Poison Princess

This book had the worst male anti-hero of anything I can remember reading. The world building was fun and it had an interesting paranormal concept, but it was really hard to get past all the cave manish dialogue known as Jackson. And like so many YA books, there's plenty of forced (fake) tension created by miscommunication or lack of communication between characters. Evie is constantly guessing at the meaning of Jackson's actions but never directly asks about them, or clarifies her own actions that piss him off. Jackson's redeemable moments also don't make up for being abusively controlling and possessive, even for a rogue character. That being said... I HOPE and think it was the author's intention. “When he helps, he hurts.” The ending was surprisingly stronger than I expected in the romance area, and didn't fall completely into the YA trap I thought it was headed toward. I'd love to know whether Evie becomes stronger emotionally before I continue the series though.