The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste didn't disappoint. I loved everything about it. Thank to you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. Ultimately, I did not finish this book. From the very beginning I had a difficult time getting into the story. I gave it my all and got about 40% through before I eventually gave up. It was a neat concept, but the extensive world building with the magic in the world and the potions that were being made for people, just didn’t hold my interest. I found myself losing focus and getting distracted while reading and have to go back to reread what just happened. I really loved the idea, but in the end, this book wasn’t for me.

4-4.5. I really really liked this one. the magic system and setup of witchers and humans was really interesting. i will say i wanted a bit more of the actual magic, and wanted to learn more about Venus's deviant-ness? I didn't really understand the "it" - but it was still really cool! it was also amazing to see all of the family dynamics - the good and the bad, and the complexity that naturally comes with familial relationships. there were so many different kinds of relationships shown and it was great to see. also loved the political backdrop - our lives are inherently political and so it's nice to see that displayed and not ignored. especially since i read this right before the election (2024). anyway, it was great and i def want to read more from Bethany Baptiste!!

REP: Black main character, bisexual main character, nonbinary side character, (mostly Black and BIPOC cast of characters) [Black author]

The premise of this book sounded really interesting and unique, but the story ended up not catching my attention and I had a hard time getting into the book. I am really bummed out that this didn't work for me, but I would encourage those who find the synopsis gripping to give it a shot!

Oh gosh. I loved so much about this book. It’s a dark fantasy novel but is truly a commentary on racism, police brutality, political indecency, and what it means to protect your family at all costs, even when that doesn’t feel obvious. The characters had deep emotions, so much hurt and hate and loss, but still felt so much love for the ones they cared about. The story itself was a wild ride with twists I didn’t see coming, and I was shocked by many of the outcomes.

Here's where I really struggled - date inconsistency. This is always a problem for me when a book uses years or specific dates. I don’t know why, but I really grasp onto this information and if it’s mentioned later and doesn’t line up, it sticks with me. One example here (which I checked against a finished copy) is Clarissa’s birthdate. When Venus finds Miss Florence’s journals, she realizes they’re organized by birthdate, with her mom’s being October 8, 1989. Venus was born in 2005. Now, it’s not unrealistic for Clarissa to become a mom at 16, but it’s also mentioned she was in college, and that’s she was 18 in November 1999. Last I checked, 1989 and 1999 are 10 years apart. For her to be 18 in November 1999, she would’ve been born in October 1981. The math just ain’t mathing, and it really distracted me from what else was happening in the book.

Overall, that’s my biggest complaint about the book and it truly, truly irked me. Otherwise, I really liked the book. There was a great (large) cast of characters (which is consistent with most fantasy novels), many being queer and Black (going against the grain of traditional fantasy novels). The story was exhilarating and well paced once it actually got going (the set up and character introductions were a bit drawn out). The twists were many and always surprising! I would recommend this one.

Really enjoyed the premise of the book and I think the magic system is its strongest element, next to the found family vibes.
Sometimes I felt that the lot was dragged and the end was definitely too quick for me.

However, I think it is a remarkable debut and should be read!

Thank you so much for the publisher for the free arc!

Good premise, but lacking a little in depth? I love books about magic, and even more when the characters are different. It's not your typical world for magic and I kind of feel like some of the choices by Grand Witcher were questionable. So who is the villain? The murderer .....or the magic wielders who want you to make others their slave?

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

For a debut, this was decent! Didn't love it, but the writing was definitely solid. If you like magical drama, pick it up. 3 stars!

This story follows Venus, who is a potion maker. It is illegal to make love potions. Her mom is killed and she is left to take care of her little sister, Janus. Venus is given a chance to avenge her mother’s killer, but it comes with dire risks. She must brew illegal potions and delve into a corrupt and dark world.

The world building in this book was good. The magic system was interesting, but could have used a little more refinement. There were a lot of characters, which made it hard to follow at times. The pacing was a little slow at first, but eventually picks up. Overall, I rated it a 3. I’ve heard the audiobook version is interesting to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley + Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of this book.

3.5 stars For a debut novel, this wasn’t bad. It was a bit slow to start. I would say that it took about a good,
solid 30-40% for me to get into it. The characters were well developed, and the backstory/lore surrounding the potions was well thought out. I would read more by this author.

Thank you to the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In an alternative America, society is divided between humans and witchers and negative sentiment against the witchers is quickly rising. Venus Stoneheart brews love potions for a living, an illegal and dangerous business, but it supports the family and helps her keep her calling, a dark magic, contained. When her mother is killed one night, Venus is left to keep her willful and reckless younger sister Janus safe, but everything changes when the Grand Witcher summons her. She offers her the chance to punish her mother’s killer, but in return she must brew potions to enslave influential senators who will play very important roles in an upcoming vote on a bill that will decide the rights of witchers around the country. Torn between getting revenge while helping her people along the way and the deadly consequences brewing such poisons will have, Venus must figure out who to trust.

