The Poison Diaries

By Maryrose Wood and The Duchess of Northumberland

In the right dose, everything is a poison. Even love . . .

Jessamine Luxton has lived all her sixteen years in an isolated cottage near Alnwick Castle, with little company apart from the plants in her garden. Her father, Thomas, a feared and respected apothecary, has taught her much about the incredible powers of plants: that even the most innocent-looking weed can cure -- or kill.

When Jessamine begins to fall in love with a mysterious boy who claims to communicate with plants, she is drawn into the dangerous world of the poison garden in a way she never could have imagined . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9780062001511

Maryrose Wood

Maryrose Wood is the author of the first five books (so far!) in this series about the Incorrigible children and their governess. These books may be considered works of fiction, which is to say, the true bits and the untrue bits are so thoroughly mixed together that no one should be able to tell the difference. This process of fabrication is fully permitted under the terms of the author's Poetic License, which is one of her most prized possessions. Maryrose's other qualifications for writing these tales include a scandalous stint as a professional thespian, many years as a private governess to two curious and occasionally rambunctious pupils, and whatever literary insights she may have gleaned from living in close proximity to a clever but disobedient dog.

Book preview

1

15th March

Gray skies; the rain came and went all morning. A cold wind blew in gusts, worsening as the day went on, until the lowest branch of the great chestnut tree in the courtyard splintered down the middle and crashed to the ground. If I had been standing underneath, I would have been crushed.

Spun wool after breakfast. Read for a short while, but my eyes ached too much from sewing to continue long. Changed the soaking water for the belladonna seeds.

Father is still not home; it has been two days.

THE BERRIES OF THE BELLADONNA PLANT are beautiful. I have always thought so. I would string the plump black pearls on silk thread and wear them around my neck if they were not so deadly.

The seeds are nearly as poisonous as the berries; Father has warned me a thousand times. But I am careful. First I tie the seeds in clean muslin bags and drop them in a pail of cold water. Before they can be planted they must soak for at least two weeks, and I must change the water every day. That is how Mother Nature would do it: The snow would fall and melt and then fall again. And it would be too risky to leave the seeds in the ground during the cold months; they might get eaten by birds and carried away to grow in some distant field, where they could wreak their mischief without warning. Instead I make-believe a winter for them, to trick them into growing only when and where I wish.

Even after all that care, only a few seeds will sprout, and of those half will soon shrivel back into the dirt. Are you so in love with death, lovely lady? I call you lovely lady, for that is what belladonna means. You are curiously reluctant to be born. Is our world not beautiful enough for you? Or perhaps there is another, more perfect realm in which you prefer to dwell?

I laugh at myself now; what foolish imaginings! But when Father is away I must make do with whatever companions I can find: a sparrow on the windowsill, a shadow on the wall, or even a tiny, dangerous seed. We have lived alone here among the ruins for so long, Father and I, and he is away so much, and is so silent and lost in his own thoughts even when he is here, I sometimes worry I might lose my speaking voice completely from lack of use.

Let me test it.

Hello.

Hello?

Feh! I sound a frog. A tincture of lemon balm and anise would cure this broken voice of mine.

Or someone to talk to. That would do it, too.

I wonder where Father has gone, this time. Someone must be very ill to keep him away from home so long. Father is not a doctor, nor is he a butcher (that is what he calls the surgeons). But high born or low, when the people of Northumberland are sick, they send for Thomas Luxton. On the rare times when Father has let me go to market day and walk through the crowds, with my cloak pulled close around my face (he does not wish me to speak to anyone, for he says they will try to trick me into revealing secrets about his work), I hear the things they say:

You’re better off with Luxton than those university-trained doctors, with their ointments that blister the flesh, and their buckets to fill with your blood.

Doctors! Tell ‘em you’ve got a sore toe and they’ll take a hacksaw to your leg!

Luxton may be an odd duck, but at least he doesn’t burn you and bleed you and stick you all over with leeches. Luxton follows the old ways, the lost ways…

"… the witches ways" some of them might add in a fearful whisper.

But Father would scorn the very notion of witchcraft. People call him an apothecary, but he considers himself a man of science, and a humble gardener, as he likes to say. By that he means that he grows all the plants he needs to make his medicines right here, in the garden beds that surround our stone cottage. He grows other plants, too, in a separate walled garden behind a tall, black iron gate. The gate is held shut by a heavy chain, fastened with a lock that is bigger than my fist.

When I was small, Father warned me morning and evening never to approach the locked garden, until I was so afraid I couldn’t sleep without dreaming of snakes chasing me. The snakes’ bodies were links of thick metal chain, and their gaping jaws clicked open and shut like a lock, catching at my heels no matter how fast I ran. Finally I asked Father: Why would anyone grow bad plants that have to be locked up behind walls? Why not only grow the good ones, and let the bad ones wither and die?

