Poison's Kiss

Poison's Kiss by Breeana Shields
304 pages
Published January 10th 2017 by Random House Books for Young Readers

Warning: This review contains some major spoilers. If you haven't yet read the book, you might want to skip this review. 

My rating: 4 stars
Book source: I received an ARC for free from a book vendor.

Intro:
When your kiss literally kills, what will you do when your next assassination target is the one boy you've grown to care for? 
Marinda has been raised as an assassin and her kiss will end you. She's never really thought much of what happens to the people she kisses, either what they've done to deserve death or what will happen to the lives and families those people leave behind. All that changes when Deven, a local shop boy, becomes her next target. Soon she questions not just her assignment but her entire life.

Cover: 4/5
The beauty in this cover is in its simplicity. The beautiful-yet-deadly snake alludes to Marinda's deadly smooches and the gradient green-to-red is an eye-catching detail that also ties into the title font. I love the golden touches around the edge, making me think of gilded henna.

Characters: 3/5
Marinda is a girl I grew to understand, even if I didn't 100% like her. Yep, I totally fall into the group of people that really, really wants to like the protagonist(s) and I know that's a controversial thing. I had a problem with so many characters being introduced that seemed to be either 100% good or 100% evil--everyone but Marinda, who tends to trend toward the middle, on average.
I also have a real problem with characters being killed off, and, spoiler, there are quite a few who are literally slaughtered, including a cat. I lose my shit when animals are killed in a book and I really, really lost it when Smudge is gutted and her insides used to write a message on Marinda's flat wall. RIP Smudge!

Plot: 4/5
Any book that has its own magic rules needs to be considered separately from other magical worlds you may have read before. Sometimes I have a difficult time keeping up, and it all depends on how well the author has explained the rules for the world they have created. I thought Breeana Shields did a great job of telling me what I needed to know, while not making it feel like I was being talked down to. The whole concept of having a killing kiss based on the hours and hours of vicious poisoning by snakebite really creeped me out--but made sense in her literary world.
I did get a little confused as to why no one had stood up to Gopal before now. I understand why the children he "raised" to be assassins wouldn't think to question him. After all, when you control access to what information a person has, they have no one to believe other than you and so their doubts tend to snuff themselves out. But other adults knew Gopal wasn't working for who he said he was, so why didn't any adults even try to put a stop to his villainry?

Romance: 3/5
Let's be honest: when you can't kiss a boy without killing him, it's truly impossible to date and date well. Deven's the only boy to get close to Marinda her entire life and even as she grows to trust him she knows she can't kiss him because he will surely die. I got very emotional reading their story, but I didn't swoon. Also, Deven's attitude when they meet his father really pissed me off and almost made me close the book.

Mystery: 4/5
Even with the excellent explanation of magic in the world, I was constantly surprised by all the twists-and-turns the plot took. And despite any other frustrations, I am definitely looking forward to a sequel to figure out just what is going to happen with Marinda and (remaining) pals.

Final thoughts:
This book was hella violent, something I didn't guess from the cover, synopsis, or what little buzz there was when I got this ARC in the fall. I also wish there had been a trigger warning about poor Smudge. If you know that going in, and it doesn't put you off, you should definitely read Poison's Kiss!