The Poison Throne  - Celine Kiernan Wynter comes home with her ill father after five years away to find the kingdom oppressed by their once benevolent king. What is going on? Why has he changed? And where is his son and heir and Wynter's childhood playmate, Alberon? That's the main focus of this book.The distressing situation in which the King finds himself harming his children and his kingdom in order to save it is alluded to but not revealed which left me generally feeling frustrated and confused.His overall behaviour is odd. He does the most cruel and violent things and yet manages to display anguish and regret at what he's done as well as tenderness and perhaps even love for his old friend Lorcan, Wynter's father.The King's calculated manipulations never included Wynter except to occasionally demand she stand in for her father. I fully expected the King to pay more attention to her especially since she got away with being rude as well as defying him and considering the rumours about his son Razi as well as the threats to his life I assumed the King would force him to marry Wynter despite their brother-sister friendship. I would've much preferred this to the strange growing feelings between Wynter and Christopher. Their changing relationship was unnatural. I understood Christopher's attraction to Wynter with his promiscuous nature and his sudden need to protect her after his torture but Wynter never thought of him in a romantic sense, even if her father assumed she did. She reacted to him, a major ally to both herself and Razi, being ripped away, forced to leave to stop him from being used against them.Wynter's decision to abandon her father's plan and seek Alberon, although brave, seemed incredibly stupid. She doesn't have all of the facts. She hasn't seen him in years. He could try to kill her or use her to kill Razi as he's been trying to do. Which doesn't make sense, why not kill the king? The people will never accept Razi as king and he doesn't want the job so why try to kill him?I love the cover, the font used and I felt sympathy for Wynter, her dying father, Razi and Christopher. This was very readable, my curiosity implored me to keep turning those pages hoping more would be revealed or some relief given to the characters. I've pre-ordered the next book, I just hope that more is revealed within it's pages.