Plants are part of nature; they are neither good nor bad, he replied, drawing me to his knee. It is the purpose we put them to that matters. The same plant that can sicken and kill an innocent girl like you can, if mixed in the right proportions, make a medicine that saves a young man from typhoid or cures a baby of the measles.

But why do you keep some plants apart, then? I demanded to know.

Because of you, Jessamine. Because you are only a child. Until you are older, and have the wisdom to know what you may touch and taste and what you may not, I keep the most powerful plants behind the locked gate, where they cannot harm you.

You don’t have to lock the ‘pothecary garden, Father. I pouted like the baby I was at the time. If you tell me not to go in I surely will not.

If you surely will not, he said with a smile, then the existence of the lock should not trouble you in the slightest.

I have never won an argument with Father, but it is not for lack of trying.

I add more coal to the fire, and light a fresh candle to sew by. It is midafternoon, but the sky is thickly blanketed with clouds. The day feels dim as dusk.

Father must be working hard, wherever he is. I hope it is not a child who is ill. Not that I am squeamish about sick people. In fact, I prefer to go with Father when he pays his visits. I like to watch how men thrash about as they battle against terrible fevers, or how women moan and grunt as they labor to bring their babes forth, while Father mixes just the right medicines to help ease their pains.

But there is so much work to do at the cottage, especially with spring coming. Now that I am old enough to mind the house and care for the gardens myself, Father usually insists that I stay home.

So here I remain, with only my sewing basket and the wet seed babies of my lovely lady for company. A damp, shaded spot near the stone wall suits the belladonna plant best. Or so Father tells me. I have never seen it growing there myself, for I am still not permitted to enter the apothecary garden. It is too dangerous; I am too young, I do not know enough—Father is stubborn as stone and will not change his mind. Yet I want to learn. For now I content myself with leafing through Father’s books and examining the specimens he brings home.

That is how I came to know the belladonna berries. Every autumn Father collects the lush, ink black fruits and preserves them in a glass jar, which he keeps on a high shelf in his study. In late winter he removes a few and delicately slits them open to harvest the seed.

This is the first year he has entrusted the seeds to me to prepare for planting. Remember, Jessamine, Father warned, you will be raising a litter of assassins.

That was Father’s idea of a joke, but I knew to heed the warning. When I change the soaking water, I wear gloves and remember not to touch my fingers to my lips or eyes. After I finish, I wash my hands twice with lye soap and throw the gloves in a bucket of bleach. I place a lid over the pail that holds the seeds and the fresh water, tie it fast with strong twine, and mark it POISON.

I do this even when I am alone, as I am no–one never knows when a vagrant might wander by in search of a cool drink. Even those who cannot read will know the sign for poison. If they ignore it, they do so at their peril.

Then I carry the discarded soaking water far from the cottage and drain it into a swampy, overgrown ditch. I choose one so thickly surrounded by bramble and gorse bushes that the duke’s sheep and cattle would never try to drink from it, nor any human, either.

Last week I found a dead cat by the ditch. But I think it had died of something else. Even so, when I told Father, he dug a hole and buried the body right away, and Father is no particular friend to cats.

It was a deep hole, deep enough for a man’s grave. The cat was small, with soft orange fur. I know it was soft because I petted it to say good-bye, but the body was cold and stiff and Father told me not to touch.

I said a silent prayer, too, as Father shoveled the dirt back into the hole. Soon the last glimpse of orange had disappeared; a slight depression in the muddy earth was all that marked the place. Within a fortnight that would grow over with brambles, too.

It is a rare beast that gets such a funeral, Father remarked, sweating and leaning on his spade. Lucky cat.

Personally I think the cat would have been luckier had it lived. Then again, life for a stray, unwanted thing is not always pleasant, so perhaps Father was right after all.

And of course, we have other ways of keeping the mice away from our cottage.

Father laughs when I call Hulne Abbey our cottage.

It is a ruin, a wreck, a pile of weathered, mosscovered rocks, he always corrects me. But this is the only home I have ever known, and who can feel at home in a ruin? Anyway, Father exaggerates; where we live is no mere pile of rocks, though it is centuries old. It is not large, but it has a feeling of spaciousness; even, if you ask me, of grace.

That is no surprise. Father says our house used to be the chapel, in the long-ago days when the old monastery still stood on these lands. For miles around, the buildings and farms of the abbey stretched up through the hills until the distant spot where the planting fields end and the line of the forest begins. For five hundred years these fertile acres teemed with people and animals and life. No more, though. Now Father and I live in the chapel; the rest of the monastery is rubble, and all the Catholics are in Ireland and France.

Sometimes, when the weather is fair, I lie on my back in the grass of a nearby field. I close my eyes and try to imagine that last, terrible day, in the hours before it was all laid waste. But even the grandfather of the oldest person in the town of Alnwick was not alive to see it. There is no one who can tell me what it was like to hide at the edge of the forest, as I imagine I would have done, watching in terror and fascination as the king’s soldiers smashed the ancient buildings to bits and then hunted down the fleeing monks like so many helpless rabbits.

