When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Thank you so much to Bloomsbury YA kids for my copy of this book in return for an honest, unbiased review.Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch. This is a fantastic fantasy novel that will have you turning the pages and it’ll only leave you wanting more. So basically I really loved this book and now I desperately want to read book two. It’s the kind of ending you message your friends about because you need to talk about it. It was suspenseful, shocking and heartbreaking. But let me tell you, I never would’ve figured it out. Let’s talk about the ending shall we? I knew something was about to go down and I couldn’t figure it out. It’s just so expansive, but I’ll let you discover all that when you read the book. I loved that Briseis was still learning about her powers as the reader did, it really helped to form that connection with her. And it’s great to see something new in YA.

I really loved the magic in this book, it was I unlike anything I’ve read before. The dynamics, the love and the joy between Briseis and her parents was one of my favourite things about this book and I think it should be celebrated. It’s so wonderful to see a queer family written so beautifully. I also just have to say how much I loved the family Kalynn has written. She’s funny, kind and I just instantly warmed to her.

She really is a wonderful character to follow. I loved the beginning of this book and getting to know Briseis. We follow the character of Briseis, who is left a house by her birth mothers family and with her mums they decide to spend the summer there. It was full of fantastic characters, an engaging story and brilliant magic system. There is just so much to love about The Poison Heart. I didn’t know too much about this book going in, as I wanted to be surprised and I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. Let’s first just mention how unbelievably beautiful this cover is.

And Bri’s long-departed ancestors won’t let her rest until she finds it. In a hidden garden overgrown with the most deadly poisonous plants on earth a dark legacy lies waiting for her. But as Bri starts to magic the house’s rambling grounds back to life she finds she has also inherited generations of secrets. And then Briseis inherits an old house from her birth mother and suddenly has the privacy to test herself for the first time. But she and her adoptive mothers have spent her whole life trying to hide her extraordinary powers. She can grow an apple tree from seed in a heartbeat, and flowers bloom at her touch.

This poison heart by kalynn bayron