3.5 
 This was good for a light read with a fantasy background. The main character specializing in poison added an interesting twist to the otherwise mostly cliche fantasy world... with ballons? (Kind of out of place or is it just me?) Nothing too serious ever happens. The ending was better than the beginning, which was where most of the interesting twists happened. This book drops a large number of plot twists, some (or many?) of which are cliche. Even then, some still shocked me. (view spoiler)[Especially the duchess one dY~2 I still can't get over it dY~(r)dY~(r) (hide spoiler)] I didn't really like the romance (sure, fall in love with the guy who leered at you in your underwear...dY~ dY~') but otherwise the book was fine.