Father often says he wishes they had torn down the chapel and left the monk’s library standing instead, but I like our home just as it is, a long, rectangular structure made of rough-hewn blocks of stone. Long ago Father divided the interior into rooms. My bedchamber is small and up a long flight of stairs, in the old bell tower. On the main floor is a bedchamber for Father, a study in which he does his work, and a front parlor where we take our meals. It is where I write my garden diary, too, at the end of each day’s labors.

Of all these rooms, the parlor is the largest, and the one that still looks most like a church. There is a high, vaulted ceiling, and tall arched windows that Father says once had stained-glass pictures in them. Now they are filled with thick, plain glass that is divided into many small panes. On sunny days the light slants through the panes and makes narrow, glowing path ways across the dark wood planks of the floor.

I used to play hopscotch with those paths of light when I was small—if I leap over the light without touching it, Mama will live, I would say to myself. But if my foot touches the light she will die.

My foot never, ever touched the light—to this day I will swear it—but Mama died anyway.

Oh, how I wept! I was only four, so perhaps the outburst can be forgiven. But I remember how Father’s voice stayed calm.

That is the way of things, he explained to me at the time. All creatures die when their time comes. No matter what we do, or how we may feel about it, nature always gets her prize in the end.

Father is always so strong and wise. Sometimes I wish I were more like him. I wish I could accept that the way fate has arranged things is both right and

Reviews for The Poison Diaries

[awesomeness1_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Sixteen-year-old Jessamine lives with her father, an apothecary, in an abandoned church she calls "the cottage". Her father's obsession is a forbidden garden where he keeps deadly and poisonous plants from around the world. Jessamine lives a boring life- taking care of her father and the plants, writing in her journal, doing household chores. Until a stranger shows up at her home with a present for her father. The present is Weed, a strange and introverted boy, whom with Jessamine builds a friendship, and later, a romance. Weed has a secret, though: plants communicate with him, and he is especially wary of the Poison Garden. But when Jessamine falls inexplicably ill, its up to Weed to unlock the secret of the dangerous garden in order to save her life. When I first started this book, I thought it was going to be good. The premise was unique and the writing was lovely. I really liked Jessamine's journal and how her voice fit the time period. Quickly, though, I got sick of it. The writing soon became (pardon the pun) too flowery, and the beginning was incredibly boring. No conflict was introduced until nearly 50 pages in. And once Weed was introduced, it was too late. I already had a sour taste in my mouth. Jessamine proved herself to be a weak character. All she did was cook, clean, and then become unconcious. I thought we had gotten past the whole Disney Princess concept. I guess not. And Weed and Jessamine's romance was incredibly awkward. I kept wincing and getting embarrassed for them. Weed would have been interesting if his ability wasn't so silly. He talks to plants, or more correctly, plants talk to him. I kept getting these absurd mental images of flowers with lips, and too soon I was past the point of taking this book seriously. And the ending was pretty horrible. Once Jessamine got deadly ill, she couldn't very well write in her journal, could she? So Weed had to pick it up. From there, things got even weirder. It would shift between Weed's POV (which was eerily similar to Jessamine's), and these weird tripped out visions which Jessamine had of a Plant Prince or something. It was quite difficult to follow. And of course it ended openly because we can't have a stand-alone now, can we? *sighs* There are just some books that don't need to be written.

[akmargie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like Maryrose Wood. She always writes titles that are solid and entertaining. I like the atmosphere she created with this one. Very Jane Erye-ish. A nice gothic-lite romance with supernatural elements that avoids the vampire werewolf cliches. Well done.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What surprised me the most about The Poison Diaries is how atmospheric it was. The mood was set from the very first page and never strayed. Very dark and intense and a wonderful quick, engaging, and very unique read. The twist at the end was riveting, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

[oboyledbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Poison Diaries is a look into the life of a sixteen year old girl, Jessamine, who has grown up so sheltered and alone that the only company she has is her diary. Many girls are like this as they grow up, they need an outlet for their thoughts so they keep a journal or a diary. For Jessamine the only other person in her life is her father who works as an apothecary and he tends to stay immersed in his work. The book starts out a little depressing, but she lends a dreary life that is until the arrival of Weed, a mysterious boy with an odd name. He is the friend she has always wanted, but never knew to hope for. Weed adds a new dimension to her life. She treats him like her plants, giving him time to get used to his new surroundings, nurturing him until he feels able to intertwine with Jessamine and her father's life. Unexpected things come from their relationship and if you want to know more you will have to read the book. Things I Liked:My favorite thing about this book was that it felt like I was reading a fairy tale, with the medieval feel to Jessamine's world. They depend on their gardens to feed them, protect them from ailments, and to survive. It was a magical setting that you always wish you could live in, but I would be lost without my internet abilities. I also really liked getting to know about plants in a different and unique way. Ask anyone and they will tell you that I have a hard time keeping anything plant-like alive. The longest plant I kept alive was an orchid that lasted for a full two months and that one came already grown from the store. This book is set up with the actual diary entries of Jessamine's daily life as a daughter to an apothecary then moves to tell the story as if written in the diary. You see how much time and love is put into keeping each plant alive. Another thing I really liked and was a bit unexpected was that in chapter fifteen (15) it switches from Jessamine's point of view and voice to Weed's. This was really important because of the relationship between Weed and the plants. He connects with the plants in such an unique way that to end the book without seeing the world from his point of view would have made question the book immensely.My Complaints:I do not have many complaints about this book. My main problem was that I am not a fan of cliffhangers. This book can stand alone, but you are left with all these questions of how will things turn out. Luckily, this book is part of a series and there will be a continuation, I just do not like having to wait. A problem for some readers of this book is that it is written in a very old English style and a lot of YA readers are looking for modern writing. While, I was happy with the way it was written I could see this being a down fall for others.

