - if you understand that some extraordinary things happen that are out of the line of reality, then you can thoroughly enjoy it.

Keeping in mind that I have read the next novel - the character development in this book works. You begin to fall in love with these sassy characters and they do grow! Their story is continually built on into the next book, and to me it's a worthy read worth a recommendation. It's probably one of the better YA novels I've read - and one that I've been able to come back to and enjoy.

Overall, Kresley Cole is an amazing story teller. She's great at her adult series and her YA series, and it's a worthy read for those looking for some YA or dystopian drama in their lives.

Five out of five stars.

Rachel Kanyid

WHAT THE HECK????

Okay, I just don't even, with this book.

I'm never buying a book without doing more research about the author's past works again!!!

I'm giving it a 2.5/5 stars....

Let me just say, I have never, ever, ever felt more insulted by a main character in all of the books I've ever read....


STUFF I HATED:

This book objectifies women more than any book I've ever read.

The women WANT and ALLOW themselves to be objectified. WTH??????????? How is this book empowering or encouraging to women at all???? It's NOT. That's how.

The main female character's life goal is to get the main male character fall in love with her even though he's the world's biggest douche and only cares about sex. So she tries to lure him in with sexy clothes, even when they're in a flipping POST-APOCALYPTIC, ZOMBIE AND CANNIBAL INFESTED WORLD. All she cares about is him. And her grandma, but mostly him.

The main male character is more of a fickle douche-bag than any other main male character I've ever read. He doesn't get sex from the girl, so he immediately starts treating her like crap and going after another girl? Uh, YEAH NO.

Insta-lust.

Makeup-breakup-makeup-breakup x 50

I could go on.



STUFF I THOUGHT SLIGHTLY INTERESTING:

The Tarot card stuff is cool, but I really don't think that enough of a redeeming factor to get me to read the rest of the series..

And that's it. Sorry.

I like the characters in the books I read to have SOME kind of merit to them, and as far as I am concerned, there was only one good character in the entire book, and that is the autistic boy, Matthew. Who is a side character.... 

Yep.

Will be getting rid of this book. I don't want to risk another young woman reading this because it's on my shelf and feeling as horrified as I did.

Ivy X

"Come,touch...but you'll pay a price." 

This book is a hit or miss situation. You can either enjoy reading it or dislike reading it. I'm a bit more on the positive side on this. However, this book did have a lot of cons and I had trouble accepting our male protagonist's personality and ideas. 

Pros: 
The beginning of this book was kind of creepy. You get a sense of what Evie's hallucinations were like and you feel just as freaked out as she is. At the same time, you can understand why her mother had sent her to a mental institution to undo her "grandmother's teachings." Evie's hallucinations foreshadowed the apocalypse that would set the story and her hallucinations had a lot to do with her grandmother's tarot card teachings. I really liked how the story was closely linked to the tarot cards and how all the characters that came to play are actually from the cards. It was really fascinating to go online and read about the tarot cards and see how well the author used them on her characters. 

I loved the relationship she had with her mother. Though her mother sent her to the mental institution (something that happened before the book even started) because she thought that the grandmother's crazy got passed down to her daughter, it hurt her to do so. This woman was strong but loving nonetheless. Especially after the flash, her mother was unbelievably strong with amazing survival skills. And she felt so guilty at her end when she realized that her daughter's visions and her mother's warnings were all true. But throughout the entire beginning, you could see that her love for Evie was unconditional. 

In the beginning, Evie was weak. She didn't know how to fight. She was weak. She depended on Jackson like no tomorrow. She was constantly plagued with visions so it didn't make things better. Thankfully, as we neared the end of the book Evie begins to slowly learn who she truly is (view spoiler)[ as the Empress  (hide spoiler)] and what her powers are. She's freaked out of course to find that her powers could be so lethal and how she has so much potential to do evil. At the end, it was pretty epic when she finally took control of her powers and used it. It was pretty amazing. 

(view spoiler)[ I'm pretty sure Death is going to be part of a love triangle situation by the way the book is going.  (hide spoiler)]

I loved the whole apocalypse situation. It was fascinating. And Evie's powers are freaking awesome and I'm sad that she didn't get to use them that much in this book until toward the end (which was EPIC).  IT IS LITERALLY PLANT POWER AND SHE LITERALLY JUST LEARNED TO ACCEPT IT. I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED IT FROM THE BEGINNING. PLANT. POWER.  So I'm probably going to try to get my hands on the next book. 


