Poison and Honey is an urban fantasy novella, but the world-building reads every bit as good as a full-length novel. While it is set in what simply known as "Otherworld", there is nothing simple about the world Kristen Brand creates here. Leigh was abducted from Earth through a gate portal into Otherworld, where she now serves as a servant in the palace. Considered a "mud person", Leigh is looked down upon by the others as disgusting and lazy. The palace is vast with shadowed alcoves and back hallways. The royals are narcissistic, harsh, and beautiful but not all the creatures here are perfection personified. Goblins, horse-headed men, scaly sea creatures, and others fill out the cast. There's a very Unseelie vibe given to this dark and dangerous world. Everyone is plotting and scheming and playing their own hand very close to their chest.

Leigh is the perfect protagonist. She's smart and strong, but she keeps her strengths hidden as well as her agenda. She's able to survive in this new world by doing what she's told, but inside she's a seething mass of vigilante resentment and rage. When she's pulled into the prince's service, she's conflicted by this man that she should loathe. Dredarion isn't all he appears. His machinations against his brother lead you to believe that he is just like the others, but there's someone underneath who might be, dare I say, human? There are definite fireworks between the two, but thankfully, no instalove. I'm such a sucker for conflicted romances in UF and these two are like moths to the flame if that flame is all actuality a bug zapper.

I can't tell you how much I adore when my preconceived notions of a book get completely demolished. That's a weird thing to admit, isn't it? It's true though. Poison and Honey walked up behind me and whacked me upside the head with everything it had in it. The characters are fantastic, the world-building is sublime, there's no end to the action, and there's that smoking little ember of heat thrown in for good measure. Oh! There's even this scene with a decaying zombie-ish skull-bear that did my horror-loving heart good! So. Good.


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