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cdoubet's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Death, Torture, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Murder, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Violence, Confinement, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Genocide, Cursing, Grief, Gore, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
clairew97's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Vomit, Murder, Gore, Violence, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Child death, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, War, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Death of parent
bluejayreads's review
4.0
I took a long time to get through this book, but it wasn’t the book’s fault. I got about halfway through it and then got in a reading slump where I didn’t feel like reading anything – even though I really enjoyed the first half of this book. But eventually I got over the slump and kept going, and of course I finished this book because there’s so much to love.
If you’ve been following this blog for more than a month or two, you probably already know that two of my favorite things for books to have are absurdly powerful protagonists and weird, creepy, and/or otherwise unique religions, the more fanatical the followers the better. So you will not be surprised to find a large part of what I liked about this book is that it has both of them.
I’m going to start by talking about the religion, because it’s foundational to the world and the magic system that our protagonist uses. First off, there is only one god, the god of light and life – because the rest of the pantheon is dead. The rotting corpse of the goddess of death and darkness, murdered by the god of light some centuries past, is buried underneath the city. Magic spills from the corpses of dead gods, which means the city is full of death magic, called Mortem – although not as much as you would expect, because an order of monks given the ability to interact with Mortem by virtue of a near-death experience are in charge of channeling it into stones and plants and otherwise keeping it from killing people. Which, despite the the fact that all of the names for people and magical forces and everything are terrible in this book, is a fantastic premise. “The gods were real and now they’re dead but their power isn’t” is one of my absolutely favorite fictional religion concepts. “Dead goddess’s corpse buried under the city” is a FANTASTIC premise. I love it.
And then we come to our protagonist Lore, who is not only the most powerful Mortem-wieldier since the necromancers were murdered, but was born with this ability for reasons that don’t get explained until the end but definitely involve our dead goddess. She grew up in a smuggler gang helping her moms move illegal drugs around the city, so she’s scrappy and fierce. But she’s actually not all that great at hand-to-hand combat and doesn’t fall into plucky YA heroine tropes. (Despite Lore being twenty-three, this whole book has a distinctly older-end-of-YA vibe.) She’s clever and fierce and powerful, but she’s also determined to survive and generally makes smart choices, which I really appreciate.
This book also gets an award for having the only love triangle I have ever read that I didn’t loathe. I actually kind of liked it. Lore is attracted to the generally kind, highly loyal, fiercely religious young monk who is assigned to both protect her and keep her from escaping while she navigates the court. She’s also attracted to the incredibly handsome bad boy Prince Bastian, who is powerful in his own way and maybe not as bad as everyone keeps telling her. There was a bit of triangle-ing and confusing pining, but I think there were really two things that kept me from hating it. One is that both guys seemed like reasonable choices, for different reasons – I didn’t feel like one was the obvious good choice and the triangle was just unnecessary complication. The other reason is that Lore refused to let the romance be any more than a background element. She is far too practical to let something silly like two hot guys distract her from what’s really important: Stopping the serial mass murder going on, unraveling the complicated plot of theoretical magic and court politics that may or may not be causing the serial mass murder, and most of all staying alive. Lore did have real human emotions and romantic feelings, but she was also relentlessly pragmatic and set on her own self-preservation, which I really loved about her.
The characters were solid, the story was delightfully twisty, the magic and religion were amazing, and the conspiracy, like a good conspiracy, turned out to be much darker and much wider-reaching than I anticipated. The only thing I didn’t actually like was the ending. It seemed far too straightforward after how complex and layered the rest of the book had been, and felt very anticlimactic. The love triangle didn’t even shake out very well because Lore did make a choice, sort of, but the nuanced relationships she had built with both men seemed to entirely vanish after the climax. Despite how much they had all been through together, they seemed cold and distant, like they were back to being total strangers again. On the whole, it felt unsatisfying.
A somewhat unsatisfying ending doesn’t negate how much I enjoyed the rest of the book, though. World, plot, characters, setting, religion, atmosphere, romance, character dynamics – up until the climax and resolution, they were all fantastic. It’s dark, it’s twisty, there’s a love triangle I didn’t hate, it’s got a dead goddess and creepy monks and creepier nuns and a massive conspiracy, and on the whole, it’s a very good book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Terminal illness, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Child death
Betrayal, religious abuse, child neglect (mentions)sarrie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Pitch a story to me with ‘necromancy’ in the description and I’m going to sign up 9 times out of 10. Like a lot of people I love the idea of magic based around the dead - one of my favorite characters I’ve made for a D&D game was a necromancer! The Foxglove King has some of that in the truest sense. The story follows Lore who can channel the power of Mortem, death magic, and raise the dead. This is definitely not on the legal side of things in her world, and when she’s captured and given a bargain - work for the king or live in exile, she obviously takes the job.
From there we get our usual Fantasy Romance setup. A magic girl, and two guys. The prince she’s supposed to be investigating for treason and the stoic guard who is assigned to follow her every step. On the whole this follows every beat you’d expect for a Fantasy Romance and I enjoyed that. Unfortunately, my first big complaint ties into this. While it followed familiar beats, it let itself get caught and really drag in the middle. The story was a bit overwritten and when Lore and her associates became trapped in the castle so were we the readers, so there is a huge slog of dry reading from 50 to 85%. We spend so so much time in the heads and conversations of the characters that it felt like we were trapped in the same three rooms and one garden for a huge chunk of time. Editing was desperately needed here, 50 to 100 pages could have been trimmed.
Past that our characters are interesting, though nothing mind blowing. My favorite character was Lore. She was not the standard ‘bad ass girl’ we typically get, but had some soft edges and quiet attributes I enjoyed. She was selfish but not brash, and held secrets (possibly for far too long) that seemed very important to have, as opposed to melodramatics. Bastian, our Sun Prince was the best built of the two male love interests, the other a dull shadow to him. My other big complaint about the story is in the villain of the piece. - SPOILERS HERE He did not need to be scarred in the face in the way he was. It’s 2023, can we not turn every person with a facial scar or disfigurement into a villain. I despised this portion of the book and I’m glad that he’s out of the picture at the end - END SPOILERS.
The ending was a hair bit on the predictable side with it’s reveals if not explosive and jaw dropping in it’s action, leaving me wanting the second book. I’m hesitant to recommend this one, without the warning that the middle is dense and the villain a terrible stereotype. However if you’re okay with that and you love Fantasy Romance I’d say give this one a read.
3 out of 5 Stone Roses
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Body shaming and Chronic illness
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and War
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
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