[corazie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I bought this book at Alnwick Castle, where the gated Poison Garden really strikes you as powerful - even more so once you have read this book. Visiting the Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens can only increase your enjoyment and understanding of this young adult historical tale. This is a fantastic quick read which will leave you impatient for the next instalment.

I liked Jessamine's spunk and nature, Weed's weirdness, and her father's evil plots. The characters are passionate to a flaw: Jessamine in her growing love for Weed and her need to impress her father; Jessamine's father in his obsession in knowing everything about plants, particularly those in his poison garden; and Weed with his love for Jessamine and his distrust of the poison garden. Oleander is a sly, poisonous character, which fits absolutely perfectly as that's what he is - poison.

In the darkness I let myself melt, so he has no choice but to catch me and lift me, cradling my body against his. His mouth finds mine. After the first kiss I arch so his lips brush the tender skin of my throat instead.

I did get exasperated at some points, but I think that as a reader you were meant to - it added to the characters and plot.

This book is filled with passion and energy and a hint of the supernatural. The romance is subtle and builds slowly, the crucible in this intense story.

This book appeals to my love of all things local and tea. Especially tea. Jessamine makes her own teas a tissanes, and I smiled as I recognised ingredients of my own mixtures. I have a pot of lavender by the front door and some lemon balm on the kitchen windowsill - which, by the way, is excellent for your skin and smells divine, I pop it in salads all the time.

I take my metal canister of tea off the shelf. It is my own mixture of dried lavender blossoms and lemon balm, harvested from my garden and hung in the storeroom to dry. Weed helped me hang these stalks, I think. His hands touched these tender leaves, just as they touch me.

And isn't that cover just gorgeous?

Drink tea with this book - nettle would do well.

[stephxsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jessamine lives alone with her father. Her father is an apothecarian and botanist obsessed with unraveling the secrets of plants. He forbids Jessamine to enter the poison garden, in which he keeps all the most dangerous plants he has managed to acquire from around the world.Then a strange boy is dumped on their doorstep. The boy, who goes by the name of Weed, is peculiar, with a nearly miraculous sensitivity to plants. He seems frightened of the poison garden, calling it an unnatural collection that can do no good. Yet as Jessamine and Weed fall in love, they are drawn into the poison garden in more horrifying ways than they can imagine…Just when you think it’s all been done before, here comes Maryrose Wood to blow everything out of the water. THE POISON DIARIES is the start of an ambitious series that combines history, magic, romance, and evil into a fast yet resonant read.THE POISON DIARIES unfortunately starts out rather slow and off-putting. The writing feels a bit stilted, the setup hard to believe. Jessamine was unappealingly weak, and her father difficult to define in his hardness and obsessiveness. I honestly did put the book down a number of times in the first fifty or so pages.But I’m glad I stuck with it. With the arrival of Weed, we are slowly but surely pulled into their mysterious, slightly terrifying, but definitely enthralling world where evil comes in more forms than we can imagine. Weed is captivating from the start, and he slowly develops into a character we not only wish to observe but also sympathize with.I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the back third of the book definitely makes up for its less than stellar start. You will find it impossible to put down at this point, horrified yet also fascinated at the way events are unfolding, and be impressed that Maryrose Wood has come up with this crazy-cool concept.THE POISON DIARIES ends rather abruptly, which feels slightly gimmicky but will definitely induce readers to grab the next book when it comes out. Overall, Maryrose Wood’s new series is a departure from her previous books, not as solid and masterful as the unique premise could be, but an entertaining and gripping read nevertheless. This book is definitely worth the look!

