The sequel to This Poison Heart follows Briseis on her journey to try to get her mother back, after the tragic ending of the previous book. She has the help of Circe, Persephone, and Marie, and together they journey to the unknown to do the impossible.

What a book, that’s all I can really say… Whilst it’s not a five-star read (4.5 starts) like the first book was for me, I still think that it was incredible. Considering the end nearly had me crying, I think it’s fair to say it is a bloody great book. I just feel like something was missing… and I cannot for the life of me pinpoint why!

Bayron’s way of storytelling is just encapsulating, I read the book in maybe three sittings? The first sitting being the first 50% of the book!

I ADORED Briseis and Marie’s relationship too, and another relationship that I won’t mention because it is kind of a spoiler I guess? But we love the bisexual/lesbian representation! It’s just a book full of empowering women, and it’s kind of inspiring?!

Would I recommend this to absolutely anyone and everyone? YES! It’s just incredible and full of black girl magic… it’s definitely for everyone and I couldn’t recommend the series, or Bayron as an author, more. And I am dying for book three (if there is one… I really hope so).

This book begins right where the last one ended, with Briseis meeting her aunt Circe. This book made me cry a little, it was quite an emotional read.

The relationship development between Bri and her aunt was heartwarming, and their quest to reunite the pieces of the heart had a bit of danger involved.

The romantic relationship between Bri and Marie was super sweet. I really liked the elements of mythology threaded throughout this book as well as the pop culture references.

I thought this book was a nice conclusion to the duology. I would recommend giving it a read especially if you enjoyed the first one.

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher Bloomsbury for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars

This Wicked Fate is Kalynn Bayron’s enrapturing conclusion to the This Poison Heart Duology, filled with magic, Greek mythology and very inclusive. The book is well written and picks up exactly where This Poison Heart left off as we see Briseis searching for the final part of the Absyrtus heart so that she can save her mother from the underworld.

I am glad that there was a focus on the trauma and grief experienced during the first book and I loved being able to see Briseis learn more about her family and the burden that they have to bear solely because of their bloodline, as well as watching her discover more about her powers.

My only struggle when it came to the book was that the pacing was a little slow to begin with, especially considering that it is a YA and not too long, other than that a very enjoyable read and great conclusion to the duology.

Thankyou to Netgalley for the e-arc.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

At first, I struggled to reconnect with the world of This Poison Heart (which I had loved) in this book. Not because I wasn't enjoying it, because I was, but because I had forgotten everything! Lol. I am a nightmare. :D

Anyway eventually (fairly quickly tbf) everything caught up to me and I remembered enough and I got to fall back in love with this world and this universe. Honestly, I love Kalynn's work, this just was a pleasure from start to finish.

While I do have a relatively decent knowledge of Greek myths, this felt fresh and also like it would work perfectly for those who have none - partially as the characters learn along with us to a degree. I loved how the stories wove into modern times, and also how the myths were challenged and a version of "what really happened" was provided.

Briseis is such a fantastic main character - I loved seeing her own more and more of her powers, but also trust in her instincts and not drift too far from the kind soul we see in the first book. Her relationship with her moms is SO pure and I am totally here for it, it's perfection. I am less sure about her relationship with Marie. They are sweet together, but I honestly don't ever love an immortal with a young person, it's too creepy. That said, we did get a little explanation that Marie was still developmentally 17, so... idk.

I also ADORED Circe and Persephone. Honestly would die for them. Cried for them. They are too lovely together. And seeing Circe try with Bri was really sweet as well. This truly is a book that celebrates so much, but notably Sapphic love, parental love, and powerful Black women. I loved it all.

4.5 stars, please read this series.

