Book Review: Poison Study

Study Book 1
Yelena is stuck in a dungeon next in line to be executed when she is given a choice. Become the food taster for the Commander of Ixia, or swing by the neck till dead. Pros: a room at the palace, clean clothes and the best foods. Cons: getting killed via poison by anyone trying to assassinate the Commander. Yelena tells Valek, the Commander’s second in command, that she is no fool.

Yelena slowly learns how to be a food taster. She is given poisons again and again for the only true way to detect poisons is to taste them first. Poisons aren’t her only problem. General Brazell’s men are in the castle and have placed a bounty on her head for murdering the General’s son. There is a spy in Commanders ranks that is leaking information that could very well get Yelena killed.

Can she find the antidote to Butterfly Dust? The drug she was poisoned with when she first accepted the position and the drug that is given to every food taster as a way of controlling them. Valek is the only one with the antidote, and without it administered every morning Yelena will die a slow horrible death. Who can or should she trust, and can anyone become friends with a food taster; never knowing which drink or meal may be her last?