[gaskella_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Duchess of Northumberland is the mastermind behind the wonderful Alnwick Garden adjoining her family’s ancestral pile, Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland. I visited last year and found it a wonderful attraction. One of the (many) highlights of the Garden is the Duchess’ special project – The Poison Garden. Every plant within is toxic, visitors can only go through the big locked gates bedecked with skull and crossbones, in small groups. While the gates are impressive, most of the plants within look rather ordinary, yet there is a thrill to be had from knowing their dangers!The Duchess had an idea for a book based on her garden and some historic stories of poisonings. Teen author Maryrose Wood wrote the book – and the result is The Poison Diaries, (which has a nice website here).The book has a great tagline “In the right dose, everything is a poison … even love.” - so the scene is set for romance with a sting in the tail.Jessamine’s father is a skilled apothecary. He is obsessed with finding out the botanical formulae to make a cureall which means he has little time for his daughter, he too has a poison garden kept behind locked gates into which Jessamine is forbidden to go. Jessamine who has grown up with just her father Thomas for company has had a hard and lonely life, but all this is about to change. Firstly, her father agrees to take on a helper. Weed – a wild and unruly orphan boy shows a natural, even supernatural, ability with plants, and Thomas begins to envy his skills. As time passes, Thomas can’t avoid noticing that Jessamine is no longer a young girl but blossoming into a beautiful young woman; Weed has seen this too, and likewise, Jessamine is experiencing a stirring in her heart for Weed. Weed’s skills with dangerous plants comes at a cost though, in his mind deadly Oleander is calling to him. I’ve been recommended this book by both adults and teenagers. Although you’ll only find it in the teen section, I found it to be an excellent read, and challenging at times too – I love it that a YA novel can give enough substance to make it enjoyable for all readers. There were plenty of Shakespearean echoes, from Romeo and Juliet to Hamlet, and I learned a surprising amount about toxic plants along the way. I particularly liked the way the plants ‘talked’ to Weed – was it real, or was it just in his mind? This is the first in a planned trilogy. I hope the other two live up to the intoxicating promise of the first. (9/10) I bought this book.

[hrose2931 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This Gothic tale takes place in Northern England in the middle of nowhere. Jessamine and her father live in a burned out crumbling abbey. As I read it I imagined dirt floors and crumbling stone, wind blowing through the chimney and an eternal chill in the place. Jessamine is lonely, her father doesn't speak to her unless it's to say he's leaving and her only companions are her diary and her plants. But not the secret garden. She knows about it, but her father keeps it locked and she is not allowed in, even at the age of sixteen.But things change when Weed shows up, dumped on their doorstep because the owner of the local asylum is angry that he's curing his patients. Jessamine's father takes him in wanting to know his secrets, but Weed has none. No formulas to give. The plants just speak to him. Slowly a relationship forms between Jessamine and Weed and finally Jessamine's loneliness is replaced with something she's missed since her mother died.Jessamine and Weed are both innocent and naive about the ways of the world and what power will do to a person. They soon find out. Jessamine falls very ill and Weed will do anything to cure her. And such is the way with Gothic novels, the two young lovers are split apart tragically.There is a paranormal element to this novel I've not seen before, a living breathing poisonous prince. Created by the secret garden, the collection of the plants there, Prince Oleander rises to power and uses Weed and Jessamine for his own purposes.I really enjoyed this first book in the series and was so glad to have the second, Nightshade, right on hand to start as soon as I finished this one. Anyone that loves Gothic novels, ya paranormal, and just a good ya novel will enjoy this novel.

[horomnizon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jessamine has lived a pretty sheltered life. She takes care of the gardens around the home she shares with her father, except for the Poison Garden, where he will not allow her to go. He makes herbal remedies and studies the uses of the plants he collects from around the world. One day, a man drops off a boy called Weed who has himself been known to heal (and make people crazy) using plants - he thinks that Jessamine's father might find him of interest and he's right.But Weed won't tell them how he knows what the plants can be used for. As Weed and Jessamine grow closer, he confides in her that the plants talk to him - he is constantly bombarded with their voices. She loves him and believes him, but their relationship is tested when her father asks Weed to enter the Poison Garden and tell him what he knows about the plants there. Events take an interesting turn and it becomes a race for Weed to save Jessamine's life.I see reviews that think the book starts out slow and gets better and ones that think it is good at the beginning and goes south. I tend to fall into thinking with the latter - I liked the beginning and the growth of their relationship better than the ending. Once Weed enters the Poison Garden, it just got a bit too hokey for me. I'm not sure this will be a bestselling series - I can't imagine it having great appeal, but I'm sure there are plenty of young girls who will enjoy the romance aspect. I'm not longing for a sequel. The writing was well done, but I didn't enjoy this story, even though the characters were mostly likable and I did have a small tug to wish for a happy ending for Weed and Jessamine. I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'll just vaguely say that I didn't care for the coldness of the father in the end. It didn't seem completely out of character, but it didn't quite mesh with earlier comparisons either....I think he could have been better developed earlier on to make the 'twist' a little more believable.

[khager_9 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book (which is based on a concept by the Duchess of Northumberland) is about Jessamine, who lives with her father. Her father is known as a healer and has several gardens--all but one of which Jessamine is allowed to enter. The forbidden garden is his apothecary garden (also known as the garden of poison). One day, a stranger comes to "give" them an orphan who goes by Weed. And, of course, Weed has a secret.This is a very interesting story, one that reads like a fairy tale. I received one other book of hers at BEA, and I'm interested to compare the two.