This book has been on my TBR since it came to my attention December and early reviews looked very promising! I’m actually quite late with this review considering I had an ARC of this book, but the release date kept changing every time I checked so I decided to just wait before posting this.

The world building was excellent and I loved how the well the witchers, their community, practices and most of all, the magic, was explained. The magic system was fascinating and quite unique, and a lot of thought has clearly been put into it. I’m quite surprised at the current rating for this book on Goodreads, it’s a lot lower than I thought it would be considering how fun a read this was.

That said, this was more of an urban fantasy, a genre I always have trouble with, and in this case, the setting was pretty close to real world, right down to political issues and such – and this is a major reason why I dropped my rating. I don’t enjoy it when fantasy novels parallel real world situations too much as it breaks the mood for me and makes it harder to immerse myself in the world and story.

The writing was engaging and it had me hooked right from page one. The pacing was pretty good too, although, while it didn’t exactly drag at any point, there were times when I felt that the book was a bit too long.

I did like that there was sort of a mystery angle to this story – and on multiple fronts too, and that kept me guessing until the very end with all the interesting twists and layers to the plot. The plot itself turned out to be a lot more intricate than I initially thought, and more than once, I questioned if it was going to be possible to wrap this up properly in a single book.

As often happens for me, I was reading more for the plot rather than the characters, but there was an interesting cast and compelling cast of characters here. They all played important roles and no one was superfluous, though Janus was terribly annoying a lot of the time.

The final chapters were quite unexpected, and I liked the way things were revealed and how the story played out after that. More importantly, the author actually managed to wrap up all the major plot points neatly and satisfactorily for all the characters, making this probably one of the strongest standalone fantasy novels I’ve read in several years.

Overall, this was an entertaining read and I really enjoyed it. I was quite impressed with this book, especially considering that it’s a debut novel and I’m looking forward to seeing what this author will write next. Highly recommended!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for the chance to read this as an eARC!

Oh, did I have so much fun reading The Poisons We Drink! To start, I appreciated that Bethany Baptiste included an author's note at the beginning - though I absolutely adore stories where characters are allowed to express their anger, it helped to understand the tone of the story. The magic system, characters, and world itself are both vivid and stylish (I just LOVE magic systems that are born in corrupt cities). On top of that, the book is an action-packed page-turner. I would say the only flaws I found are semi-purple prose - which bog down the book's pacing - but it's a very minor issue that doesn't affect the overall story. I think the author is only going to get better and better the more they write (and I hope they do!).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Potion magic is truly underrated and 'The Poison We Drink' finally gives it justice in my view.

The world in this book mirrors our own with basic rights being put into danger, with a witch registry trying to be put into action, that endangers so many witches life. This mirrors the rights of women and black lives in our world, as the government tries to put more laws and actions in place that harm and hinder them. The parallel in this book shows readers that the story may be different but the dangers are the same.

I say this every time but I LOVE when a magic book does magic with rules and limits. Magic comes with a price and you break them you lose them. I always love magic like that and the fact that we have this in the book. I do love the loophole with the chaotic magic Venus has it.

My only qualms for this book was the pacing and how it grew very slow, even though a lot of important moments were happening. It felt odd that it felt slow but crazy things were happening. So perhaps the structure just needed a slight tweak.

3 stars rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review
I was very excited for this book as I am a sucker for witches but unfortunately, this book was not for me. I had a really hard time getting through it. The world-building was very hard to follow and the plot was all over the place. I didn't care for most of the characters, especially the protagonist who was annoyingly angsty. I think the most interesting part of the book was the presence of the deviant in the protagonist, but unfortunately the 'It' did nothing interesting the whole book other than a few wisecracks. I really wanted to like this book as it had some magical elements I'm generally into in my books but it just didn't work for me

A young Witcher (in a world where there are humans and Witchers) seeks vengeance for her mother's death. However, it comes at a steep price and she must weigh doing what's right with doing what she wants.

I found this one slow for a fantasy. I think a large part of this was that the world was not clearly fleshed out for the reader. I kept thinking, should I know what this is by this point?? It also took a long time for it to really get going - it is almost a hundred pages in before we really get serious plot movement. The book is long, so this is about ¼, but it was pretty long for a fantasy book. I was really excited for this one, and the cover is gorgeous, but it fell a little flat for me.

Such an intriguing magic system and really vibrant characters. I was hooked! Will definitely pick up this author again.

Incredible. Bethany is in a league of her own with this. The representation is fantastic. And it has all the elements of a fantasy book I adore. Can’t wait to see what comes next

I do think that this story had some strong point but I do think the pacing is what took me a bit to fully get into the story, but I can definitely seeing people get into this one. Definitely think the plot was strong but the delivery just missed the mark for me.