I liked this book. If you liked Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson and/or Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. It was giving me similar vibes.Not necessary the story line. :)

Endla is an island surrounded by a poisonous lake and home to a blood thirsty forest where Leelo has spent her life singing magical songs that her people sing to feed and protect the forest and themselves. Jaren recently moved to a village near Endla and he doesn’t believe in the stories of the people that lure victims to the poisonous lake with their song until he hears the song for himself. Leelo and Jaren are brought together by unexpected circumstances and as their bond grows so does the danger they’re in. Secrets are revealed changing their lives and island in ways they never expected.

The writing was beautiful, the story was incredibly unique and the characters where amazing. Absolutely loved the way it came together at the end! I love finding a great standalone fantasy but after finishing I wish there was more to come!

I’d like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this in advance in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you, Inkyard Press, for allowing me to read The Poison Season early!

I had to read more than fifty % of this before it got interesting and even then, it was barely intriguing. Not my cup of tea in the end.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

OMG I loved this book! I could not put it down! I love the dynamics of the different relationships between the characters, I love the fact that there are so many secrets interwoven in the story that play critical roles in character motivation and the plot. I love that while there IS a romance, it is not the main theme of the story. I would say the theme of the story is survival and acceptance of others and even acceptance of ourselves as individuals within a community. This book gave me a lot to think about as well as being wildly entertaining. I find myself wishing I could visit this island and see the vicious wandering forest (but not too closely because I don’t wanna die lol). I am already excited to tell people about this book and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Leelo has spent her entire life on Endla, coexisting with the bloodthirsty Forest and respecting the poisonous lake that protects her island from outsiders who seek to destroy it. But as much as Leelo cares for her community, she struggles to accept that her younger brother will be exiled by his next birthday, unless he gains the magic of enchanted song so vital to Endla. The concept was well executed and while it did touch on some heavy situations.

for fans that love to read fantasy, star crossed levers, magic, family issues, multiple povs..

excellent world building, set on an island/creepy spooky forest atmosphere.

My first Mara Rutherford book! Let's do this.

I'm always weak for a story that involves A Forest, But Wrong, so I was dead-set on grabbing this (okay, the Charlie Bowater cover also helped). And I'm so glad I did! It's nice to read a YA novel that isn't inevitably going to become a trilogy (or an even longer series), because there's so much you can do within the confines of a standalone novel -- and it's an interesting challenge for writers!

Rutherford's writing is clear and efficient, without sacrificing emotional impact; Leelo and Jaren's stories are woven very well together, and both characters are given plenty of time to develop and show their personalities/goals before they meet. The stakes are also clear from the very beginning, though Endla's precarious existence is expanded upon slowly as the plot develops.

As much as the plot is pretty standard (not necessarily a bad thing! There are tried-and-true formulas for all novels, and as long as they're executed well, you don't mind that you've read similar things before), it's elevated by the character relationships -- I'm personally most fond of Leelo's complicated, many-layered family -- and the worldbuilding. Like I said, I'm a sucker for A Forest, But Wrong, but I was really pleased by how the reveals around Endla and its history played on.

The romance was given time to breathe, and with both characters involved being well-developed, it felt very sweet and heartfelt. Overall, this was a great read, and I'll definitely look for more of Rutherford's work in future!

I won't lie, I wanted to read this book solely based on the cover. I loved the storytelling in this book. The concept was well executed and while it did touch on some heavy things, I still enjoyed reading it. I loved the thrill of Leelo discovering and living through her story. Multiple POV's, twisting thriller of a story, and then of course romance. It was exactly what I thought it would be as a story, and even more than I hoped it would be.

This book built an amazing world and is a dark fairytale. Leelo is a strong female lead with powerful moral values.
Must read for young teen girls

This was a truly wonderful experience from beginning to end. I want to tell every single person I know, and don't know! About this incredible piece of literature.

i really loved this book and after not really enjoying the author’s other work i’m glad that i did love this one and can easily recommend it

This book really surprised me, in a good way. The story of Leelo was so amazingly written, I was mesmerized.

The author tells the story of Leelo, a girl born in Endla. Endla is an island that is said to be protected by the magic of the Forest. Everyone in that island possesses magic. This island is separated from the outside world, because, as the story of the Endlans claims, people harmed them before, so they had to run away and find shelter in the island. There’s a poison lake that cannot be crossed. There’s a romance that is forbidden. There’s betrayals, unexpected twists, and much much more.

This book is a must!

I was thoroughly bewitched by this book. It was a gorgeously, quietly contained story. It's intimate in its world-building, there aren't many facets to the world-building, yet in its simplicity it felt immersive and meaningful. I bought into that wandering forest and all its encompassing magic and hunger.

And I rooted so very much for our leads Leelo and Jaren, especially kindhearted Leelo. So isolated from the world yet feeling <i>so much</i> that she simply could not keep in her fears, doubts, questions, and truths. She always called for the truth, no matter its cost. And she carried such a beautiful, loving, strong heart.

Jaren felt very much like the audience insert, he is our vehicle into this small other-worldly adventure. He is understanding, respectful, protective, and caring. And also very intuitive, also seeing that truth behind Leelo's eyes.

