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koistyfishy's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
3 Transubstantiation Stars ⭐
Spice... NON EXISTENT
This is the perfect definition book of excellent premise, but mediocre execution.
Another way I could describe it is the book mentions quite a lot about "balancing life and death through the equilibrium of Mortem and Spiritum". Hannah Wittenn tried to balance the plot with the religious theology and lost God lore. And unfortunately, it felt as if the equilibrium was tipped into the boring side as half the time I was reading this it felt like a religious textbook that was putting me to sleep.
The book follows Lore, who "apparently" escaped a cult when she was 13 and was found by two ladies who raised her as their own. They also happen to be poison runners so Lore basically grows up in the crime scene as a spy. However, Lore has a secret that she is able to wield death magic or Mortem from birth, which most people are only able to do if they ever have a "near-death experience". So she has to keep that super secret because if they find out that she's this super powerful necromancer she would probably be murdered or sent to some burning island. One day a heist goes bad and she is given the impossible choice of SPY ON THE KINGS SON as part of the court and become SUPER close to him....or die. SO guess it's pretty easy to see what she chooses...
This book has some of the best tropes and some of the worst tropes.
The "Good" tropes you're going to get:
▹Court Intrigue
▹Romantic angst (could have been more)
▹Necromancy
▹Regency.
The "Bad" tropes are:
▹ A love triangle
▹ Miscommunication/Lack of Communication
▹ Religious Theory (it borders on SO MUCH INFODUMP)
Look, if I have to read about one more tapestry describing the Gods and what they look like and the colours that they're using and how they're painted or sculpted. Or have to hear about the Gods ascending and coming back to the world one more time.....I kind of lost the plot when those aspects were mentioned in the story, and they were mentioned SO MUCH.
I wasn't getting that pull into the writing I need with a book. It took a long time before I was actually hooked on the book because the first six chapters felt very, very theoretical and very info-dumpy. It was very difficult to follow along as the writing almost needs you to be one with a thesaurus. I love words. I love looking up the definition of words and highlighting unique words that I don't typically see in a book, but normally I only end up with about five max. In this book, I highlighted 55 words that are not common in English daily use as a result, if you're constantly looking up the definition of words, it takes you out of the story.
Another thing this book was missing is it felt like everything was very surface level and I needed more depth to everything (BUT THE THEOLOGY). The plot was very much you see what you get. The angst was there but not enough, the character interaction was there but not enough and the character development was there but it only scratched the surface of what would have been amazing!!! These characters have this undeniable feeling that they know each other, that they've got this drawing to each other...that they've known each other for their whole lives. But that isn't really explored enough and built on and it's never really explained why they're so drawn to each other.
I REALLY wanted to see a little bit more of their interactions too. Their talking...Lore actually talking to Bastian and Gabe and getting to know them. What little there was did not explain the attraction between them and why Gabe would be "pining over her" and she over him when most of the time they were literally just in the library researching books or THEOLOGY in their rooms. We had chapters DEDICATED to library research...
Another aspect that I didn't really like is the ending felt incredibly rushed and incredibly messy. I battled to understand what was going on. Everything was just thrown into the end and it was very quick with the characters acting completely different towards the end that didn't match who they were painted to be throughout the novel. The end was just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping some aspects stick.
Overall I DID like Lore...She does come off a little bit as a survivor and is a little bit unapologetic in a good way. But she makes really stupid decisions and she purposefully chooses to not communicate because fuck knows why.
If I haven't made this clear, the worldbuilding lent too much on theory. And as much as there was a unique magic system, which quite frankly, I absolutely loved! The book didn't go into any reason why Lore has this ability to wield magic, and I would have loved to have that explored a little bit more to understand her origin story and where she comes from.
There wasn't much romance in this except for one kiss that went nowhere. Out of our boys...I prefer the prince (until the end) as he actually has some snark and uses words... Gabe has been through some trauma but he is a little too attached to his wannabe father figure to know what's good for him and so seemed immature...
There might be a couple of triggers in this, especially around the religious aspect, which does have quite a few similarities to Catholicism. So if you are somebody who finds this a problem, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.
Luckily I had an amazing group of girls for the Buddy Read who helped string me along and gave me the motivation to tediously work through this book. And I don't know if I would have been able to finish it if I didn't have their motivation to do it.
The vibes were there...so ultimately I'm not sad that I picked up this book. I will pick up book two because I am intrigued enough to see where it goes. But if she doesn't kiss one of these boys within the first three chapters, I tap out!!!