[bookswithbite · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the beginning it was slow. At first I almost gave up in the book, then I hit chapter four, thats when things really started to get interesting. It certainly did pick up when Weed, started to do strange things. I was very intrigued from the start.Now, this book was written well, and the plot, drama was great. In the end, it had some very unexpected surprises and I really need to know what happens next.....like NOW!The Poison Diaries is what it is, poison. It seeps into you forcing you to finish the book no matter what. It was definitely a must read. I also like the fact how everything was well put together. The characters were great as well as the time period. I love to read books that are old fashioned talk. There is just something sexy about it.Also, it may be a little hard to read if you don't like reading book that are in the past, and it did take a little time to get to the good part.All in all, this was a very great, intriguing read. I often wondered a lot about plants, and I now know more now, then what I knew then. The paranormal element in this book is good. It is something different and unique.

[darkfaerietales_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: This was an intriguing dark tale about love, and the mysterious properties of plants and poison.Opening Sentence: Gray skies; the rain came and went all morning.The Review: Jessamine has grown up in a secluded cottage with her father. Her mother died when she was young and it has just been her and father ever since. Her father Thomas Luxton is a well known healer throughout the land. He grows a beautiful garden full of many plants that have the power to heal but he also grows dangerous plants that have the power to kill. He has a special apothecary garden full of poisonous plants. Jessamine has never been allowed into the apothecary garden but for years she has been curious to know what her father hides behind the locked gates.Jessamine has lived a very lonely life. Her father leaves often to help the sick and even when he is around he prefers to work without interruption. Then one day a stranger comes to stay with them. Weed is an orphan who seems very strange. He is quite beautiful with black curly hair and piercing green eyes. He has an uncommon talent with plants, and Thomas Luxton can’t help but notice. Thomas hopes that Weed may be able to help him with his research and unlock the powers that the plants hold.Even though Weed is different Jessamine can’t help but try to befriend him. She has never had a companion to talk to and even a strange companion is better than no companion. As they get to know each other better they start to fall in love. But it turns out that Weed has some dark secrets that he is determined to keep hidden, even from Jessamine. He is afraid that if she ever finds out she will think he is a monster, and he can’t lose her love.Jessamine is a very naïve young girl. She trusts everyone far too easily. She has lived a very lonely life, but she seemed mostly content until she meets Weed and sees what else the world has to offer. I felt that she was a little bit weak for a heroine and I wish that she would have been stronger and stood up for herself more. I had a hard time connecting with her and I hope that in the next book I come to like her more.I really enjoyed Weed’s character. He is so intriguing and I loved seeing his story unfold. As he gets to know Jessamine more and come to care for her, you get to see his vulnerable side. He will do anything to protect Jessamine and he proves it. He also has a dangerous side to his personality that can show when he feels threatened. I am excited to see what happens to him in the next book.This was a thrilling darkly woven tale that I really enjoyed. I had a hard time connecting to some of the characters, but I felt that the story made up for it. The book really kept me interested the whole way through and it was hard to put down. I enjoyed the writing and it was a pretty fast read as well. The ending has quite a cliffhanger so I am very eager to read the next installment in the series. Lucky for me I already have a copy. I would highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys YA fantasy books.Notable Scene:There is movement, wriggling. The mummy like wrapping loosens. First the dark, tousled dark hair emerges, followed by the high, pale forehead. Then two wide emerald green eyes appear. They stare at Father, expressionless as glass.My breath catches in my chest at the sight. I have never seen such beautiful eyes-like twin jewels. No monster could possess features of such beauty. All my fear of their new arrival dissolve in an instant.Those hypnotic green eyes stare at Father, expressionless as glass.:Was it monkshood, perhaps? Or angel’s trumpet? No matter; someone will figure it out eventually, though a few delirious villagers may leap to their deaths in the meantime. And you are called Weed, eh?” Father opens the door of the cottage and gestures for Weed to enter. “The perfect name for an unwanted sprout like you. Now unswaddle yourself from those rags, and come inside. I wish to discover exactly what sort of gift you are.”FTC Advisory: Harper Collins provided me with a copy of The Poison Diaries. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[nicola26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was really good. The writing was beautiful, and it was so easy to read because it just flow perfectly. I really liked Jessamine- she was interesting and good at telling her story. I'm not really a fan of Weed. I think it was intended for the reader to feel sympathetic towards him, but I just couldn't. He was annoying and I found it impossible to connect to him, even when he narrated the story. It did start to ramble a bit at the end, but the twist definitely saved it. It was a fun and interesting read, different than anything I've read before.

