Poison Study (Study, #1) (The Chronicles of Ixia, #1)

by Maria V Snyder

[Leah]

In my quest to read ALL THE YOUNG ADULT BOOK SERIES, I decided to start with Maria V Snyder’s Chronicles of Ixia series. Why did I choose it first? I don’t know, I must have seen a review somewhere, and I was just so incredibly intrigued with the synopsis for Poison Study. Become a poison taster? For a commander? Risk your life every day, so he can survive, even though it’s his fault you’re in the dungeons awaiting death? INTRIGUING. Right up my alley. Young adult authors love to put their main characters in dungeons or mines, don’t they? Is that what they call a trope? I have no idea, but I like it.

Poison Study was an incredible read, I was captivated from the start and I loved Yelena. I loved how strong she was, despite the fact literally everyone in the castle was rooting for her death, even going so far as to intentionally poison her (naughty) or accost her in the halls and attack her, it just made the book so compelling, as poor Yelena tried to figure out a way to survive/escape, especially since she herself was poisoned, by the confusing Valek, and needed an antidote every day to keep her alive. Spoiler alert: I saw that particular twist coming, I had that part figured out pretty early on actually.

For the first book in a six book series (yay), it set up the world very well, especially with magicians being immediately killed, Yelena’s back story to be revealed because there’s clearly something secret there about her that’s likely going to be revealed in book two. I also didn’t see the romance coming, mostly because I have no idea how old Valek is or how old Yelena is, it’s never explicitly stated and so is Valek the same age? I’m lead to believe he’s not, just for what the book did say, but maybe Yelena is older than I thought, but I have her in her late teens, what with the Reyad thing. Oh, hold the phone! I have consulted GoodReads and Yelena is 19 and Valek 33. I DON’T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS. There’s part of me that knows that age is just a number, and another part of me is screaming that Valek is in his thirties. However, what I will say is I liked how the romance was handled, it wasn’t full on, Valek wasn’t a terrible person – he did terrible things, which is not the same thing and I was convinced of their feelings for each other, in that love-hate way that is just the best love trope of them all, let’s be honest.

I can’t wait to see where this series goes, Poison Study was fantastic and I can’t wait to be back with Yelena in Magic Study (and I kinda hope that Valek shows up sooner rather than later and that they’re not separated for ages because FEELINGS). Maria V Snyder is a fantastic writer and if, like me, you’ve never read one of her books, do what I did and RUN TO YOUR NEAREST LIBRARY STAT.