Spice... NON EXISTENT
This is the perfect definition book of excellent premise, but mediocre execution.
Another way I could describe it is the book mentions quite a lot about "balancing life and death through the equilibrium of Mortem and Spiritum". Hannah Wittenn tried to balance the plot with the religious theology and lost God lore. And unfortunately, it felt as if the equilibrium was tipped into the boring side as half the time I was reading this it felt like a religious textbook that was putting me to sleep.
The book follows Lore, who "apparently" escaped a cult when she was 13 and was found by two ladies who raised her as their own. They also happen to be poison runners so Lore basically grows up in the crime scene as a spy. However, Lore has a secret that she is able to wield death magic or Mortem from birth, which most people are only able to do if they ever have a "near-death experience". So she has to keep that super secret because if they find out that she's this super powerful necromancer she would probably be murdered or sent to some burning island. One day a heist goes bad and she is given the impossible choice of SPY ON THE KINGS SON as part of the court and become SUPER close to him....or die. SO guess it's pretty easy to see what she chooses...
This book has some of the best tropes and some of the worst tropes.
The "Good" tropes you're going to get:
▹Court Intrigue
▹Romantic angst (could have been more)
▹Necromancy
▹Regency.
The "Bad" tropes are:
▹ A love triangle
▹ Miscommunication/Lack of Communication
▹ Religious Theory (it borders on SO MUCH INFODUMP)
Look, if I have to read about one more tapestry describing the Gods and what they look like and the colours that they're using and how they're painted or sculpted. Or have to hear about the Gods ascending and coming back to the world one more time.....I kind of lost the plot when those aspects were mentioned in the story, and they were mentioned SO MUCH.
I wasn't getting that pull into the writing I need with a book. It took a long time before I was actually hooked on the book because the first six chapters felt very, very theoretical and very info-dumpy. It was very difficult to follow along as the writing almost needs you to be one with a thesaurus. I love words. I love looking up the definition of words and highlighting unique words that I don't typically see in a book, but normally I only end up with about five max. In this book, I highlighted 55 words that are not common in English daily use as a result, if you're constantly looking up the definition of words, it takes you out of the story.
Another thing this book was missing is it felt like everything was very surface level and I needed more depth to everything (BUT THE THEOLOGY). The plot was very much you see what you get. The angst was there but not enough, the character interaction was there but not enough and the character development was there but it only scratched the surface of what would have been amazing!!! These characters have this undeniable feeling that they know each other, that they've got this drawing to each other...that they've known each other for their whole lives. But that isn't really explored enough and built on and it's never really explained why they're so drawn to each other.
I REALLY wanted to see a little bit more of their interactions too. Their talking...Lore actually talking to Bastian and Gabe and getting to know them. What little there was did not explain the attraction between them and why Gabe would be "pining over her" and she over him when most of the time they were literally just in the library researching books or THEOLOGY in their rooms. We had chapters DEDICATED to library research...
Another aspect that I didn't really like is the ending felt incredibly rushed and incredibly messy. I battled to understand what was going on. Everything was just thrown into the end and it was very quick with the characters acting completely different towards the end that didn't match who they were painted to be throughout the novel. The end was just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping some aspects stick.
Overall I DID like Lore...She does come off a little bit as a survivor and is a little bit unapologetic in a good way. But she makes really stupid decisions and she purposefully chooses to not communicate because fuck knows why.
If I haven't made this clear, the worldbuilding lent too much on theory. And as much as there was a unique magic system, which quite frankly, I absolutely loved! The book didn't go into any reason why Lore has this ability to wield magic, and I would have loved to have that explored a little bit more to understand her origin story and where she comes from.
There wasn't much romance in this except for one kiss that went nowhere. Out of our boys...I prefer the prince (until the end) as he actually has some snark and uses words... Gabe has been through some trauma but he is a little too attached to his wannabe father figure to know what's good for him and so seemed immature...
There might be a couple of triggers in this, especially around the religious aspect, which does have quite a few similarities to Catholicism. So if you are somebody who finds this a problem, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.
Luckily I had an amazing group of girls for the Buddy Read who helped string me along and gave me the motivation to tediously work through this book. And I don't know if I would have been able to finish it if I didn't have their motivation to do it.
