Hannah Whitten is just getting better and has solidified herself as an author that I automatically add. I will say this book series is pretty different from For the Wolf (which I also enjoyed) in tone, writing, and pacing. If you didn’t enjoy For the Wolf, you might still enjoy this one.

The Foxglove King was a fun, highly enjoyable read. I loved the court intrigue, hidden motives/agendas, and the romantic tension. It was everything I hoped it would be.

This is an adult fantasy. The main character is a necromancer, which was interesting. Loved Lore, Gabe, and Bastien. I can’t wait to see what happens next in their story. There is a love triangle here, but it’s done well. They all care about each other, but their relationships with each other are also complicated and maybe more than a little messy. The romance doesn’t take over the plot, which is also a plus for me.

The magic system is interesting without being overly complicated. I thought it was well done.

I’m a little sad my preordered physical copy isn’t here yet, but I am so thrilled that I was able to snag this free ARC. Thank-you Hannah Whitten, netgallley, and Orbit for providing this arc.

Now I need the next book…

This book is everything to me.

It has been SO long since I’ve read a fantasy romance that really entices me and keeps me wanting more, but Hannah Whitten has done it with ease!

The Foxglove King is richly embedded in political intrigue with a Versailles reminiscent fantasy world filled with gods and necromancy. At the center of it lies Lore, fighting to survive with a magic she never asked for and thrust into a world she’s never known with only a seemingly spoiled Sun Prince and a reserved, protective monk to help her uncover the secrets that are haunting her.

Wha I loved:
✅ almost everyone is morally grey
✅ vast world building and magic system
✅ character development and complex relationships
✅ so much GOOD banter
✅ romantic tension (between almost everyone tbh)
✅ “touch her and I’ll kill you”
✅ that feeling when you first mean someone but it seems like you’ve known them forever
✅ political drama
✅ necromancy and God based magic
✅ highlighting the failures of blind trust in faith system
✅ epigraphs

I truly can’t say enough about how much I love this book. It was an easy and relatively quick read, with a medium pace and world building that while fully detailed is easy to understand. Lore, Bastian, and Gabe jumped off the the page and i would spend forever happily reading about their lives.
The way the magic system is introduced, how deeply woven it is into the political and religious structures of the land, make it such a fun story for anyone who loves plot twists and guessing what comes next - even when you think you know the answers, the journey to get there is so fun.
I am dying to get my hands on the next book because I have so many theories - the story is so rich and the characters so well developed that it’s a world I want to linger in for as long as possible.
Hannah Whitten has created what should absolutely be considered the peak of fantasy romance with this one!

Thank you Orbit Books and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This one was hard for me to rate.

Lore can sense and control Mortem (death magic). She was born in the catacombs below the city where the tomb of a dead Goddess is. Mortem leaks from the tomb and has to be controlled by the Church to keep it from destroying everything and everyone.
When entire towns start dying overnight, Lore is brought in to help. Apparently she's been being watched for years by the King and the Church. They all know about her power even if she doesn't completely understand it herself.

I liked a lot of things about this book, but the love triangle really annoyed me. It annoyed me enough that I didn't really want to finish it. However, I liked Bastian and Gabe enough to carry on. The ending was intriguing enough that I will probably continue the series.

This new title from Hannah Whitten is perfect for fans of the Serpent & Dove series (with all that will they or won't they energy and trying to get a man with morals to break for the women who goes against everything they hold true), and the Three Dark Crowns series (with the lush dark atmosphere and poison tactics), and even for readers of Shadow & Bone (there are some serious Darkling vibes happening here). Overall, The Foxglove King delivered an interesting magic system, with being able to control death, even if it was slightly confusing at times and it also has good character development and an expanding world/sense of mysticism towards the end. It was not perfect; I think the first half of the book was strong and I loved learning about Lore's life as a poison runner with a found family....but that quickly gave way to court intrigue and deception - which I still love! I just wanted a bit more constant plot pacing. I enjoyed the characters, but I also wanted more palpable tension between them - especially leading up the ending and the heat of the plot.
This was my first Hannah Whitten book, and I can say her writing is well done and I'm invested in Lore & her world so I'm excited to see where Whitten leads us.

I ate this book up.

I love books championed by Brit Hvide (@bhvide). When I saw she was promoting this one I immediately requested it. Each chapter ended on a detail that propelled me to keep reading which is part of what made this book feel so addictive.