I’m so sad that I didn’t love this like I did the first. I devoured This Poison Heart so this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I was excited to jump in. It starts off exactly where book 1 ended which made it difficult to remember what had happened and who everyone was as I’d read it awhile back. This almost seems like one book randomly split in two and so is worth reading straight after the first if possible. This was slow, incredibly slow unfortunately. It felt like nothing much happened for the first 60/70%, with a lot of waiting around and then everything was squeezed into the last 30%. Even then it didn’t happen with much punch or anticipation, I felt that it really lacked emotion and only told us not showed us how emotional scenes were. This surprised me as book 1 was filled with emotion and these characters are brimming with personality and soul. I’m so disappointed that I just didn’t get that same energy from book 2. It was obvious where the plot was going to everyone it seemed but Briseis to the point where I felt it done her a disservice, she’s never before been portrayed as such a dense character. I felt like there was no real effort to get to know the new characters so the end didn’t really hit like it should of. Overall it was sweet but nothing memorable unfortunately.

I accidentally read this book without reading the first one and i'm just saying that this works just as well as a standalone (I will however be reading the first one now because i absolutely fell in love with all the characters).

This book follows Briseis who needs to save her mother, who has ben taken by undertaking a quest to complete the poison heart - something which hasnt been done in years.

I absolutely loved all the characters and their relationships with one another and the references to greek mythology throughout because i LOVE a bit of mythology. Briseis's powers to manipulate and grow plants from the tiniest cut off is super cool (and honestly something i wish i could do because i can barely keep a plant alive).

Anyway, i read this one in a couple of days because i became so invested in the plot and had to find out whether she was able to get the heart or not to save her mum. She encounters obstacles along the way including creepy sirens who are exactly as bad as they say in the myths singing songs that draw you to your death in the water, betrayal from close friends and meeting the true immortal gods on the way.

I'd definitely recommend this read for anyone looking for some magical realism which is based on mythology which makes a fun read!

If you know me then you will know that this poison heart was my favourite read of 2021.
I got this as an arc on netgalley and I'm only just finishing it now, as I had the fear.
I had the fear this wicked fate wouldn't live up to my expectations. So through no fault of the book I kept putting it on pause.

I do think that this book was slower and dragged out more than it needed to be and then around 75% through it just tripled in speed. Which was a shame.
I still very much loved this book and will always recommend the series.

I really enjoyed how This Wicked Fate picks up immediately after book one, This Poison Heart. In book two we get more Briseis and more Greek mythology which is great but I did feel it got a little off track - introducing more and more of these links to the gods seemed to be very convenient for the story.
I did enjoy the use of plant names (I feel educated) and the magic of the characters which was soemthing like nothing ive read before - it was a wonderfully unique read and I'll be looking to pick up anything the author writes because of this.
For these books I think they would have been better as one chunky read. This Wicked Fate felt like a very short read to me personally.

Thank you so much for my early copy of this. I adored this poison heart and so loved being back with these characters. I love that the first book made me fall for the characters then the 2nd entertained me with their adventures. I adore these characters and although I don’t know a lot about myth I loved the mythology connections and thought the balance between those elements and contemporary themes was brilliant,

A sensational follow up to This Poison Heart drips us straight back into this dark yet enchanting world!

I absolutely loved every second of The Poison Heart and This Wicked Fate - one of my favourite YA series in years. This Wicked Fate grips you from the beginning, continuing on from the end of The Poison Heart and sprawling into an epic quest with a time limit and a whole lot of Greek mythology. It's fantastic - I just wish it was longer!

At the end of the previous book Briseis’ mom, Thandie, died, and her soul was taken somewhere safe by the goddess Hecate to prevent it going to the underworld. However, Hecate can only keep her soul safely hidden for one moon cycle. During that time Briseis has been given an impossible task; bring all the pieces of the Absyrtus Heart back together and thus resurrect Hecate’s son. On top of all that, her aunt Circe, who she had been told was dead had literally just walked in the door demanding to know what was going on.

