Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Received: Bought
Publication Date: August 19th, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Point of View: 3rd Person
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres &  Themes: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, High School, Prophecy

BLURB:

#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 Derveaux.

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…

REVIEW:

Unpopular opinion review time!

You know how it goes: you loved this book, I didn’t. I’m actually very much dismayed by that, because I stepped into this apocalyptic world with such an overall optimistic state of mind – hell, I expected my first book by Kresley Cole, a New York Times bestseller, to be a winner!

Oh boy. My state of mind shifted quickly enough and darkened considerably.

Basically, I didn’t like anything about this book. It’s a huge “It’s not you; it’s me’’ case, so huge that I would have blamed the book entirely if it wasn’t for the glowing ratings and reviews. I totally would have.

Because this was awful for me.

Evie is one of the most superficial, spoiled and completely annoying heroines I’ve had the misfortune to meet. And the love interest, Jackson is a despicable pervert and jackass! Every time he called Evie “bébé,’’ my soul died a little.

I have nothing against the French word for baby, but when Jackson pronounces that word, it doesn’t come out as sexy and enticing. It physically hurts and I wished I could punch that word out of his vocabulary. And I’m taking Karate classes, so I’m pretty confident about my blows. Just saying.

I also couldn’t believe how many clichés the author inserted. I mean come on, this was supposed to be a post-apocalyptic enticing story!

Clichés:

– the superpopularandprettygirl who think of school as her kingdom (‘‘I waved at different folks again and again, much to the bowheads’ amusement. I was pretty much friends with everybody’’)
– the jackass love interest who acts like a jerk around Evie but he’s so handsome, so handsome, so handsome, and no one can resist him. Also very troubled and broken.
– the love triangle
– parents dead (this seems to become so common in YA books that it’s just one more trope to me)
– the jackass bad-boy rescues the lost superpopularandprettygirl

And so on and so forth and what have you.

The idea of people incarnating figures from tarot cards to save the world also didn’t appeal to me. I found the overall plot weird. It tries too hard to become something exceptional, when it really just isn’t.

Oh well, and I bought the whole series, silly me. Guess I’ll have to host a giveaway soon.

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