The plot consumed me from the beginning. The characters had complexity and depth. I enjoyed learning about each character's past, what drew them together, and seeing their reluctant team work. This is a cast of characters that should hate each other, but somehow end up bound together in awkward type of found family that felt reminiscent of a love triangle. One of the characters is a bisexual KING and I adored the way he was portrayed.

The magic system was very unique-- using the powers of life and death as the basis for a lot of the worldbuilding as well. While I don't need to understand the past to understand the plot I would love to know more about each of the gods and the history behind the Godsfall. I have a feeling that the religious sects in the book must have hidden or rewritten a lot of history to put themselves on top.

In particular I'm interested in Nyxara as an 'evil' figure, since the main characters all seem to agree nature cannot be good or bad. Women are often the scapegoat when things go wrong and I felt like she was not given enough justice. The ending really hit this point home as the conspiracy shed more light on the character's pasts and exposed some new motivations. I think this was a great lead in to another book because so much changed in the last few pages.

Overall, I was super grateful to be given a chance to review this book and really, really look forward to seeing more.

This was really fun. Not what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it.

There wasn’t any spice. Got close there for a second, but no action. The tension though was pretty good. Ps I still have my fingers crossed for a party of three. 🤭

This is a bigger book (physical copy 480pages). I think I like the characters. I enjoy their backstory and their interactions, but I don’t feel like bonded to them. I don’t even know if that makes sense. They just seem still shrouded in mystery.

The ending felt like it went by quickly. This didn’t end on a heavy cliffhanger, but I’m still feeling like “what the heck is gonna happen now!?”

I am a fan of this. I will be looking for the rest of the series. It’s gonna be hard waiting for the rest of these.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for this digital ARC.

Really enjoyed reading and learning about Lore the fmc. I was a bit underwhelmed with the world building. I felt like it could’ve been described better and the writing was a little lackluster, but the story, love triangle, political intrigue and magic system made up for it. Overall enjoyed the book & i def will be picking up the sequel

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
Publication Date: March 7, 2023

Lore has always known one thing, keep her powers hidden. During an ill-fated job her powers are exposed and she is taken in by the Presque Mort on behalf of the King. Although illegal, the King wishes to use her magic and she is thrust into navigating court politics, a feud between old friends and the questioning of everything she knows.

I absolutely recommend this book for anyone a fan of JLA, SJM (this definitely gives of Celena from Throne of Glass vibes) or gothic angsty romantasies in general.

WARNING! This book contains a slow burning triangle romance. It gives you just enough to leave you breathlessly flipping pages in anticipation but the flame has reached nowhere near maximum burning capacity. You will find yourself flip flopping from the different sides of this triangle faster than Tom Brady goes in and out of retirement. Ethics are questioned. Nobody is above suspicion. This book will leave you on the verge of an emotional cliffhanger, with more questions than answers, absolutely no satisfaction and eagerly crossing off dates on the calendar in anticipation of the next.
It features a well-done world in which religion is front and centre. The author raises questions between the separation of church and state that will definitely have you reflecting on current world politics.There’s a mystery, and although some elements were obvious, I felt like that might have been intentional on Whitten’s part to throw the reader off their game.

I’ve been fortunate enough to receive a lot of ARCs in my almost three years on Bookstagram. NEVER have I re-read an ARC again BEFORE publication. I’ve been sitting on this review since October unable to discuss it with anyone and absolutely dying to gush over Lore, Bastian and Gabriel. So please, if you have read this, or are going to read this, DM me!

Thank you to Orbit Books for providing an advanced reader’s copy by way of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was wonderful 5 stars all the way. This was my first Hannah Whitten novel and it captivated me from the start all the way to the end. I will say I went into this thinking it was going to be all romance but was happily surprised. It reads more like a mystery/adventure. While a little bit of romance is shown throughout the story, I say even if you took most of the scenes out no one would know or care. I will say the only grip I have is not being able to get a good picture of the characters in my head, it seems like each one is introduced but not much of how they look is described. Not a huge deal to me but it would make it easier for my brain, the characters kept getting changed every time they spoke or mentioned.

