Review: Poison by Molly Cochran + Giveaway

Title: Poison

Author: Molly Cochran

Series: Legacy, #2

 •Source: Author
 •Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
 •Publication Date: December 4, 2012

Opening Line: I probably went to the only school in the country with a rule against practicing witchcraft.

    

The Darkness is watching . . .
The Darkness is waiting . . .
The Darkness lies within.

Arthurian legend mixes with modern-day witchcraft in this haunting romance by the author of Legacy, which Publishers Weekly said “should please the legions of paranormal fans looking for a sophisticated supernatural thriller.”

Mischief abounds at the Ainsworth School, and evil is lurking. What’s more, Katy has won Peter’s heart and is now claiming her place in the magical world. Though half the students at her boarding school come from witching lines, the use of magic is expressly forbidden at Ainsworth, so as to keep the witching world hidden from the blue-blooded preppies, aka Muffies, who also walk the halls.

But the Muffies have at least a notion of magic, because Katy catches them staging a made-up ritual—and then fall seriously ill. When Katy is blamed, she becomes desperate to clear her name and finds herself battling all odds to harness her growing magical powers in order to save the Muffies and dispel the Darkness once more.

  


There were a few things I was worried about before reading Poison. Thankfully my fears were unfounded. The whole boarding school with magical students has become a little cliché. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the book takes place outside the school. I was also worried about the Darkness coming back. I was afraid that there were going to be harbingers again and blah, blah, blah. That doesn't happen.

My biggest fear was the Arthurian influence. The story of King Arthur has been told so many times that I was worried it would overpower the story.  What Molly Cochran wrote is simply amazing. This is not the same overused reference to King Arthur and the Round Table. Cochran approaches King Arthur's story from a completely different angle. The genius of her writing though is that she takes all that Arthurian influence and subtly layers it into the Legacy world. Cochran makes it fit beautifully and the Arthurian influence ends up enhancing Poison instead of taking away from it.

Poison takes place a couple of months after Legacy. Katy and Peter are still together. They do not get to spend as much time together as either one would like. This strains their relationship a little and does not bode well for Katy's abandonment issues. I was happy to see that Katy is now friends with Becca Fowler, especially after what happened in Legacy.

I've completely given up on Katy and her dad's relationship. I'm sure somewhere inside him he loves Katy, but his behavior in Poison was ridiculous. The man needs to grow a pair and be smacked upside the head. Seriously. What kind of man lets anyone convince him that a steak and a piece of ass is more important than helping his daughter? It's called priorities. Rescuing your daughter is always on top moron.

I did not like Hattie as much in Poison. The woman was all kinds of mean towards Katy. And, do not even get me started on Verity. I did not think it was possible to like her even less than I did before. Surprise. I was wrong, again. How Verity does not understand such a simple concept as loyalty is beyond me. I have no idea why Katy remains friends with her.

Katy is such a strong character is Poison. She goes through a multitude of trials. It must have been horrible to feel that completely alone. As a result of these trials Katy goes through an amazing transformation, and I'm not just talking about her powers. She starts out looking at the world through teenage goggles. It's about how everything affects her. As the book continues Katy's outlook slowly shifts. The goggles slowly come off and she sees the world from a completely different view. Example: At first she is upset with Peter because he is spending so much time with his uncle. From the goggle point of view the only thing Katy sees is the time Peter is spending with him, is time he could be spending with her. Over time she realizes that Peter needs the job with his uncle to get into Harvard. He needs a career where he can take care of Eric if something happens to Hattie. Katy realizes that just because they love each other, does not mean they need to spend every waking moment together. It was an amazing journey to watch.

My absolute favorite part of Poison is the end. For obvious reasons I cannot tell you why, but we're talking about crocodile tears here people. I am impatiently waiting for the next book in the series.

Favorite Quotes

They didn't know that Whitfield was the biggest and oldest community of witches in the United States, or that the geeks at Ainsworth School could summon enough power to make a hydrogen bomb seem like a fart in a bathtub if we wanted to.

Whoever came up with the idea that only bad boys were interesting must have been crazy. I'd take my nice guy any day.

"You're worth everything to me. Everything I am, everything I ever will be, is because of you. And I will never, never let you go."

Can't Wait, Must Buy Now

   

Molly Cochran, author of the teen paranormal romances LEGACY and POISON, has written 26 published novels and four nonfiction books under her own name and various pseudonyms. Her books include New York Times bestselling novels GRANDMASTER and THE FOREVER KING, coauthored with Warren Murphy, and the nonfiction DRESSING THIN, also a NY Times bestseller. She has won awards from the Mystery Writers of America (Best Novel of the Year), the Romance Writers of America (Best Thriller), and the New York Public Library (Outstanding Books for the Teen Age).

SEDUCTION, the third installment in the LEGACY series, is scheduled for release later this year through her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Two eBooks, THE TEMPLE DOGS and THE FOREVER KING, are currently available through online retailers. A third, GRANDMASTER, will be available soon.

Molly has lectured extensively and has taught writing at the college level as well as at a women's prison (where she was NOT an inmate). She also writes a blog on writing technique which appears on her website, MollyCochran.com. She is also on Facebook at facebook.com/molly.cochran1 and Twitter at Twitter.com/mollycochranYA.

She lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a TOUR WIDE giveaway.

There will be ONE winner

SIGNED copies of Legacy AND Poison + Outtakes from the photo shoot for Selection!

Giveaway is open: US Mailing Addresses only.

Ends: July 6th, 2013 (12:00am EST)