The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae (The Kinder Poison # 1)

Young Adult. Fantasy. Competition. Royalty. 

Rating: 3/5

Started: July 27

Finished: July 28

Summary:

    Zahru just wants to see the palace. Having lived her whole life in Atera, working with her father to take care of animals by using her magic that let her speak to animals, she wanted to experience Ortera. It would only be one night of beauty. One night of decadent foods and partying with her best friend. One night to watch the ceremony where the royal siblings would choose someone with strong magic to help them a contest for the throne. Except instead of taking the sturdy wooden spectators boat that rich but unimportant citizens took to watch the spectacle, she is stuck on the glass boat as one of the possibles to be chosen by a royal contestant. Quickly, she is caught right in the middle of the messy -- and dangerous -- dynamics between the three royal siblings, and must use her talents, magical and otherwise, to try to survive and help her country.

Thoughts:

    This book was interesting, but not captivating. The world-building cool but almost too complex to keep straight, especially all the names for different magics that were usually said once or twice and then never repeated or clarified. The protagonist wasn't particularly enticing, and there were no relationships, romantic or otherwise, that felt real. I was often confused by who was good and who was bad and if characters were actually in the right or if they were about to be revealed to be evil. Generally they weren't, which was pretty boring. I enjoyed reading this book, but I definitely wasn't stunned.

Words:

        Succubus (n) a demon assuming female form to have sexual relations with men in their sleep