This one got off to a slow start for me. Both in progression of the story and slow to grab my interest. As one would expect, the first part of the book was introducing us to the main players of the book and the court and introing our main storyline, but none of these elements were clicking for me. I was afraid the book was going to be just another Fantasy Romance that didn't quite work for me. The necromancy magic was what I found the most intriguing and so that was what kept me reading through to see more of what was going to happen with that aspect of the story. And I am definitely glad that I did because once all the pieces of the story started clicking together I ended up hooked and absolutely flew through the second half of this book.

I wouldn't class any of our main three characters as new favorite characters, but I did end up enjoying them by the end. But the plot was what really ended up hooking me. As the cogs started turning and things were discovered and revealed I just got more and more invested in what was going to happen.

As far as the romance goes in this one it is fully a love triangle. I don't prefer love triangles but I don't hate them either so that in itself wasn't enough to turn me off the romance, but if you hate love triangles be warned you might not be into this book. I ultimately didn't actually mind it, and I think that is largely because I genuinely enjoyed both of the male characters as characters outside of the love triangle.

I will definitely be picking the sequel out whenever it comes out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book!

This was a really interesting world that felt chaotic and mysterious. The characters were interesting and had good chemistry—I even tolerated the love triangle though there’s a clear front-runner in my mind. The plot however seemed to wind back on itself and only ever make slow progress. It seemed clear from about 40% what the ending would be and it was frustrating to watch the characters ignore things that were so obviously important.

I am interested in reading the sequel, but I can wait.

Okay so this premise is absolutely amazing!

The world is so dark and also magical and mysterious and so so intriguing. I truly love the idea that dead gods' bodies leak power throughout the world. It is such a fun twist and makes the gods only that more interesting. As well, I loved how stone played a part in this. How it could turn ones insides to stone, there could be stone gardens..etc. The imagery in this was gorgeous and perfectly gothic. I'm always a sucker for stories that feature gods or saints and made up religions. I don't know why but characters who are pious to (or fight) fictional deities are fun to read about.

Unfortunately, as much as I loved the plot and world and magic, I kept having to take breaks. And not because of the writing! No, the writing was actually really good. It was the characters. They weren't necessarily flat by any means but I really struggled to connect with them. They all felt like trope characters, especially Lore. I don't know how many times I have read a character like her in a book and I usually love that character type. However, there wasn't anything that was unique enough to her personality to engage me. I didn't feel any emotional connection to her at all.

I also figured out one of the 'plot twists' that is revealed about 40% through in our first introduction to the character, which happens sometimes but I'm hoping that it isn't like that for the rest of the book.

The only reason I kept coming back to this book is purely for the plot, world, and magic.

I had sadly, DNFed it for now but I may finish it someday soon.

Thank you so much to Orbit for approving me for this ARC!

The Foxglove King is about Lore, who can channel
“Mortem, the magic born from death.” Lore gets
coerced into being a spy for the Sainted King, where
she’s similtaneously asked to use her power and to
hide it. Because at the moment, she is useful. Leery of
doing it, Lore accepts the task to become a spy in the
court and to help the Sainted King ascertain what
happened to the villages that are dying mysteriously
overnight.

This world is lush with a religion that seems to be
heavily inspired by catholicism. It’s also heavily
influenced by all of the politics, intrigue, and excess of
the French court. Lore witnesses first hand the
disparity between the court and the regular citizens
where even the laws and punishments are vastly
different.

“Are you so accustomed to being used that you don’t
realize when it’s happening, as long as it’s done
kindly?” 😲

Because Lore is and I think that’s something we can
relate to. The whole world is just one big system of
using and being used. Pawns moved around in an
endless game of war and intrigue for the benefit of the
rich and the holy. And it’s amazing. Plus, she’s
sandwiched between the rakish Prince Bastion and the
ostracized Duke Gabriel. A very yummy sandwich.😍

The Foxglove King does not hold back. If you think
you’d figured out the ending, you’re wrong.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

The Foxglove King
by Hannah Whitten
Pub Date: 07 Mar 2023

I enjoyed Hannah Whitten's "For the Wolf" series. The Foxglove King has a different flavor though. There are gods and kings and magic and religion and...there is a lot to take in with the world building and all the dynamics. So, the beginning of the book is kind of slow and bogged down with information. The characters though are interesting and while I am not a fan of love triangles, I didn't dislike either of them. The last part of the book definitely picks up steam and I feel invested in seeing how everything plays out.

