Fast Forward Friday: This Poison Heart, 6/29/21

Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron!
Expected Release: June 29, 2021

Why wait on this one?

• Magic is always a lure for me, but I definitely love nature and plant magic! Briseis having that “instant grow” power lures me in immediately, but then to also mention that she starts using it to fuel potions and elixirs…. well that darker turn is just delightful.
• It sounds like the setting will almost be it’s own character in this story. The mysterious seems to be the caatalyst for a lot of things: the poisonous plants Briseis uses, the townsfolk knowing who to come to for their needs, and those with a darker purpose having a target as well…
• There’s generally never a story about a woman discovering the ways in which she’s badass that I won’t enjoy. This one throws in a bit of magic, secrets, and curses, so what’s not to enjoy?

Summary

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

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. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.