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A review by aliveinbooks
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This was way better than I expected it to be. Here's what I loved about it:
A good start with the world and religion building.
Life and Death-based magic systems.
Strong imagery and details made the story come to life. I could easily mentality visualize everything in the surrounding areas, the clothing, and the magic.
Realistic and believable characters. They're flawed, broken, and self-aware of this. They don't pretend to be perfect and they know this. Our Characters are morally grey. We stan morally grey characters in my house.
I thought it very unique that this world's version of "drugs" is poison. The effects of said poison are interesting with some very chilling consequences when taken too far.
I did enjoy the court intrigue this time around. It wasn't overly complicated to the point where you were left confused as to what is going on but just complex enough you can grasp an idea of what might be happening.
I LOVED the witty banter. It was a bit reminiscent of Castlevania's Alucard and Belmont bickering at times, but not quite the same level. Still made their page scenes very fun to read.
The ending had me. I was not expecting it to end on that note but wow it left me with a bit of a jaw drop.
The TENSION! I do love me a good slow burn.
What I didn't like:
Very obvious troupes once you meet the players. You already have an idea of what going to happen, who is going to betray who, who is going to kiss who, and/or who is just plain cray-cray.
A couple of the characters in the story we've met before. As in "insert character template here from popular romance fantasy" edit hair, names, color variations, and swap in or out some character flaws. This made some outcomes in the book very predictable.
While there were some flaws in this novel it's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of this story. Again, I enjoyed this story way more than I anticipated. The hype in my opinion is warranted. It's definitely a must-read for fantasy fans.
A good start with the world and religion building.
Life and Death-based magic systems.
Strong imagery and details made the story come to life. I could easily mentality visualize everything in the surrounding areas, the clothing, and the magic.
Realistic and believable characters. They're flawed, broken, and self-aware of this. They don't pretend to be perfect and they know this. Our Characters are morally grey. We stan morally grey characters in my house.
I thought it very unique that this world's version of "drugs" is poison. The effects of said poison are interesting with some very chilling consequences when taken too far.
I did enjoy the court intrigue this time around. It wasn't overly complicated to the point where you were left confused as to what is going on but just complex enough you can grasp an idea of what might be happening.
I LOVED the witty banter. It was a bit reminiscent of Castlevania's Alucard and Belmont bickering at times, but not quite the same level. Still made their page scenes very fun to read.
The ending had me. I was not expecting it to end on that note but wow it left me with a bit of a jaw drop.
The TENSION! I do love me a good slow burn.
What I didn't like:
Very obvious troupes once you meet the players. You already have an idea of what going to happen, who is going to betray who, who is going to kiss who, and/or who is just plain cray-cray.
A couple of the characters in the story we've met before. As in "insert character template here from popular romance fantasy" edit hair, names, color variations, and swap in or out some character flaws. This made some outcomes in the book very predictable.
While there were some flaws in this novel it's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of this story. Again, I enjoyed this story way more than I anticipated. The hype in my opinion is warranted. It's definitely a must-read for fantasy fans.