Review: Nightshade by Maryrose Wood

From Back Cover: Sixteen-year-old Jessamine Luxton is heartbroken. Her true love, Weed, the strange and intriguing young man who came into her life so suddenly, has disappeared. Jessamine suspects that her own father, Thomas, may have been involved. Thomas was obsessed with poisons and discovering Weed's secret understanding of dangerous plants. This suspicion and her own growing expertise with poisons have changed her. She is no longer innocent. So when Jessamine learns that Weed is alive and in danger, she will do whatever it takes to be reunited with him, including killing whoever gets in her way.

My Rating: 3 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Maryrose Wood's Nightshade, the second book in The Poison Diaries series, picks up where The Poison Diaries leaves off. As a result, Jessamine and Weed barely have much page time together. It’s not that I think their romance is epic or anything, but I feel like things are more interesting when they’re together than apart.

In Nightshade, Jessamine discovers the truth about what her father has been up to and asks Oleander to reunite her with Weed. In exchange, she makes a promise to him to avenge her mother’s death. When Jessamine is forced to go on the run, she therefore becomes even more open to Oleander’s influence. This, when combined with the courage laudanum gives her, causes her to commit more terrible acts. In the meantime, (the sometimes awkward) transitions to Weed’s narrative allows the reader to learn that he is doing his best to find Jessamine.

Like The Poison Diaries, Nightshade places a large emphasis on plants, and it’s for this reason that I’ll probably read the final book in the trilogy. I didn’t like the darker, gloomy feel of Nightshade, but the idea of plants being able to communicate with Weed and what they have to say to him remains appealing to me. Wood clearly knows much about plants; and in this installment, she chooses to focus more on those that heal rather than harm. 

Nightshade was released by HarperCollins in October 2011. 

Comments About the Cover: I’m ambivalent about it, but I love the look of the title because tiny plants are either making up the letters or coming out of them.

This book was received from the publisher (HarperCollins) in exchange for an honest review.