Poison Princess

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1)

Kresley Cole

Pages: 369

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Format: eBook

Source: PulseIt

Age Group: Upper YA

Date Published: October 2, 2012

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 Deveaux.
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….

Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious. This book was intense. I started it this morning, because I saw it was available at http://pulseit.simonandschuster.com (which I am a member of), and I had really wanted to read it, so I thought I'd start it and then hunt it down at my library to finish. Unfortunately, it was too good to stop reading, so I've been glued to my computer all day devouring this book!

So, Evie shows up at this creepy guy's house, and it's in Creepy Guy's perspective, and he's all trying to lure her in to his place. As the reader, you have no idea what's going on and you think Evie is really, really dumb. Anyways, he gets her in his house (and makes it so she can't get out), drugs her, and then coaxes her story out of her. This story is the real plot of the book. She explains about her life before the "apocalypse" and how it changed in the days leading up to it and then about her life after. You learn about her mom, and these weird things Evie can do and the crazy things she sees. Then Jackson Deveaux shows up at her house (post-apocalypse) and pretty much vows to take care of her. Through a string of rather unfortunate events Evie and Jackson have to hit the road in search of Evie's grandmother. A lot of the story is about Evie and Jack's relationship, along with their many, many communication issues. He's not really a talker. Eventually, everything catches up to the present (Creepy Guy's house) and we learn how wickedly awesome Evie really is. Everything is so unpredictable (I was all "this is gonna happen" but then something completely different would and it was awesome) and the ideas behind the story (tarot cards turned into people plus the apocalypse can only equal really cool) are so different. In short, the plot is captivating. 

Okay so character-time: Let's start with Jack. I love Jack. I wanted to hate him from the very beginning. He's very macho-possessive-tough-guy and normally that would bug me. But... it was kind of awesome. I loved the whole protector thing he had going on, and the way he treated Evie both sucked and was completely amazing at the same time. Like I said earlier, Jack's not a huge talker. They have a ton of serious communication issues. She's kind of impulsive and they're a little volatile together, but he's so adorable. I do have a really hard time deciding whether he really likes Evie, or if he's just a jerk for most of the book. Which, is good I guess because that's how Evie feels and the book is mostly in her perspective. Besides, he's on the cover, so I gotta love him. It's a thing. His nickname is Jack Daniels... Soooo, Evie, Evie, Evie. She's kind of wacky and likes to fly by the seat of her pants. She's also totally stubborn. Evie was the damsel-in-distress for most of the book, but she really grows as a character. I really love her at the very end of the book. She does get her feelings hurt really easily, though.

I don't love cover Evie now, but it is definitely an eye-catching cover.

I just loved this book so much!!! I'm gonna ask for a hard copy of it for Christmas, just so I can own it! Definitely a 5 mustache book!!!! I am on such a roll right now with the good books. :D