ARC Review: An Affair of Poisons

Author: Addie Thorley

Publisher: Page Street Kids

Release Date: 2.26.19

Genre: YA fantasy, YA historical

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis:

“After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters her mother vows to purge.

Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant Dauphin. Forced to hide in the derelict sewers beneath the city, any hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible—until Josse’s path collides with Mirabelle’s, and he finds a surprising ally in his sworn enemy.

She’s a deadly poisoner. He’s a bastard prince. Together, they form a tenuous pact to unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. But can a rebellion built on mistrust ever hope to succeed?”

This book blew me away. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started it but within pages I was hooked and racing against time to get to the final chapter. This book was incredible. From the writing to the characters An Affair of Poisons was a magical re-imagining of the past that hooks you until the final line.

One of my favorite things about this book were the two main characters: Mirabelle and Josse. The book is told through their separate point of views, which was a writing decision I loved. The brains of these characters were interesting to read from and I liked their morally gray personalities. Mirabelle was hard, independent, and snappy. I loved her. I loved her strength and delving more into her softer side. I loved Josse for his softness, his loyalty, his determination. These characters brought out the best in each other and I liked seeing their hate to love romance grow. Seriously, the bond between these characters is so sweet and pure and I loved them!! They work so well together! So freakin’ cute!

Speaking of the characters, the development in this book is fantastic. The characters each grow in their own ways and become better by the end of the book. I loved how they were designed and brought to life through this story. I felt like I got to know Mirabelle and Josse very deeply and their journey was a joy to read.

The plot itself took a lot of directions, it’s a long winding road without a clear destination but I thought it worked well. The story was clearly character driven above all else so the plot mirrors their actions more than it leads them. I’m a lover of character driven stories and it was interesting to see Mirabelle and Josse lead this story in different directions as they became different people. Scratch that, it was more than “interesting”. It was well developed, immersive, and breathtakingly magical.

The only thing this book lacked was depth in it’s world building. I simply wish there had been more and that some aspects would have had more explanation such as the shadow society. I did feel like it was ever well defined and I was at times confused about the limits of the world. I thought the alchemy in this book was a lot of fun to read about but I wish there would have been more established boundaries when the story was developed.

I really loved this book. It was quick, fun, magical, and had a lot of interesting elements that made it unique. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about picking it up! This magical story is one worth reading.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review, opinions are all my own.