Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Foxglove King

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

25 reviews

natashaleighton_'s review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Deliciously dark and gloriously intriguing! Hannah Whitten’s prose was once again a breathtakingly vivid and atmospheric treat for the senses, merging magic, court intrigue and a deliciously addictive (forbidden) romance that utterly ensnared me.

I adored protagonist, Lore despite her flawed and often selfish tendencies. But her upbringing (raised by poison smugglers) and the necessary secret keeping when it came to her abilities (to control death magic,and even occasionally raise the dead) really showcases her need for self-preservation. When first introduced, Lore’s a sharp witted and incredibly guarded character who rarely trusts anyone, but as she spends more time with warrior priest, Gabriel and roguish Prince Bastian, we begin to unearth a slightly softer, more vulnerable side that I found incredibly endearing.

Bastian and Gabriel, as characters were both quite endearing and in depth as well, as we delve into their pasts and understand the actions and motivations that have shaped them. I liked Bastian who’s flirtatious and outgoing demeanour could rival even Cardan and Jacks at the height of their charm . But, I have to admit it was the brooding but loyal, duke turned monk (Gabriel) that managed to steal my heart.

His chemistry with Lore was palpable and their intensity together was spectacularly swoonworthy. It did get some love triangle esque vibes between Lore, Bastian and Gabriel so interested to see where (and how) things develop.

It’s definitely my fave of Hannah Whitten’s books soo far and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy the sequel.

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puddleshoes's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective tense 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? No

5.0

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cdoubet's review

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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

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jaynovara's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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clairew97's review against another edition

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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

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maregred's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

Writing: 4.25⭐️/5

The writing was more than serviceable: it was woven into the narrative, supporting it without taking away from it. Several times while reading I found myself enthralled by the words themselves. At other times, the writing was sufficient, technically lacking nothing but in want of something more.

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

The characters were incredibly fun to read without feeling like caricatures. I loved Lore’s mind, loved to see her interact with her world in such a unique way. And, though the guard-and-prisoner-forced-together trope could feel tired, I appreciated the nuance that refreshed it. I liked reading about Gabe and his history. And our two male interests were distinct and individual, with Bastian, the King, contrasting strongly against Gabe.

Plot: 5⭐️/5

A spy born in the catacombs is traded to the King in exchange for a legal contract after she reveals herself as a deathwitch, a person who can manipulate the essence of death. How can you not love that plot? Or, at the very least, be enthralled by it. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this plot, and I eagerly await the sequel.

Who Should Read This Book?

Fans of darker, but not dark, fantasy books
Fans of love triangles
Those looking for an interesting high fantasy read with a heavy focus on gods
Fans of fantasy romances where the love interests are forced together
Fans of an intriguing fantasy world

Content Warnings?

Drug abuse, murder, child death, death, death of parent, torture, blood, confinement,

Post-Reading Rating: 4.75⭐️/5

I would like to see the next book please.

Final Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

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camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.25

I loved Hannah Whitten’s “For the Throne,” so I was very excited to read “Foxglove King.” Now that I’ve read it, I’m feeling kind of let down.

It was long…too long, in my opinion. There was some repetition of story beats that felt unnecessary, like they had been added just to lengthen the book. By the 70% point, I was just trying to power through and couldn’t give an accurate summary.

All I kept thinking through the book was, “this is ‘Serpent and Dove’ but in a palace and with a lot more dead people.” And I stand by that.

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jasminn_perez's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

all the characters pissed me off at some point. Gabe and lore might be made for eachother they're both so annoying. Bastian was iconic I mean theres nothing else to say abt him. this book required so much of my focus to understand but I don't think there was payout for my hard work. also a lot of the description of the setting could've been cut out. there was always so much description for the setting yet I had a hard time picturing it bc it was none of the right setting description if that makes sense. the gods stuff was interesting tho and I did like the magic system. i was so pissed abt the ending WHAT THE FUCK did Gabe do to deserve the priest title. I wish Bastian would've executed him tbfh. I also found myself so bored in the middle. as much as I had a lot of grievances it wasn't bad at all. I live for silly drama and I gotta say this book delivered there and also the plot was pretty good. there's just a lot of nonsense and most of the time not in a cool way.

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bluejayreads's review

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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.

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