Cons: 
I didn't necessarily like the hint of misogyny on a lot of the events that happened in the book. I also didn't like some of the ideas the men were trying to force on to Evie. First of all, I did not like Evie's boyfriend. He was always pressuring her to sleep with him and she just kept viewing him as this perfect boyfriend because he was someone she wanted in life. Just because he's a great person overall doesn't mean he actually is good. While pressuring her to sleep with him, he gives Evie a sense of insecurity as though she has to sleep with him or else he was going to go for the girl that would give him sex without hesitation. That's a clear sign that he's not a good boyfriend. (view spoiler)[ I was not upset when he was gone by the start of the apocalypse. Goodbye Brandon! Thank goodness you're not a major character.  (hide spoiler)]

I found Jackson kind of hot, not going to lie. He had this bad boy feel about him and he's always speaking Cajun French. In the beginning it felt like I was reading "Perfect Chemistry" by Simone Elkeles again. He's also very protective in a way. But I have serious issues with him. I didn't like the way he talked at first and I still had trouble getting used to him using "goan" instead of "going." But I get that it's to match with the Cajun French thing. He's protective to a point where he's possessive and irrational. Let me show you how irrational this idiot was: Evie's stomach can't growl because it makes him feel weak that he can't provide for her. Evie can't do this because it makes him feel emasculated in the fact that he can't do anything to help her. 
 OH PLEASE. LIKE WHO THE HELL THINKS LIKE THAT? AND IF SOMEONE DOES THINK LIKE THAT, CHILL OUT OK? IT'S ONE THING TO DO THE "YOU'RE MINE BECAUSE I'M DATING YOU" AND ANOTHER TO DO THE "YOU'RE MINE SO EVERYTHING YOU DO REFLECTS ON MY ABILITY TO SUPPORT YOU." UGH. 
And I like the idea that he wants to take care of her and protect her and all that... BUT LET THE GIRL LIVE . He's very aggressive, always having weird mood swings, and is tiring at times to deal with. It gets to be a bit too much at times and it's annoying. 

Though slightly boring and cliche in the beginning, it picked up a little more as we got more into the Arcana stuff and the tarot card characters.

Taylor🩸

alright. i'm obsessed. i found parts of the book a lil slow but the last parts of the book got me gooooood!!! also i'm in love with jackson obviously

Jo Young

A fantastic tale of superpowers and survival of the fittest and the damn apocalypse all in one. This was really a masterpiece. The storyline was captivating till the end and was carried out flawlessly. 

All the times I cried out with frustration at Jack and Evie and all the times I wanted to murder Matthew and Selena and Finn. Also idc Evie is a bad bitch and I loved her. Jack was definitely one of my favorites but at the end,,, yeah he’s dead to me now. BRB gonna download the second book cause holy shi-

Fruzsina Juhász

Jobbra szamitottam, de az utolso 40-50 oldal miatt 4*

Cindy Lee

This book had be reading til 3 am!!! That's not the record but that's pretty close :O

Poison Princess is a very promising book with the concept of the Arcanas. I've never really studied or known much about Tarot cards so this one was really interesting for me. 

Anyways, I feel Evie is this spoiled brat, but I think she gets better throughout the book. And Jack Deveaux, the love interest. Ugh.. I think he only wants Evie for sex at first ('cause the woman population went down dramatically), and he even admits it (that bastard)! He may seem like a dick with his mood swings and all that but I think he has his heart in a good place and really wants the best for Evie.

I also like the Arcanas have super powers! I don't know why, but I love books with people who have super powers!! It's just so cool :)

The only reason I'm giving this a four stars is because of Jack. He is just too rude of a character. And everyone is like, swooning (which I must admit I did) for him. I just don't get him as a character all right?

Toni Turner

Hot diggity dog. Okay this is one hell of a story. So much about the plot is incredible and the way Cole methodically tells the story and reveals things in a way that make me anxious and frustrated, but good frustrated, is so addicting. In a lot of ways this story is ridiculous but a good portion of those same ways makes it brilliant. I don’t know what else to say. This is so familiar but so unique. Half the time I feel like this could be categorized as a guilty pleasure read but then I feel rocked by the structure and the emotions that It can’t be. I need to ingest the entirety of it before concluding If it’s recommendable, but for me personally this was a RIDE and I am so ready for more!

Émilie 

Une histoire très originale sur les mythes liés au tarot, l'écriture très fluide est agréable. Le post-apocalyptique n'est en revanche pas mon style de lecture préfère.

Katerina Thorson

I really don't even know what to say about the first in the arcana series - frustrated, betrayed, frustrated, emotional, frustrated...and did I say FRUSTRATED!!! Don't get me wrong, I love the book, I did but there was just something that constantly disconnected me from the characters and even the book itself. The beginning felt too slow and dragged on for far too long - I honestly thought it could have gotten to the point far sooner than it did. However, I will admit that the information was needed to continue the story it could have been done in a better way. 

The characters....oh god where do I even start; honestly, I hated the main character Evie. I didn't like her cocky/spoiled personality, the naiveness, and how she constantly thought about how "oh my boyfriends so perfect and good looking" I understand that was how the character was developed but just no. It wasn't until the end where I felt that Evie redeemed herself just a little bit, but we will have to see about that in the next book to the series. 

Jackson...oh sexy, hot, beautiful Jackson...I'm not sure if I like this bad boy or not. This is the first "bad boy"character that I have come across that just didn't set with me right away. I don't know if it was his personality and how he would always say "if you won't give me some than someone else will..." I get it that's the whole bad boy "motto" but still REALLY! And then with that ending to the book...I just started to lean on the scale of dislike than actually like. 

I will admit this book has it's flaws but that won't stop me from reading the next book in the series!