The vibes were there...so ultimately I'm not sad that I picked up this book. I will pick up book two because I am intrigued enough to see where it goes. But if she doesn't kiss one of these boys within the first three chapters, I tap out!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Blood and Religious bigotry
Minor: War
moonchild_cos's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Violence, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Genocide, Vomit, Grief, Sexual content, and Death of parent
discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This was such an engaging and exciting read. The writing style was effortlessly propulsive, and the story was surprisingly immersive. I was almost immediately invested in the story, which is abnormal for me, and from there, I couldn’t stop turning pages.
I wish the characters had been more diverse, and there was a moment around like 2/3 of the way through when I hit a bit of a pacing snag, but other than that, this was a standout to me.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves a dark fantasy with some angsty romance.
I wish the characters had been more diverse, and there was a moment around like 2/3 of the way through when I hit a bit of a pacing snag, but other than that, this was a standout to me.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves a dark fantasy with some angsty romance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Body horror, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Confinement
Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, and Death of parent
beccaand's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Addiction, and Death
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Gore, Blood, and Child death
Minor: War and Death of parent
bibliomania_express's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten follows a deathwitch in a world of death magic to the heart of political and religious intrigue. This book has some of your classis YA tropes, including the love triangle between the tough, emotionally scarred orphan main character who has chosen-one abilities, the brooding and mysterious guy who believes in the world's system (or most of it) and has to work with her, and the charming and powerul prince. Throw in some class issues, death magic, corrupt religion and politics, the threat of a war, and a mystery to solve, and that's this book.
I have mixed feelings, and some of that stems from the fact that this is the first in a series. But also that the middle of this book, with most of the investgating, is rather drawn out, where the end happens in a violent (and I do mean violent) rush. I was left with a bit of worldbuilding whiplash, trying to parse exactly what different characters are thinking. Also there was a lot of the final reveals that felt obvious, although there was also one part I didn't guess.
There are also some plot threads dropped just for the sake of it being a first book in a series, so hopefully some of them get picked up in the next book.
Beyond some of the unfortunate side effects from a YA love triangle, I really liked Lore. She's tough, determined, and actually has a strong sense of right and wrong for a poison runner. I also liked Gabe and Bastian for most of the book. The mystery itself was interesting, but I think the solution was a bit weak.
Rating: 3.5/5
*I receieved an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
I have mixed feelings, and some of that stems from the fact that this is the first in a series. But also that the middle of this book, with most of the investgating, is rather drawn out, where the end happens in a violent (and I do mean violent) rush. I was left with a bit of worldbuilding whiplash, trying to parse exactly what different characters are thinking. Also there was a lot of the final reveals that felt obvious, although there was also one part I didn't guess.
There are also some plot threads dropped just for the sake of it being a first book in a series, so hopefully some of them get picked up in the next book.
Beyond some of the unfortunate side effects from a YA love triangle, I really liked Lore. She's tough, determined, and actually has a strong sense of right and wrong for a poison runner. I also liked Gabe and Bastian for most of the book. The mystery itself was interesting, but I think the solution was a bit weak.
Rating: 3.5/5
*I receieved an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Classism, Body horror, Death, Confinement, Religious bigotry, and Drug use
Moderate: Vomit, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Animal death
Minor: War, Terminal illness, and Stalking
rusereviews's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten is a fantasy romance featuring religion and court politics and the first installment in The Nightshade Crown series.
Lore escaped a cult hiding in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire when she was thirteen. Now twenty-three, she works as a spy for a poison-runner as her death magic (Mortem) ties her to the city. When one of her jobs goes wrong she is taken prisoner by the only people sanctioned to use Mortem--a group of warrior-monks. Expecting to be killed for her magic, she is instead conscripted by the king to find out the mystery behind random entire cities dying overnight.
This book is tagged as YA, but it's more New Adult. The first 30% is mostly vibes and some info dumps, and though the worldbuilding isn't very deep it seemed cool so I was interested. And then I accidentally stayed up until 5 am reading the last 70% of the book.
There's casual queerness here that I quite liked. Our main character was raised by a lesbian couple, many characters appear to be sexually fluid, and one of the gods in the pantheon is nonbinary and is referenced with they/them pronouns.
I particularly enjoyed the magic system here that seems to be the duality between Mortem, death magic, and Spiritum, life magic.
The descriptions we got about the pantheon of gods was interesting as well. I grew up Lutheran, but I've heard some complaints from folks who are Catholic noting that Whitten's religion here is very stereotypical.
