Book Review: The Poison Diaries

TITLE: The Poison Diaries
Book 1 in the Poison Diaries series
AUTHOR: Maryrose Wood
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: historical fiction, fantasy, romance
PREMISE: A girl who lives with her father in a medical garden finds her life altered when a mysterious boy is brought to their doorstep.
MY REVIEW: Yet another book I wanted to love more then I actually did. There is a lot to like here. I love the gothic feel to it, the research the author obviously did really shows and is explained wonderfully and with good writing, the interesting use of magic and plants, and the themes of loss and innocence and such.
But all that good stuff was hampered by the fact that it drags a LOT. The main female character is pretty useless and has little personality to relate too. The romance is boring and predictable even if it is rather sweet. I sort of felt like this would have been better in Weeds point of view to be honest. Her was pretty much the most interesting thing in the book but we never got a sense of who he was either so it became a bit frustrating.
I am curious to see where this series goes and am looking forward to Nightshade because of where the author left it. I'm hoping that what happened at the end is a way for the female character to actually become stronger and more useful.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of gothic type novels, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five belladonnas