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Title:  Apothecarius Argentum Vol 2

Author:  Tomomi Yamashita

Publisher:  CMX

ISBN:  9781401211820

May Contain Spoilers

When Princess Primula realizes that she doesn’t understand the lives of her people, she sneaks away from the castle for a crash course in the more simple things in life.  Mingling with her subjects, she’s hopelessly inept at performing even the most basic tasks.  Still, she’s determined to put forth her best effort. When the Argent learns of a plot to assassinate her, will he be able to find her and save her from her would be killers?

I was really enjoying this volume until the last couple of chapters, when Primula drifted back to her “woe is me, bring a princess sucks” attitude.  Her character is so inconsistent.  She’s determined to become more worthy of her position and to try to help her people, accepting good times and bad, but as soon as the going gets tough, she wimps out again.  This time, she couldn’t even get out of bed, so intense was her self pity party.  I want her to be strong and I want her to be tough, but barring that, I at least expect her so show a little more resolve.  She’s going to be the queen one day, for cripes sake!  She was tougher when she was a little girl, trying to protect her only companion, Argent.

Yeah, let’s look at Argent.  Life has truly been unkind to him.  He’s been crapped on by everyone, and yet he remains a compassionate, steadfast kind of guy.  He only wants to help others, even though others have not always been kind to him.  Even his body chemistry has been altered to suit the whims of his captors.  He was tortured, forced to suffer extreme pain as they fed him low doses of poison to turn him into a lethal weapon.  Now his touch is deadly, robbing him of the comforts of human contact.  Does he sit around, moping, about his miserable fate?  No!  While that says a lot about his strength of character, it says more about Primula’s.  Maybe she’s not fit to be queen, this spoiled girl who can’t even chop vegetables.

I do enjoy the way the flashbacks are incorporated into the storytelling, touching on both Primula’s loneliness and Argent’s unfortunate role in life.  With Primula’s paternity questioned, it makes more sense that people would want to see her dead.  The quantity of poisoned food that is presented to her seems a little unbelievable, and maybe the way to put a stop to that would have been to make the kitchen staff sample their labors first.  It would saved poor Argent a tummy ache.

Grade: B-

Rated for Teen

Review copy provided by CMX