[nbmars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Note: There are no spoilers in this review.Jessamine Luxton, 16, lives alone with her father Thomas, who is an apothecary and healer in the 1700’s in Northumberland, England. Her father lets her help with tending and preparing healing herbs and flowers, but will not allow her into his locked garden of poisonous plants. He is obsessed with discovering anecdotes to the poisons, suspecting that formulae once existed. When he finds out that a local orphan known as Weed has a special knack with herbs and plants, he takes him in, hoping Weed has the secrets he so obsessively seeks.Weed soon falls for the beautiful and lonely Jessamine, who recognizes his goodness and reciprocates his affection. But before long Jessamine is struck by a mysterious malady and is close to death. As her father and Weed struggle to save her, the truth about her illness is revealed, and the lines between healing and poison, life and death, and good and evil, become inextricably blurred.Evaluation: This book has a Gothic, sinister tone with fantasical aspects overlaying the sweet, coming-of-age young love story. It is book one of a trilogy, so you will want to have the second volume on hand, since it ends in a bit of a cliffhanger.

[sunset_x_cocktail · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

2.5 stars

I don't quite know what to make of this one. Another book I found looking for books for a reading challenge. I found the subject quite fascinating and I did quite like the a first half of the book.

Set in the 1700s th story is about a girl who lives in a cottage at the ruins of a monastery with her father who is an apothecary. She helps tend the gardens and grow veggies and things but there is a certain garden with all her fathers' dangerous plants that is forbidden to her. She was interesting enough, if a little flat personalty wise, she was rather innocent and shelted. She comes out of her shell though when a mysterious boy is brought to their cottage. The boy has the ability to speak to plants. The develop a friendship which blossoms into a romance in this wonderful background of apothecaries and plants and learning about them was quite interesting.

During the last half of the novel when something happens to the girl...the plot takes a weird turn. I could understand what was going on, but...eh, I didn't like it as much as first half of the book and it was easy to spot who the villain of the story was right away. It also ended in a way I thought was quite....abrupt.

Issues with th plot aside it was well written, clearly well researched and had a nice flow to the tone. An easy read and certainly recconemded to anyone looking for a YA that's a bit different.

And a square crossed off for Bookish bingo challenge - about plants or wilderness, this book was about plants.

[laurat81 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jessamine Luxton, the sixteen year old daughter of an apothecary, lives isolated in an old monastary. Her father travels often for work, leaving Jessamine with only seeds to talk to and write about in her journal. She lovingly tends to her gardens, but not the garden that is chained and locked. That is where her father keeps the poisonous plants that can both cure and kill. When a strange, orphaned boy named Weed is brought to their home Jessamine finally has someone to talk to. Weed is unlike anyone. He has knowledge of plants that goes beyond what can be learned from books, and soon Jessamines father, Thomas, wants to know all that Weed knows. Despite Weed's eccentric ways, Jessamine can't help but fall in love with him. But love can be as dangerous as any poison...The Poison Diaries, the first of a series, is a unique and romantic tale set in the late 1700's in England. It is like reading an old, newly discovered, fairy tale that is lovely but also dark. I enjoyed this novel, but the last quarter of the novel was a bit bizarre. I am looking forward to getting the secondbook, Nightshade, though.

[bookaddictdiary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Poison Diaries tells the story of young Jessamine, an innocent young woman who has spent her entire life isolated from the world in her father's cottage with little else beside her garden to keep her company. Jessamine's father is the local healer, a master of herbal cures and poisons concocted from plants. When Weed, a mysterious young man who claims he can talk to plants, comes to live with Jessamine and her father, an expected romance blooms between the two. However, after Jessamine falls ill, it's up to Weed to use his knowledge of poisons, and his supernatural skills, to save her.This novel is pretty much summed in the above paragraph -it's incredibly simple and well, certainly not too original. The basic plot is a romance turned into a "save the girl" scenario, which I found to be boring and well, not quite what I expected after I read the summary. I guess I was hoping for a heroine who is not quite such a damsel in distress, but instead Jessamine is very passive and fairly uninteresting. Plus, near the end of the novel the story shifts to focus more on Weed than on Jessamine.That brings me to another issue I had with this novel. The action is incredibly uneven and there is virtually no conflict for the majority of the story. For about the first 200 pages readers learn about the growing romance between Jessamine and Weed with virtually no conflict until there is one tiny blurb of concern with the father -which is quickly waved away barely 10 pages later.The last seventy-ish pages of the book is where things final start to get interesting. The point of view, which had been first-person through the eyes of Jessamine to this point, suddenly shifts to first-person through the eyes of Weed, which is confusing and jarring to the reader. However, this change fuels an interesting and unexpected twist at the end that nearly saves the novel.Obviously written as the first installment in a series, The Poison Diaries is ideal for young adult paranormal romance readers, and particularly for fans of Twilight, but it just didn't work for me with its overdone cliche concepts and overly simply plot.

[lcrabtree-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

hmm...not what i normally read but it was good. Not sure if i will read the next in the series or not yet...

