Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

The Commander has a very strict government. If you kill someone no matter what you are tried for murder and executed. That's how Yelena found herself in a jail, killing a man in self defense since he was raping and torturing her. On the day of her execution, the Commander's food taster has died and since Yelena is next in line to be executed, the job is offered to her. She takes it without realizing that she has been given Butterfly Dust and in order to not die from it she must get the annecdote every morning. Yelena also has a price on her head and is constantly in danger of being killed since she murdered a General's son and he wants revenge. Escape is death no matter what. As Yelena strives to make it to the end of each day she finds out she also has magical powers which unfortunately is also an offense that leads to death so she must hide this information. She gets tangled up in a plot to overthrow the Commander and must decide if her loyalty is to Valek (her food taster mentor and second in command) or her desire to go the Setia, the land of the magicians, but there's that little problem of the Butterfly Dust.

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and not too involved in magic or love like most books I've been reading lately. This book was referred to me by A Novel Addiction.