Poison Study (Study, #1) by Maria V. Snyder

I Give this book 4.5 Stars!

Description: Choose: A quick death and hell or slow poison and hell.  About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.   And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.   As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear.

This book was so close to being worthy of 5 stars!  I loved it.  I found myself having to read it at odd times just because I wanted to know what happened (I read while I was cooking dinner even lol).   I really enjoyed Yelena's character.  I thought she was well developed and made the story interesting.  The circumstances in the story were intriguing.  The only reason it didn't get 5 stars, is because I figured out some of the events before they happened.  Not a big deal, but one of them I wish I would have felt the suprise of it instead of figuring it out way before.  I will pick up the next in the series and continue on!