Susannah Appelbaum

The second book in the series. In the world of these books an evil king and queen - the Deadly Nightshades - have taken over Caux, imprisoning Good King Verdigris, and inviting people to poison each other. The Deadly Nightshades love poison. Poisoning has become so popular that there is a Taster's Guild to teach people to detect poisons. Everyone who's anyone has their own taster. As the second book starts the Nightshades have been defeated by Ivy Manx and her friends.
Ivy Manx is an 11 year old healer and botanist. People believe that she is the Noble Child, prophesied to heal the Good King. Ivy and her friend, former taster Rowan, must travel to an alternate world to rescue the King and her mother. Unfortunately, the minions of the Deadly Nightshades, including Ivy's own father, Vidal Verjouce, head of the Taster's Guild, are out to keep her from completing her quest. They have managed to poison Ivy with scourge bracken, a horrible weed that forces her to live her life in the shadows. She finds her mother and the King (her great-grandfather) but is unable to save them. The King gives her 2 stones to bring back to Caux to plant. Ivy is kidnapped by her own former taster just as she reaches Caux.
I enjoy the world of these books. There is no real system of magic but tapestries come to life and travel to other worlds through doorways or book pages is possible. Most of the magic is plant related. The plant and herb lore is my favorite part of these books… (mais)

I received an ARC copy from a goodreads giveaway. I love that it's about demons, angels and demon hunters. I also like the idea with having the letters. My favorite character is Luc. The reason I gave it 3 stars is because I had to read it twice and I was still confused. I didn't really understand how Itzy was apart of Luc's story when it was supposed to be Luc's story before he met her. I also didn't care for Itzy, I didn't like her personality. There was great humor included in the story. I wish there was more of Luc's story. That's what made the book worthwhile. I would try to read this book again.… (mais)

What I really liked was the world building. The journey Rowan and Ivy go through was well described and their encounters with different characters was well done. I loved the different settings and their adventure seemed to get even more exciting as the book was nearing to a close. How the setting came about, and the introduction to this story was well done. I liked how the setting was established, with a nice concise history on how King Nightshade came about. It’s almost told in a fairy tale narrative - which was well done, and there were plenty of witty phrases to enjoy (all throughout the novel as well). The idea of the bettles are interesting, but what I really liked was that the use of poison was all over the place in this land. It was different and I thought it was rather clever, definitely something you don’t see in a lot of fantasy middle grade fiction out there.

The characters in this book were also well done. Ivy and Rowan do make an interesting team. The plot was good, although a little slow moving at first. However once Ivy and Rowan teamed up on their journey, it got more interesting thanks to the different settings described, and the various memorable characters they encounter on their journey (Poppy really stood out! I thought it was cute).

The idea of this book is a creative one. It’s told with a nice whimsical flair to it, but it took a while to get used to this style of writing. I’m not sure why, but the pace seemed slower and with the writing style (perhaps it was a little too whimsical) the book just seemed to go at a snail’s pace. That being said though, I still thought it was an enjoyable book and it does pick up the pace after a third of the story. I’ll probably continue this series, I’d like to know what happens next, yet I’m not really in a rush to read it. I’d say take it or leave it with this book.… (mais)