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The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2023, highlighting the work schools are doing to encourage a love of reading, have... Briseis has wonderful magical powers. She can control NATURE itself. Flowers bloom in her footsteps and leaves turn to face her as though she were the sun. Her whole life, she's been encouraged to hide these powers, but an inciting incident, inheriting an old house from her birth mother, will take her on a journey of self-discovery and change her forever, helping her step into her own power as she practises her magic in her new home. This ARC was sent to me by Bloomsbury YA, please read our disclaimer policy for more information. The Review:
vinsentient on It’s No Fun To Be Alone: Communicating With Cryptids in The Shape of Water 2 hours ago When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman that Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and the surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it. . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift and protect herself and her family. This is a fun and excellent debut. A couple of parts in the end felt rushed, but otherwise, I had a great time with this one. I scooped a little hole in the ground and set the pistil inside. Covering it with loose earth, I placed my hands over it, sinking my fingers into the dirt, and closed my eyes.imagine plants are kind of like people. Tell a person they’re worthless, hurt their feelings everyday—they’d wither, too.” She let her delicate fingers dance over the surface of the counter, then up to her lips. Her eyes were like the centers of Velvet Queen sunflowers, brown and blazing. She held my gaze. “But imagine telling someone they’re beautiful, magnetic, stunning. Every single day. Imagine how they’d flourish.” Alongside the uncoiling magical mystery, I adored the loving banter between Bri’s moms, and the intrigue of her friendship with local boy Karter. Then there’s super stunning, super rich Marie, a girl with mysteries of her own and a driver called Nyx - a name that might also set bells a-ringing.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was counting down the days until I could devour every word of this fascinating novel. You can trust me when I say that it was definitely worth the wait because this story had the right amount of humor, angst, magical moments and foreshadowing of dangerous situations. After reading this story, Kalynn Bayron has become one of my new favorite authors and I can’t wait to see what she does next! Excerpt from This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron Initially, the storyline seemed simple as Briseis, her family, and their situation was established. Once the stage has been set, the story's tension slowly builds as the mystery surrounding Bresis's birth family unravels and suspicious events occur. There is danger, action and several twists as the story races towards a gripping climax. Yet, even as everything comes together, a new challenge emerges, which sets things up nicely for the next book.
O – Only one real setting, which is a gothic mansion that contains like 3 rooms of note and 0 intrigue. But before I get into this phenomenal book, can i just say that bloomsbury deserve awards for the covers their providing Kalynn Bayron with. First, Cinderella is Dead and now, This Poison Heart?? The flowers in my arrangement craned their soft petals toward me. Any time I was sad or scared or happy, they took notice, reacted in kind. Grief and sadness made them shrivel; happiness made them perk up; and fear and anger made them lash out. The author bases this story on a Greek myth. Was that effective? Do you have a favorite myth tradition? Stiv Bators, former Dead Boys vocalist and Dee Dee Ramone's friend, recorded a version of the song which was released posthumously on the 1996 album Last Race.
I was keeping them special, just for you,” I said. “I only have six. Ihope that’s okay.” The smile on his face made the little white lie worth it. The sun slanted through my window, shining a large, sallow rectangle onto the wooden floor. The gauzy light saturated my room. Ilet the creeping vines encircle my fingertips, then wind their way up my arm. Ialways wondered why the plants preferred me to the sunlight when it was in a plant’s nature to reach for it. Mo told me once it was because I was the light. She was sentimental like that and I loved her for it, but I thought it might be something else, something I didn’t have an explanation for yet, which was the reason I’d applied to take a college-level botany course at City College over the summer. A wholly original and captivating story where girls finally decide for themselves who lives happily ever after - Brigid Kemmerer I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Ireceived your request to enroll in City College’s Introductory Botany class, but unfortunately, the class requires participants have a GPA of 3.0 or better. It’s a college-level course for college credit. Your GPA was 2.70 at the end of the semester, so I’m afraid you don’t qualify. However, you are a wonderful environmental science student, so let’s make a plan to raiseyour GPA so that you can take this class at a later date. Please don’t give up hope, Briseis. Keep pushing. You’re going to do great your senior year. This was such a unique, refreshing take on Greek mythology! I loved getting to know Briseis, her mothers, and reading about her adventure of identity discovery.
Another problem I had with this story was the use of the immortal love interest trope. It is revealed later in the story that the love interest is actually three-hundred thirty-six, but in the body of a seventeen year old. The main character is barely seventeen, yet is supposed to be dating someone hundreds of years her senior? This might not bother some people, but it's a definite no from me. Nope. That kid is a whole demon. He told his grandma to shut up the other day and nobody said anything. He’s mad disrespectful. My grandma would’ve snatched my soul right out my body.” The next morning Briseis’ ankle is sore but workable and after breakfast it’s time to do some cleaning. In the apothecary as she’s dusting her rag gets caught on something on the wall and when she pulls it a door opens to another secret room. Calling for her moms, they go inside to discover an alter to Hecate that also has a picture of Briseis as a baby on it. As her mom calls her Aunt Leti who knows some about this kind of thing, Mo and Briseis discover a full family tree, starting with Medea, leading all the way down to Selene, Circe, and Briseis. Anyway, Briseis finds out that her birth mother left her a house that comes with its own apothecary and garden and that's where things get weird. Because other people are interested in the garden and some of them are benign but some of them not so. And the deeper Briseis delves into the history of her family and her garden, the more she learns what's really at stake. We can do it by Friday.” Mo clapped her hands together and turned to me. “You workin’ today, love?”
Author Luke Palmer introduces his new book, Play (Firefly Press) about four boys growing up together, the challenges, the friendships, and what hap... Author Guy Bass introduces SCRAP, about one robot who tried to protect the humans on his planet against an army of robots. Now the humans need his... Quiet plants might perk up around me, but they didn’t uproot themselves or destroy a fence to get close to me. They didn’t turn obscene shades of their natural colors when I was around.” Mom bought almost every piece of furniture in our apartment from IKEA. Mo hated it because even though the products were solid, putting them together sometimes required a level of patience neither of them actually possessed. Still, Mom was obsessed with making the space feel more open, which was hard to do in less than eight hundred square feet. Will Briseis be able to accept her duty as the guardian of an ancient power that lies in the middle of the Poison Garden? Can she harness her gift and keep her family safe? Pros And My Favourite PartsBayron takes an old story, turns it on its head, and makes it her own with a stunning display of pacing, character, and legacy." - #1 New York Times bestselling author E.K. Johnston Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Me ha gustado mas de lo esperado me ha gustado la mezcla de poderes, alquimia, pociones, brebajes y demás temas relacionados con el misticismo y brujería algunos muy superficialmente, pero me han gustado las pinceladas. Y además todo ello macerado con temas de mitología. While slow-paced with not much of a plot happening in 75% of it, I liked the characters (especially the mums, who Briseis calls Mom and Mo, they're awesome and adorable), and the magic and mystery spread over everything, like dark, nightly and star-studded Nutella. The only serious objection I could give the story is: why is Briseis so careless and stupid when it comes to showing off the most poisonous plants in the world, in her secret garden, to other people, who are not immune like she is, and when these plants can kill just by inhalation? That and the romance between Bri and Marie is rather forced, underdeveloped and creepy. Oh and there's also the infuriating everyone-keeping-secrets-from-the-female-teen-protagonist cliché in YA that I hate. But overall, it is well written and addictive, and I was super into it. An atmospheric supernatural thriller, in which three unlikely allies must solve an eerie mystery to put a stop to an escalating wave of killing that threatens their town.
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