Review: Poison Princess - Kresley Cole

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, published by Simon and Schuster on 2nd October 2012

Goodreads synopsis:
Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes her hallucinations are actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. But she can’t do either alone.

Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate, the gorgeous and dangerous Jackson Deveaux, for help.

As Jackson and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call and discover that Evie is not the only one with special powers. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and as the battle between good and evil intensifies, it is not always clear who is on which side.

Review:
This is the first book in Kresley Cole's new young adult series The Arcana Chronicles. 

When I come across a book with a cover as striking and gorgeous as the one which 'Poison Princess' has, I always desperately hope that I'm going to love it because so much prettiness should be sitting on my bookcase as a keeper and future re-read.  Sadly, I have to say that when I started this book, I knew after the first few chapters that although all the essential ingrediants for a terrific story were there, they just weren't coming together for me.

I was expecting a phenomenal plot which would have me gripped from start to finish but instead I found that I couldn't get excited or involved in the story.  And it does sound a good one too - a teenager who has visions of a future apocalypse which actually come true.  Sounds amazing right?!  But it fell flat and didn't thrill me at all.  I struggled particularly with the opening section which seemed to unravel at such a slow pace that I almost gave up waiting for something really good to happen.

I think my biggest issue with this book were the main characters.  Again, I thought I would love the feisty teenage heroine and her bad boy saviour but in reality I didn't really like Evie much and I'd go as far as to say that I ended up quite disliking Jackson.  I wasn't keen on the way that he spoke to Evie or the way he initially treated her and I failed to warm to him on any level.  There are a couple of scenes in the book were his character does not come across in a good light

I'm disappointed that a book packaged so beautifully didn't live up to my expectations.  By the end I was really struggling to finish this one.  As always however books divide opinion and I have come across some incredible reviews of this title from some of my fellow bloggers so if it sounds like your kind of thing then give it a try.