This Poison Heart continues the themes of family, identity and love that began in This Poison Heart, and Bayron delves deeper into the Colchis family legacy. Through Circe, we learn more about the family’s legacy as she teaches Briseis, and there’s lots more Greek mythology in this one as they hunt down the last piece of the Absyrtus Heart. I’ll be honest, I am beginning to get a little jaded with so many authors using Greek mythology (there are more pantheons out there, just saying!), however, the way that Bayron weaves it into her story feels so much more genuine. It’s not the same old myths being rehashed. Medea is a figure who often gets overlooked because she’s a part of so many other people’s stories. She’s the daughter of someone important, the wife of a hero, the niece of a powerful witch and so on. Making her and her descendents the centre of a story is different to the many stories of demi gods and other retellings I keep seeing.

Then there’s the magic system of this duology, which has been fabulous from the start. Circe’s presence means we also get to learn more about the Colchis family powers. As the ladies set out to find Briseis’ mom she needs to be on top of her game, so she gets some lessons from Circe. Of course, these are emotionally fuelled considering the circumstances. The whole of This Poison Heart is, to be honest, and one moment my heart was swelling with love, then bursting with emotion and another moment it was thumping with emotion. This book is a total rollercoaster which is to be expected.

I loved every minute of it. I felt so much for Briseis because Bayron gently tips the reader off to some things which Briseis doesn’t quite catch up on. We have to watch as she realises what is happened, and it’s heartbreaking. It feels like the poor girl can’t catch a break and from the events of the first book it’s clear that Bayron doesn’t pull her punches. You’ll be on the edge of your seat throughout This Wicked Fate, and if you’re a crier like me tissues are definitely a must.

really loved this one the sequel was even better than the original and it truly warmed my heart j could read 20 more books about these characters and never tire if them or the authors writing

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Where the first book had more mystery to the plot, This Wicked Fate falls more under an adventure quest type storyline and I loved it just as much.

Continuing on from the exact point the story stopped at the end of This Poison Heart, we find Bri in a state of grief and shock with what has happened to her mother and with the sudden appearance of members of her birth family. Now they have 28 days to locate and retrieve the last piece of the Absytrus Heart in order to save her mother, something thought to be impossible and made even more difficult since there are other’s searching for the piece too.

Once again the Greek mythology was really cleverly woven into the story with the narrative also branching out and slowly introducing some of the more well known elements from the myths and legends. I really love how this has expanded the universe this series is set in because I’ll say it right now, if Bayron ever wants to revisit it and write other story then I am so down!

I loved Bri’s character more and more with each page I read from how she continued to hone her powers to her persistence to help her loved ones through all the unknowns and grief that were surrounding her. Inspiring and full of heart she has definitely become one of my favourite YA protagonists.

If you enjoy books that are full of adventure, mythology and Black girl magic, strong with the themes of family and sisterhood plus wholesome sapphic rep then this series is for you!
Final Rating – 4.25/5 Stars

Throughout June, GeekMom celebrates Pride Month with lots of LGBTQ content. Follow the Pride Month tag to find all the content in one space (including LGBTQ content from previous years) and keep checking back for more throughout the month. Today’s book review is This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links.
Trigger Warnings: Death/of Parent, Grief, Violence.

This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron is the sequel to This Poison Heart which was reviewed here last year. Although I toyed with whether or not to include a book that is part of a series in this year’s Pride coverage, I opted to in the end simply because the themes included here are so wildly different from everything else in this year’s coverage. Please note that spoilers for This Poison Heart will appear in this review.

In This Poison Heart, we met teenage Briseis who, since birth, has been able to affect all plant life around her through nothing more than willpower. Adopted at a young age, Briseis has no idea where her unique gift came from, but her moms (Mo and mom) are unrelentingly supportive. During the book, Briseis learns that she is descended from the mythical Medea – wife of Jason, niece of Circe, and blessed by the goddess Hecate – and comes to understand that she is descended from a line of women dating back to the Ancient Greece of myth whose job it is to guard the Absyrtus flower, a magical plant capable of granting immortality. However, Briseis’ mom is killed by others wanting to claim the plant’s power for themselves, leading Hecate herself to appear with a deal: reunite all six parts of the flower in 30 days and she will bring Briseis’ mom back to life.

