"There are ways to get around it. We will be together." 
 I've heard a lot of positive reviews about this book and I have the other two books in the series so that's a big thumbs up but I don't think I'll be reading them soon. I started reading this book yesterday and finished it within a day. It was fast paced and the character development of the protagonist was astounding. 
 Yelena as we all know was tortured for two years and was imprisoned for another year more. She wasn't aware of the magical abilities that she have and so she somehow struggled to control it. As the title itself says, she was chosen to become the commander's food taster which was hella difficult and dangerous because the Commander was a notorious target for assassinations. 
 Janco and Ari I love these two. I'm so glad that Yelena found an older brother figure with them and they somehow taught her how to defend herself against those who wanted her dead. Janco is the chill and joking type while Ari is the serious and protective type. I love how they didn't developed any romantic feeling towards her (as most novels do). 
 Valek so here's the part where I state the reason as to why I didn't gave this book a 5 star rating. It was not precisely about Valek but he was a part of it. Okayyyy... I don't like the LOVETEAM!! I want this book to only focus on Yelena and not involve any romance in it (which was selfish, I know) The thing is I don't feel the love, I think that the love Valek showed to Yelena was not real, fabricated. I know that he loves her but I never felt the progress on how admiration and attraction escalated to love. One minute he was trying to poison her and the next he was kissing her. I don't know, it just feels really weird for me. And if I'm not mistaken Valek was like thirty-three years old and Yelena was like nineteen or twenty years old which leads to the age gap of more than a decade. I know that age is just a number but it really does feels strange to me, so I imagined the younger Valek version whenever I'm reading. 
 I can't pinpoint the exact lacking of this novel. The writing was good, so maybe it's just me.