Sage and Ketty were complex foils, so many times I felt anger, frustration, and annoyance at them-- at Sage especially. Yet I found myself wondering about their stories and motivations. Not caring, but curious. They intrigued me as much as they angered me. They were worthy antagonists, but again, it's not so simple as just being an antagonist. They, and once again especially Sage, were layered characters that brought a lot of life and complexity to the narrative.

In terms of what I enjoyed most: that quietness. That contained feeling. Not in terms of the inhabitants of that magical forest being contained, but in the storytelling. It is intimate, it bides a reader to stay close and relish their time as they journey through the mystique and adventure. There are no elaborate high fantasy hijinks, it's simple yet oh so effective. Every point written is written with purpose and direction. It didn't need to go far, it just needed to go on the right path.

And it did. It gave me more than enough to love.

I have to admit I did struggle deciding on the rating, as I did have one major hurdle to jump: the romance. It felt sanitized to the point I am not sure I believed in its love story. At least not in its very beginning, I don't mean I needed heavy petting, I just wanted more overt romance by means of that falling in love. It was stated more so than shown. Yet, I find I cannot find it in myself to lower the rating for it. I would for most books, but I can't here. And that's become of how strong the writing it-- how enthralling it is. I never wanted to look away from the story being unfolded, I wanting it to keep going and me along with it.

I loved it, and I'll cherish this one for a long while.

Thank you NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I posted my review on GoodReads, May 4th, 2022:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4536482501

I thought this book was so great. The concept really intrigued me and I loved the sort of homey feeling this book gave. While this was a fantasy and such it it more contained to the world that the main character has known her entire life and just shows that great world building can be done on a smaller scale and be excellently done!

The Poison Season focuses mostly on themes about family, insularity and prejudice, After reading the author's acknowledgements, I thought it was especially fitting that this novel was written during the pandemic, at a time when borders were shut down and people looked at one another with distrust,

Leelo is a girl in the land of Endla, where a sinister forest has built a symbiotic relationship with a magical, once-persecuted people now called Endlans. Outsiders are not welcome in Endla, and even those without magic are cast aside: including Leelo's own younger brother, Tate. In desparation to save him, Leelo sings a prayer song, and what it summons soon becomes a situation that spirals entirely out of control.

We're clearly supposed to like Leelo, who is kind and beautiful, but I found surprisingly that I liked Sage, her cousin, more. Sage is resourceful and cunning and loyal to a fault, and though Sage is always focused on protecting her cousin, the opposite is not always true. There's a clear parallel between them and Fiona, Leelo's mother, and Ketty, Sage's mother, but even when the truth was revealed I felt Ketty's character fell flat in a way that Sage's didn't. I did also find the dialogue somewhat cliche for the islanders, especially the councilpeople, who appear briefly only as shadowy judges but hardly play a role even at the end. And while Leelo's character grows and develops throughout the course of the novel, I can't say the same for Jared, who's perspective does little to give insight to him as a character — as he is a passive character that is hardly expected to make any choices.

The plot moves at a slower pace for about the first three-quarters and then spirals into a whirlwind in the last quarter. I found the ending rushed in comparison to the rest of the novel, and it does require some suspension of disbelief that everyone was willing to let go of their previously tightly-guarded values and open their eyes to the "truth". The revelations, too, were surprising but mostly confused me even more, although I do credit this to unfinished character development.

Ultimately, The Poison Season was an easy read but left me wanting more in terms of the plot and characters. I thought the world-building was incomplete and would have liked to see more in terms of Ketty and Fiona's past and a stronger reaction from the Endlans when they opened their eyes to the truth (for example: Pieter's parents). Endla is a beautiful, poisonous world that I think could be developed a little more, and when that happens I will be looking forward to dive back in.

I received this novel as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was published to Goodreads on May 3rd. A link to the review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4704486965?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

<i>Thank you to Inkyard Press & Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.</i>

★★★½

Rounded to 3.5 stars.

<i>"Maybe everyone had a little magic in them, if you knew where to look"</i>

I love a bit of YA fantasy! I enjoyed this book from Rutherford but found it a little slow to get going. The story doesn't really amp up until 60% of the way through which may put people off. We get most of the action towards the end half of the book.

I found the magic system (singing) to be original and enjoyable. I liked the insular forest community setting (honestly this would have been perfect for Reddit Fantasy's book bingo Forest themed square last year!) The premise of the "forest community with a secret" reminded me a lot of the film "The Village"

I don't mind romance in novels but I found the romance a little hasty in this one. I understand the whole "soulmate" trope but it was a bit of a stretch for me. However I am 33 years old so this may appeal to a younger, more wistful aged reader.

I also have to mention the cover art which is BEAUTIFUL! Very much captured my eye when I was browsing through Netgalley.

All in all, this novel was a nice bit of escapism!

I was so pleasantly surprised by this one! It took me a minute to adjust to the high fantasy aspect but once I was in, I was all in! The magic was well planned and explained. The characters were fleshed out wonderfully. I felt like there was something to root for during it, not just romance. Loved it!