This Wicked Fate picks up immediately from this point with Briseis and those around her planning how exactly to reunite six parts of a flower than has been scattered across the world for thousands of years in only a few days. Mo is heartbroken over the loss of her wife while simultaneously trying to process being thrown into a world of literal myths coming to life, while Briseis is attempting to figure out her feelings for the mysterious Marie after being recently betrayed just weeks after discovering her unique biological family. Fulfilling Hecate’s quest will require them to undertake a truly perilous journey and risk everything – including those they love the most.

When I say that This Wicked Fate jumps in immediately after the events of This Poison Heart, I have never meant so more literally. While most sequels at least make some attempt to refresh readers as to what exactly is going on, This Wicked Fate leaps straight back into the story, to the point where you feel like the author simply wrote one very long book and chose an entirely arbitrary point at which to split it into two. This means that the first few chapters are quite confusing (assuming you haven’t recently reread the first book) as you try to remember who everyone is and what’s going on. With such a large cast of characters (several of whom share the same names) a refresher would really have been appreciated.

As it is, This Wicked Fate feels much like a YA version of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters but with more queer representation, of which there is a lot thanks to a bisexual main character, female love interest, lesbian parents, and several other queer side characters as well. There’s an epic quest filled with vast amounts of Greek mythology and desperately high stakes to keep the tension high, although one of the big emotional moments was so blindingly obvious right from the start that it did somewhat take away from the drama of the moment.

I didn’t enjoy This Wicked Fate as much as This Poison Heart, I think because most of the big reveals had already been revealed and so there seemed to be a lot more waiting around and fewer interesting moments where the story would unfold and reveal itself. However, if you’ve been on a quest for a queer YA story that isn’t a contemporary romance, this duology might be the fantasy/mythology/retelling series you’ve been looking for.

GeekMom received a copy of this title for review purposes.

This is the sequel to This Poison Heart. It picks up directly after the previous book.

As with the first book I feel Kalynn Bayron incorporates Greek mythology in a really interesting way. Although with this one I feel I would have benefitted with a better starting knowledge of parts of that mythology.

I enjoyed the building of family relationships in this book but feel the first book is still my favourite of the two.

There are a lot of Greek Mythology retelling/reimaginings out there in YA fantasy, but the plant-based magical slant and use of the lesser known myths around Medea really help this duology stand out.

The mythology is much more apparent in this book. THIS POISON HEART felt like half Greek Mythology remix and half <em>The Secret Garden</em> reimagining, but THIS WICKED FATE is absolutely 100% a Greek mythology remix. There are gods appearing and being various shades of unhelpful for one.

Bri has a month to find the final part of a six-piece division of a mythical man-turned-into-a-plant or her mum dies permanently (thankfully, she found one in book one, and some presumed dead relatives have the other four.) Except the other side are also looking for it, and it means finding a mythical island long lost.

Continuing the theme of using the lesser known parts of the myth, lesser known theories for locations are used here. It helps give the book a different feel by not travelling to the parts of the world that we associate with those myths. It let the book give the setting a pretty ominous, secrets-filled atmosphere (whereas I think many of us associate Greece itself with too much sun and tourism for that to work as well.) The fact that it's lesser known only adds to the air of forgotten and rewritten myth.

THIS WICKED FATE is a very short book (barely scraping over 300 words) which does help if focus down on the quest to find the final piece of the heart. There are a lot of betrayals along the way from minor side characters uncovered as they try to find the location. It does feel a lot like a treasure hunt, hunting a lost treasure with old forgotten stories.

The story is tied up neatly with the end, but there are certain world building hints (particularly around Hades) that feels like there would be space for spinoffs set in the same world.

