Poison Princess

Arcana Chronicles, Book 1

By: Kresley Cole

Narrated by: Emma Galvin, Keith Nobbs

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

22 Arcana cards. 22 young assassins. May the best hand live. Introducing The Arcana Chronicles from number one New York Times best-selling author Kresley Cole.

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 ii's not always clear who is on which side....

©2012 Kresley Cole (P)2012 Simon & Schuster, Inc

Absorbing tale, colorless narration, cliched teens

The Poison Princess premise is interesting and fresh: Teenagers are periodically reincarnated during humanity's darkest times, fighting a battle to the death to entertain gods who no longer exist. Their gory, cyclical personas are memorialized as the characters in Tarot cards. The story is as much about young relationships, evolving feelings and teenage angst as it is a fantasy battle. I was intrigued, interested, entertained, and sad to find the final page.

I put off starting the Arcana series because I'm a "vintage" adult and... come on... there's a squick factor to reading a YA book written by a hard-core adult fantasy romance writer. After reading, my feelings were a little mixed. KC doesn't tiptoe around teenage lust and sexuality - and rightly so. Ignoring sex and hormones in a book targeted to our worldly teenage culture would be seriously disrespectful. It's just that I had to do a bit of a number on my head to remember who the target audience is so I could bypass the "statutory rape" cultural taboo.

Even as I enjoyed the story, there were a few things that gave me eye rolls: "Romance Novel" cliches; some creaky plot contrivances that might be resolved in the later books; and excessive, helpless whininess from Evie -- *months* past the point she should have started hardening up.

Worst was the narration. Emma Galvin has a charming voice, but she's a one-trick pony. Her attempt at Jack's cajun accent made me cringe - especially since a Creole dialect is almost inhumanly charming. At least she could have practiced the flow and pronunciation instead of fumbling all over the words. Plus, there was little differentiation between character voices past the introductory sentences. I'm spoiled by more experienced narrators, and I think she needs a lot of coaching on how to bring the characters to life.

Enjoyable book, but I'm hoping the rest of the series tightens up.

love this series

I love this series but really need the finale. I have read it all. would buy the entire audiobook version but I'm nervous about how the ending is going to go.

wow

it was long but OK at times the end was not OK I wanted her to find jacks arms but all in all it was a good book

A great story with an average reader

I'd gotten Poison Princess in paper right when it first released in early October. The problem with reading a book and then listening to the audio is that you have an idea of how characters are suppose to sound in your head. In my head Jackson's Cajun accent is like butter over the page, melting into my bones with every delivery of backwards subject/verb endings. I knew Evie would have a very reduced southern accent, but I also knew it would be there. After all, you don't grow up in a region without picking up bits and traces of the regional language quirks. Still, I loved the story so much that I wanted to have it in my audible collection too. I craved to hear these characters come to life in audio.

First things first: I really, really, really like Emma Galvin's reading. I heard her in Veronica Roth's amazing apocalyptic YA novel Divergence and the character of Tris was brought to life by Galvin's fantastic rendering of that landscape. However, this is not her book.

Galvin's rendition of Evie strikes me off key because while Evie probably does have a southern accent, her accent would be coastal southern; not Tennessee southern. It's a small complaint in the grand scheme of things, not terrible, not by any means the worst rendition of a southern accent that I'd ever heard, but just not Louisianan Southern. Also, while her french is well pronounced, her Cajun/Bayou accent leaves a bit to be desired. Luckily, Cole wrote Poison Princess with proper dialect in the words so while Galvin never successfully pulls off the Cajun lilt, it's hard to miss the accent's language style in the story.

Story wise, Poison Princess is wonderful. If you enjoy reading about complicated love stories with an apocalyptic setting, you like watching a character go from Frau Shrinking Violet to Frau Badass with a lively cast of characters around them? Then I say go for it. It's quite the departure from Kresley Cole's usual XXX rated stories. Still, you can lower the rating on a book, but you can't take away an author's skill and talent at making believable and sympathetic characters. Give this one a listen.

Astonished

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. This book is so original and a complete surprise. It takes a bit to get into it, but once there I could not stop listening to it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Evie and then Jack

Have you listened to any of Emma Galvin and Keith Nobbs ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but i plan on checking more out.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Arcana Chronicles

Any additional comments?

Listened to the second one. Can't believe I have to wait for the next one.

Hate that I love so much

guilty pleasure. I've listened and read several times. does start slow, but picks up quickly

Pulls you in and keeps you there

This book was amazing. There was just the right amount of suspense, and sexual tension. it is aimed at a younger crowd, but was a very enjoyable listen. Emma Galvin was a perfect Evie, and Keith Nobbs fit his role very well. Can’t wait to continue the series

Terrific story and narration

I must admit the cover art (which is cheesy) of the book coupled with the name (Poison Princess) almost made me not bother to look at this book. However, because I discovered through the Scott Sigler books “Alive” and “Alight” that I really like narrator Emma Galvin, and this book was under the search of books narrated by her, I took a chance to see what it was about. It sounded good, the reviews sealed the deal. Turns out I totally enjoyed this story. Great character development, great action, good balance of twists and turns- I highly recommend it!

Better than expected

At first, I really disliked Evie’s snobbish ways and found her too whiny at times, but as the story evolved she became a stronger character. I found the cryptic messages kind of annoying and didn’t like that they interrupted the story. I thought the plot was interesting and as someone with a mild curiosity in the occult,? I found the tarot card aspect intriguing.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!

This is an amazing new YA series. I loved it and can't wait for the next one, which seems a million years away!! Great strong characters. Wonderful narrators (I love Emma Galvin!!). The story is new and interesting. I haven't read Kresley Cole before ... I think I'm going to have to look back at her other books!!