A Burden Too Much to Bear: This Poison Heart Review

Summary

Bri was born with a green thumb. She has a love for plants, and they love her too. Sometimes a little too much. Wherever Bri goes, plants begin to lean towards her; they become more colorful, lusher, vines begin to grow and crawl to her. She can even bring dead plants back to life. Even though some may see that as a good thing, these abilities make Bri uncomfortable. She, nor her parents, understand why this happens. Her parents own a flower shop so Bri sometimes experiments with her skills but only to a small extent. What if someone happens to see her? Would she scare them off? Would she still be considered normal?

Ms. Redmond is a lawyer that comes by one day and notifies Bri’s and her mothers that she had an aunt that recently died and left her a house in her will. Bri has always known that she was adopted but never knew anything about her family. She didn’t even know that she had a living aunt. Given the financial troubles Bri’s parents have been in and the fact that the landlord had just notified them that rent would be increasing, this sounds like an answer to their prayers. They decide to pack up for the summer and go to the town of Rhinebeck to check out the house.

After Bri and her family spend some time at the house Bri starts to feel more at home than ever. There’s even an apothecary in the home, along with containers for different plants and recipes to treat ailments. She discovers that her birth family had a love of plants as well. When strange people start showing up at her aunt’s home, requesting herbs and medicine from the apothecary, Bri realizes that she has more abilities than she ever imagined. After being attacked at a movie theater in town, Bri realizes that there is more to her birth family than she knows. She is determined to find out before whoever attacked her comes back to try again. When she starts to uncover the secrets of her birth family, she is left shook—Greek mythology, magic, immortality. Are her abilities a gift or a burden?

Review

When I first read the synapsis of the book I was a little put off. She can make plants grow…that’s some top tier magic (side eye). Thankfully, I was surprised. This book was excellent! I’ve been so caught up in this book over the past two days. It pulled in from the very beginning. The author did a fantastic job of letting the personalities of each character shine. I loved the sarcastic humor of Bri’s parents. I loved how close Bri and her parents are and how understanding they are of everything going on. They encourage her to be herself and not to hold back.

I enjoyed the pace of the book. I didn’t get bored while reading nor did I feel like anything was rushed. I’m not sure if there is anything that I disliked (which is shocking), a few side-eyes due to some of Bri’s choices but nothing major.

Be advised that the book does end with a cliffhanger! Even with that, I wasn’t left feeling unsatisfied or like my questions weren’t answered. I’ll definitely be preordering part 2!

This book earns one of the tops spots for my 2021 reads. If you’re in to YA fantasy I would highly recommend checking this out.