Kalynn Bayron’s enthralling conclusion to her magic filled, empowering and inclusive Duology, This Poison Heart sees Briseis searching for the last part of the Absyrtus heart in order to save her mother from the underworld. But, in order to find it, she must turn to her blood relatives she’s never known, learn to control their secret powers and take her place in their ancient lineage. Except Briseis isn’t the only one trying to find the heart, and her enemies with try to use her anyway they can…

This was such a wonderfully written and enjoyable read that’s full of action form the get go picking up exactly where This Poison Heart left off and answering many of the big questions we were left with after the explosive events of book 1.

I do have to admit the tone here is a little different than the urban fantasy vibes we got in This Poison Heart. In fact, This Wicked Fate and the quest-like journey that Briseis must take did remind me a little of all those hero based epic quests from greek myth, and given the more contemporary setting—did give me Percy Jackson vibes though that may just be down to similar locations and the inclusion of various gods—as Marie’s witty remarks and Briseis’s extraordinarily badass powers are enough to set them apart.

I loved that some of Briseis’ knowledge of Greek myth (which we explore in more detail here) stems from Disney movies—and given most of what people learn (or at least remember about mythology) seems to come from pop culture via tv and movie (and yes Disney) I found this very relatable.

I absolutely loved Circe and Persephone who were both such endearing characters. Given that Circe has only just met her niece, I expected there to be some distance or wariness between her and Briseis but, she’s such a warm and caring character and I loved seeing her get to know her niece and watch their relationship blossom after years of not knowing one another.

Bayron also explores generational trauma, grief, the fragility of life and how the bonds that connect us can span time and in a way, even transcend death.

Overall, this was a wonderful conclusion to this depth filled, Greek myth inspired Duology and I definitely recommend to lovers of Greek myths, YA fantasy and strong female protagonists.

Also, thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for the e-arc.

This Wicked Fate is the second book in the thrilling duology by Kalynn Bayron, the follow up to the very successful "This Poison Heart". A YA fantasy duology with roots in Greek mythology, these books are exciting, full of drama and adventure , but also emotional with a focus on found family and coming of age. I would highly recommend reading the first book before picking this one up as it begins right where This Poison Heart left off and is full of spoilers for the previous books.
Our heroine is Briseis and in this book she embarks on an epic quest to find the last remaining piece of the deadly Absyrtus Heart as only by reuniting all the parts of this poisonous plant will Hecate restore her mother to life. Finding such a rare bloom is certainly a challenge, even with her abilities and the help of her newly discovered blood relatives, but to add to the danger the very people who killed her mother are also on the hunt , and past experience has shown that they will do anything to get what they want. Broken hearted and betrayed, Briseis must push beyond her fears if she is to succeed.
This book may be a little slower to get going than its predecessor, it does seem like it takes a long time to get the journey to find the Heart underway, especially since we know that Briseis only has one month if she is to save her mother, but once it does take off, it certainly continues apace and keeps the reader engaged. The elements of Greek mythology were cleverly incorporated in a way that made sense in the current day setting of the book. I enjoyed seeing more of some of the characters that were introduced in This Poison Heart, and seeing the dynamics and relationships between the characters grow and develop. I do wish there had been a little more exploration of Briseis' powers, but that is a minor quibble about a book I enjoyed very much, I also have to applaud the beautiful cover artwork and design , it fits the story incredibly well.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This Poison Heart sequel is out! And what a cover!
TWF was a highly anticipated read and I’m so glad I got to delve back into Briseis’ story. Especially at a time where flowers and hedges have been blooming outside and making me appreciate the nature that surrounds us even more.

The last book ended on a massive cliffhanger so it was a relief to pick it up let me tell you. The pacing was a little slow at the start as “the mission” required preparing but it meant that the last 40% did not let up with lots of action, battles and suspense. Kalynn Bayron managed to successfully weave in lesbian rep, mythology and magical powers and it makes for a really fun read which I’ll definitely recommend to students next year!

3.5 stars
Thanks to @netgalley and @bloomsburyya for the arc in return for my honest review.