The love triangle didn't fully land for me, and there feels like a bit of a "fated mates" scenario happening here which is always weird to me unless I'm reading about shifters.
There is a scene with animal death, and though that is one of my biggest triggers, I understand why it was written into the story and it wasn't ham-fisted or done for no reason.
All in all, I do plan to read the next book in the series.
CW: gore, violence, cults, death of a child (off-page, the body is on-page), parental abuse (emotional, physical), religious abuse, animal death, brief mentions of vomit
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
Lore escaped a cult hiding in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire when she was thirteen. Now twenty-three, she works as a spy for a poison-runner as her death magic (Mortem) ties her to the city. When one of her jobs goes wrong she is taken prisoner by the only people sanctioned to use Mortem--a group of warrior-monks. Expecting to be killed for her magic, she is instead conscripted by the king to find out the mystery behind random entire cities dying overnight.
This book is tagged as YA, but it's more New Adult. The first 30% is mostly vibes and some info dumps, and though the worldbuilding isn't very deep it seemed cool so I was interested. And then I accidentally stayed up until 5 am reading the last 70% of the book.
There's casual queerness here that I quite liked. Our main character was raised by a lesbian couple, many characters appear to be sexually fluid, and one of the gods in the pantheon is nonbinary and is referenced with they/them pronouns.
I particularly enjoyed the magic system here that seems to be the duality between Mortem, death magic, and Spiritum, life magic.
The descriptions we got about the pantheon of gods was interesting as well. I grew up Lutheran, but I've heard some complaints from folks who are Catholic noting that Whitten's religion here is very stereotypical.
The love triangle didn't fully land for me, and there feels like a bit of a "fated mates" scenario happening here which is always weird to me unless I'm reading about shifters.
There is a scene with animal death, and though that is one of my biggest triggers, I understand why it was written into the story and it wasn't ham-fisted or done for no reason.
All in all, I do plan to read the next book in the series.
CW: gore, violence, cults, death of a child (off-page, the body is on-page), parental abuse (emotional, physical), religious abuse, animal death, brief mentions of vomit
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gore
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, Animal death, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Vomit
maddiementions's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Violence
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Sexual content
Minor: War
loveinpanels's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Death
Moderate: Abandonment, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Murder
luckylulureads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
Minor: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Terminal illness
booksandcurlz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Spoiler-Free thoughts:
I loved the first part of this book, right away there is an incident that sets up the plot and the future of Lore and the kingdom. Most of the second part is just adding to the atmosphere, introducing key characters to each other and some other important information that will be relevant not only later in the book, but in the following books of this series. This part felt slow compared to the first part. The last part of the book wrapped everything up nicely and a lot of things happened all at once. Nothing that was too shocking because it was either built up or alluded earlier in the book. My theory proved right, but not in the way I expected it to be. To me it was a sleepy read but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I loved the first part of this book, right away there is an incident that sets up the plot and the future of Lore and the kingdom. Most of the second part is just adding to the atmosphere, introducing key characters to each other and some other important information that will be relevant not only later in the book, but in the following books of this series. This part felt slow compared to the first part. The last part of the book wrapped everything up nicely and a lot of things happened all at once. Nothing that was too shocking because it was either built up or alluded earlier in the book. My theory proved right, but not in the way I expected it to be. To me it was a sleepy read but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
What I loved?
♥️ Lore - strong female lead, spy, and “poison runner”. She has an interesting upbringing and interesting abilities, I loved how she handled herself in Court and how she was willing to change her mind the new facts were presented to her.
♥️ Bastian - the oh so charming Bastian, I loved his character and cannot wait to see how he grows as the series progresses.
♥️ Gabe - He is kind of the third wheel, but maybe part of a love triangle situation. IDK, their situation is weird. He is the religious one of the bunch and has a difficult time processing new information without letting Anton (the Exalte Priest) sway his opinion on the information he’s received.
♥️ The book atmosphere - This is something this author in particular excells at, and I will tell you, one of my favorite things is that she does it with as little words as possible, still highly immersive.
♥️ The passages at the beginning of each chapter. That kind of allude to the theme of the chapter.
This might be for you if you enjoy:
✨ Strong FMC that is just a little clueless of her powers
🪄 Magic
♥️ A witty MMC who was just a tad bit wreckless
♥️ Another broody MMC
👑 Royal Court intrigue
✨ Religious intrigue & manipulation
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry and Classism
Moderate: Blood, Death, and Drug abuse
Minor: War