Am I going to give up on Jayne Ann Krentz? Probably not, but I'm
just not as satisfied with her writing as I used to be, although
admittedly having collected over 130 books by Krentz I guess my
expectations are biased. Maybe my preferences have evolved or maybe
I've just been exposed to too much great fiction and have higher
standards now. The Perfect Poison's book jacket looks pretty and
promising with purple flowers and ferns and a hot pink spine. The
books feel nice and weighty, so I was excited to start reading,
hoping The Perfect Poison would be the story that makes me fall in
love all over again with Krentz. Well this novel will not be the
one to make me do that...but neither will it make me give up her
novels for good. The 437 pages I thought an ideal size of read, but
realized soon enough that the page count is deceptive and the read
is much shorter and quicker than I was expecting. The type is a bit
larger and the lines are quite spaced out and thicker paper is
used, albeit the book is still priced at CAD$9.99.
Maybe its just the whole Arcane Society Series books that cross the
paranormal (Castle), historical romance (Quick) and contemporary
(Krentz) romance genres, which include the common storyline of the
"Arcane Society" that is causing the problem for me...a lot of the
language sounds repetitive, so the stories are not as fresh as they
could be. If The Perfect Poison is the first book you pick up by
the author I think it would be a fun read, with a unique premise
that the independent, strong-minded heroine Lucinda Bromley can
detect plant energy, including poisons. But the overly indulgent,
flowery and flamboyant language made me cringe instead of chuckle
this time. The hero Caleb Jones was not as much alpha as caveman
really and his characterization could have done with more depth and
polish. Overall: Average.