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book but on the whole I enjoyed it! I almost didn't make it through the whole thing, though, because for the first 40 percent(!!!) there was a gross amount of graphic animal sacrifice. I don't remember a trigger warning but that kind of thing bothers me tremendously. It was turning my stomach and almost made me quit reading the book. Eventually those scenes stopped appearing but for a while it was just so unnecessarily prevalent.

There was a pretty hefty amount of buildup to the meet-cute between the leads, developing the two different worlds they've grown up in. But at that point I noticed a plot hole. The islanders ousted three of their magicless children via a boat which was tied to the island with a rope, but didn't bother pulling the boat back to the island's shore after the kids disembarked on the mainland because apparently it was storming was so bad, no outsider would dare be lurking around to use the boat to sneak from the mainland onto the island. Except in the next chapter our hero does just that, with no mention of even a drizzle! What happened to the supposed storm that was the catalyst for the protagonists to meet? And I am also curious as to how the rope wasn't eaten by the acid of the lake that can devour flesh and bones, and how they later pull on the poison-soaked rope to draw the boat back to shore with their bare hands without consequence.

The weakest thing about the book to me was the magic system. By the end of the book I am still not convinced magic even exists. The reader is told some vague details about how it works (essentially siren-song that lures anyone with functional hearing or makes them obey the islanders) but we never, ever see it in use. To me it seems like it was just superstition the whole time. I'm not sure if that's truly the case or if I'm supposed to be left questioning it like I am. To me it even seemed like a pointless kind of magic to have, to sing wordless songs at people while you murder them or chase them into the poisonous lake or to the woods to die. I don't really see that it even had any purpose and I don't understand the relationship or purpose of the relationship between the Endlans and the island at all.

To me this felt like a character-driven story, and that's the kind of thing I really enjoy. It was really well done. For the majority of the book, heroine Leelo is fabricating excuses to her family about where she spends all her free time, while she's sneaking into a rundown shack of a cottage to be with her rescued mainlander boyfriend. Their relationship seemed to develop at a good pace and while not a lot was really happening for a large portion of the book, I wasn't bored. It was character development rather than plot development, and it was slow, but the pacing felt just right to me and I never got bored at any point in the story.

It was driving me crazy (in a good way) trying to figure out what the origin of the rift between sisters Ketty and Fiona might be, and I was actually pleased my guesses were all wrong. I love that kind of unpredictability! I did not like Ketty or her daughter Sage at all. I noticed another review mentioning they faced no repercussions for their actions but was relieved to find that wasn't true at all. They lost absolutely everything, their homes and reputations that they cared so much about, and the family members they had too long abused. I felt they got their just desserts and felt a lot of satisfaction in it.

There was so much family drama amongst the main characters that wasn't revealed until the end of the book. I really ate that stuff up - the love affair between Fiona and Nigel and their illegitimate child, the outright murder Ketty committed of her husband, Jaren's secret past. So many plot twists all at the end! Those things really made the book for me and the author did a great job at hiding just exactly what was going on, just teasing that something was up but never letting you guess too far in advance what all the family secrets could be.

Isola was probably my favorite character. My favorite scene in the book was when Sage confronted her and Isola put her in her place and gave her the verbal lashing of her life! Just had to say.

I felt there were some weaknesses in the worldbuilding but the character-driven story itself was very strong. I enjoyed the book and the cover is beautiful! Love the title, too. I appreciate the chance to read an advance copy!

I absolutely loved this book! The world and magic that Mara created is so unique and easy to lose yourself in. I adored the two main characters, Leelo and Jaren, but the side characters were also very well-written and fleshed out, and a couple of them even had profound character arcs. I feel like that is hard to accomplish in a single, standalone book - but this was so well-written and felt complete.

There are many wonderful themes and stories told in this book. Family, true sacrifice, humility, finding yourself, being resilient and brave enough to turn away from hurtful societal expectations. And of course, the romance is so sweet! A gentle but powerful love story that really captured my heart.

Go read this book!!!

Wow! What a splendid fairytale with the blending of fantasy and romance! The amazing world building and intriguing plot line attract you from the beginning. The characterization is perfect! Leeloo who is tough, loyal, dedicated to her moral values and her family, is powerful heroine you easily connect. There are some villains of this story who are also developed so good. I truly want to throw rotten tomatoes at their faces!

I loved mysterious Jaren whose existence changes everything in Leeloo’s life and I loved to see how Leeloo changed emotionally, showing her sensitive side around him.

The plot is captivating. There are rules of surviving in Endla: you get to make your sacrifices for bloodthirsty forest and you get to stay away from poisonous lake if you don’t want to suffer from early death.

Leeloo already deals with the pain of possibility to lose her brother who’s gonna be exiled from the land because his lack of magical skills.

And when she sees a stranger who is washed up on shore, her life will never be the same! Because his arrival will unfold so many mysteries, secrets about her own community. Nothing as it seems and now she has to question everything she’s been told for years! She has to rethink about her values she’s inherited from her family in expanse alienating everyone in her inner circle.

Overall: I highly recommended this dreamy , thought provoking fantasy! I truly devoured it and enjoyed to get in lost in this beautiful world!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.