Hey, me again!
Today I would like to share my review for the forthcoming THE ANTIDOTE by Shelley Sackier. DRC provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review!
I’ll admit that I often berate others for picking up a book because of the cover, but since I had not heard of this title when browsing Edelweiss and the beautiful cover ahd a lot to do with me clicking on it and reading more. It’s gorgeous!
On to the review:
3/5 stars.
To be honest the book had a few ups and down when I was reading it. The opening was a 2/5, the middle a 4/5, the end a 3/5.
Summary: Fee is a healer, a practitioner of the herbal arts within her kingdom. And her best friend–Xavi, the future king, is deathly ill. In an effort to save him, she ends up under suspicion, and faces she once knew return as strangers. Finding herself all alone in a world that fears magic, Fee realizes there’s more at stake than her own life.
But the only thing that could save them is the very magic that the worlds fears–and is determined to keep away from her.
Things I loved:
Rye is a sweet cinnamon roll and I love him even if he is a bit er…. abrasive at first. But I learned to forgive him pretty quick once he stopped being led by everyone else. Plus he accepts Fee for who she is and all those letters… my heart broke! Their relationship was so sweet! Plus the forbidden aspect…
Xavi! Xavi is a true friend who though he spends 99% of the book near death he is always looking out for Fee! I loved that the story revolved more about their friendship rather than romance and the importance of their relationship.
The magic! I loved how it revolved around herbs and healing. Poisons that can kill and heal. The magic system was very thought out and well done.
The bad:
This book starts off sloooow. I am all for a good introduction and build up, but there were several chapters to do with Fee, Xavi and Rye in their younger days that I wasn’t sure we needed. Fee does refer to them in the book, but I think these moments could have been portrayed in other ways. Also, when the story does jump to the present timeline, I felt like the friendship between Fee and Xavi was underdeveloped? Since it is so important to the plot, I would have liked to see more moments between them to really drive home the depth of their relationship.
The plot…. it just wasn’t that strong. It’s called The Antidote, but the antidote only really shows a few times in the story and I would have liked to have more build up around it since it was kind of important. The ending of the book was rushed, things happening right after the other so fast I got whiplash. Also, certain characters were portrayed hateful/bad only to be good in the end but… I wasn’t convinced? It was just like “they are cool now” and that was it? I felt like Fee should have more thoughts on the matter after how she was treated. (Xavi too because friends should stick up for each other!)
Lastly… the villain. I won’t reveal who because *spoilers* but lets just say I called it way before it happened? Like I already had it all figured out? And then they were kinda flat, just driven on revenge. There was some effort put into prologues to try and flesh the conflict out more, but I never felt convinced of their plight.
Overall I found the Antidote to be enjoyable. It was hard to read for the first 60-70 pages, then it picked up. Though the ending wasn’t as strong as I had hoped, I really loved getting to know the characters more in the middle and going on the journey with them! I was infested and rooting for them at the end.
OUT FEBRUARY 5th/19
PREORDER:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Antidote-Shelley-Sackier/dp/0062453475/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-antidote-shelley-sackier/1127755056
Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-antidote/9780062453471-item.html
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