[yaaddict · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I received The Poison Diaries in the mail for review, it was my first time hearing about the book. I read the premise and was intrigued, so I was excited to get started. I have to admit it took me a while to get into this one. The beginning is slow. I also had to get used to the "voice" of the main character. But once the story got going, I really enjoyed it.I felt bad for Jessamine. Her mother died, and all she has is her father, Thomas. But Thomas was so caught up in his work and his thirst for knowledge, Jessamine was left on the back burner. She had no interaction with anyone really. Her father was afraid others would just push Jessamine for information on his work. Yea, Thomas really pissed me off. And his true colors didn't even show until closer to the end. It was when Weed showed up that it started to get good. Weed was very reserved, but slowly started to open up to Jessamine. I really enjoyed the time these two had getting to know each other, and falling in love. To me, one of the best parts of falling in love is when you realize you can tell the other person anything. Even the things you hold closest to your heart. Seeing this between Weed and Jessamine was very sweet. By the middle of the book, the point view starts switching between Jessamine's and Weed's. That was a good thing. It really added to the story to see where Weed was at, and how he felt.I loved the setting for this story. Jessamine and her father live in an isolated cottage in the remains of in old monastery. With the descriptions of the cottage, the gardens, and the surrounding lands, I had a beautiful and enchanting picture playing in my head. The writing style for this story seemed to be geared towards more of a younger audience, but I enjoyed it all the same.The ending was the most exciting part. That was where the action was. It definitely leaves you thirsting for more. This was a quick and fun read for me. It's the perfect kind of read when you want to just relax and enjoy a good book. In the next book, I hope to see more inside of Thomas' character. I'd like to know more about this intriguing mad man. With The Poison Diaries' unique idea and likable characters, I found it to be a great start to a promising series.

[jboehret_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm going to start of with what I don't absolutely love about this just to get it out of the way.1. The cover. I'm not a huge fan. It's simple and interesting but not one that would have pulled me in immediately, I'm sorry to say. I like the color scheme, I just am too much of a cover snob to be in love with this one.2. I don't have the sequel in my hands yet and it's freaking killing me. I won Nightshade through a giveaway over six weeks ago. And the ending left me craving, needing, living to know what happens with Jessamine next. And that is all the bad I have to say about this. Now onto the good.The SettingI got a gothic, dark sense throughout this whole book. It was gloomy, cloud-covered with the threat of rain, creepy and all together menacing from start to finish. Even as Jessamine and Weed laid in the grass, I didn't get a sense of spring and skipping through fields that that sort of scene would normally invoke. But that's a good thing! I love experiencing a setting that is consistent throughout and makes sense for the story-line. And I think this was meant to be dark and eery.Beyond the general feel of the book, Alnwick castle and its gardens provides a perfect scene for this one. I mean, obviously a garden is necessary but the castle itself comes with enough intrigue and mystery. Also, placing this ambiguously in history adds to the gothic feel - very appropriate.The CharactersThe three main (human) characters, I felt, were so well developed that I have carried them with me long after I finished reading. Jessamine is me, essentially. Curious, almost to a fault. Eager to please. Unsure of the world (though I didn't live isolated for any amount of time, let alone 16 years). Even a tad bit naive.Thomas Luxton is what I would equate to a modern day Marine veteran, turned father. Hard. Loving, but in his own different sort of way. Knowledgeable about things that we as kids could never even begin to understand... nor should we. Difficult. Flawed. Emotionless.And then there's Weed. How is it possible that his love for and with Jessamine could blossom (pun intended) so easily? But it does and it makes sense and it's beautiful. Weed is the quintessential bad boy but with his own little quirks. He's got a mysterious past. He suffers. He has other-worldly abilities. He's not altogether there and yet he is Jessamine's perfect match. He would do anything for her. Prince Oleander. Oh wow. How perfect was he!? I recently looked up oleander because I knew really, nothing, about it. He's beautiful, naturally. And extremely poisonous in all parts, but only by ingestion. He was an amazing villain. Those sorts of villains that make you think they're good, when they're really not are my absolute favorites and it was handled wonderfully here.Before opening the first page, I was concerned about the whole "conversations with plants" bit. I kept catching myself humming along to "You can learn a lot of things from the flowers..." from Alice in Wonderland. And given the gothic nature that I caught onto immediately, I worried that that sort of appeal would ruin the story. Maryrose Wood did an excellent job of squashing those fears and managed to keep it creepy for me. The EndingI kept trying to guess the end. And every guess I made (all six of them, I think) was wrong. And I'm miserable for it. Why? Because the ending left me hanging by a thread and I need to know what happens next. I appreciate the writer(s) keeping me on my toes but they hook-line-sinkered me. After all that good, why just four stars? Well, I don't see myself rereading this one throughout the years to come. Five star books for me meet that criteria and this one doesn't fit the bill. I loved it, yes, but I can't bring myself to give it a perfect score.I would recommend this to just about anybody, specifically those who enjoy dark reads, cliffhanger endings and YA fiction with a fantastical twist.

[jrlibrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Although beautifully written, and demonstrating a thorough knowledge of poisonous plants, I really don't feel like students would enjoy this book at all. It starts out quite interesting, but the ending where the plants are talking is really dull. Not putting it out on the shelves because I think it will just take up space.