The first half is focused on getting to know Briseis, her two mothers, their florist business and their struggling finances. There is a lot to like about This Poison Heart. It kind of felt like two books joined together. As Briseis revives the gardens that surround the estate, she begins to learn there is far more to her powers and far more to the secrets that surround her family’s history. Away from the city, she discovers that her birth family have a strange affinity with plants, especially poisonous ones. Moving to the country also gives Briseis the first chance to really stretch her powers of controlling plants. When Briseis and her mothers receive news that Briseis has been left an estate as an inheritance by her birth family, they think it might be the thing to save their struggling finances. She has long hidden her gift and isn’t sure how to master it when she fears it and what it can do.

I love the vibe they give to books and This Poison Heart brings with it that same plant and garden goodness I adore, with the added benefit that Briseis can control the plants around her – or sort of. This Poison Heart starts with a magical realism vibe but by halfway becomes a thoroughly fun paranormal title with myths, eternal creatures with super speed and strength, and centuries-old feuds. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family. until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

This poison heart book