A review by bluejayreads
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

4.0

This book combines historical fiction, spy thriller, scifi-created superhumans, and enemies-to-lovers romance, and it works remarkably well. Set in 1930s Shanghai, the Nationalist faction is in charge, while the communist faction has gone into hiding and the Japanese and their sympathizers plot a takeover. Rosalind, the protagonist, is a basically-immortal assassin forced to pretend to be another spy's wife for mission purposes. I actually enjoyed the multi-faction politics (assisted because it was mostly spy-vs-spy and whose-side-are-they-really-on with political details). The setting and historical details were fascinating. I'm always down for sci-fi superhumans, especially immortal assassins with angst. And I actually enjoyed the romance - I'm not usually much for enemies-to-lovers but I was really invested in this relationship. I did feel like I was missing some context, since it seems like the Foul Lady Fortune duology is a sorta-sequel to the author's These Violent Delights duology (I gather Rosalind is the cousin of the These Violent Delights protagonist, and this book is set four years after that duology ends). The second Foul Lady Fortune book isn't out yet - if it were available now, I'd probably read it, but since it will probably be a year or two, I don't know if I will. This book is very, very good, but I'm not dying for a sequel.
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