3.5 stars

The Foxglove King is the first novel in the Nightshade Crown trilogy. I first became interested in Whitten’s work with her Wilderwood series and could not wait to read more. This trilogy is set in a completely new world with a different tone, so I was excited to discover it. Lore has been working for a poison running operation since she was younger after being taken in when she appeared in the Catacombs of Dellarie. After using her secret death magic, called Mortem, to evade capture, she is caught by the king’s warrior monks, the Presque Mort. To avoid death as a punishment, she is sentenced to a mission to investigate sudden deaths in the surrounding villages and determine if the Sun Prince, Bastian, is involved by the Sainted King of Dellaire, August. She is aided in this journey by one of the Presque Mort, Gabriel.

The romance in this story is, unfortunately, a love triangle. While I am not a fan of this trope, I do try to give it a fair chance in case it turns out well. Since this is the first novel in a trilogy, I can’t fully judge it yet, but it did feel like it needs more exploration to get me to connect to it. Individually, the three characters had a lot of potential and interesting backstories. They each had flaws and motivations that I connected with and wanted to learn more about. The romance seemed to be more telling than showing when it came to the attraction the characters shared. For Gabe, I felt he opened up to Lore too early as it did not seem to match what was shown to the reader. Instead, it was told in a way and the same went for the romantic connection between Lore and Bastian. There is potential to make this a romance that I root for, no matter which suitor Lore chooses, but I did not connect to it in this novel.

The world of Dellaire is full of political intrigue mixed with magical system. It does take a bit of time to get into the story where I did find myself putting the book down a few times before picking it back up to finish the story. Even though it did take a few sittings to finish, it was well worth it by the end, and I cannot wait to read the sequel when it comes out. As the first novel in the trilogy, there are a lot of pieces given to the reader, but it took awhile to figure out how they all fit together. Some of it does follow usual YA/NA type storylines, but there is still some originality with it. The writing itself felt less organic than I was expecting compared to her other duology, but I think this will be worked out in the sequel. Now that a lot of the exposition is complete, I think the story itself will develop more smoothly and there will be a little less repetition. Overall, this novel is captivating as I enjoyed the characters and concept. As the first introduction to the world, it did a great job of keeping me interested and now I cannot wait to read the sequel.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Orbit Books, for the opportunity to read this novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Thank you to Netgalley, Orbit Books, and Ms. Whitten for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

If you are a reader who loved the Throne of Glass series, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

Strong, fierce, unapologetic, powerful female lead? CHECK. A pair of intriguing (and obviously, handsome) gentlemen, one a tall, dark, powerful, mercurial prince and the other a muscled monk-slash-secret nobleman tortured by forbidden desires? CHECK. Mystical powers and dangerous magic? CHECK. Secret agendas and subversive plots? CHECK CHECK.

As a fantasy concept it isn’t particularly original: both Lore’s original and new habitations – poor streets and decadent court, respectively – seem a little flat and underdeveloped. The use of Lore as a “spy” seems odd, considering her background and ability level. And the plot twists are generally predictable even if what specifically happens is unique to the story. However: the pacing is great, the writing is solid, the magic is cool, the emotions feel genuine, and Lore is such an easy character to like and cheer for that I was sold on this story from the beginning. I am very much looking forward to reading book #2 and I'll be purchasing this for my customers.

(Parenthetically: are we supposed to be cheering for Gabe? Because I am NOT. I don’t particularly care if Lore hooks up with Bastian or not, but I’m *not* a Gabe fan. Attractive he may be, but he only has room for one loyalty, and it is emphatically not to Lore.)

⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

This was a book that was very confusing to wrap my head around at first.... however, I really got into it. It was a little info-dumpy at times but the world and characters made me keep turning pages. Super excited for the next book and I will definitely be reading it.

Hanna is probably my favorite of “new” authors. Her last series is some of my favorite material I have read in years. I can’t wait to see where the foxglove king goes as far as a series. I have already started a reread because I want more.

I was blown away by this book. I absolutely loved it. From the world-building to the developing love triangle to the badass protagonist, I had so much fun with this. The FoxGlove King is a high-energy, exciting adult fantasy, and I'm really excited to read more of this series in the future.

I have very mixed feelings on this, which is apparently unpopular. This is the story of Lore, a Mortem wielder who can manipulate death magic to revive and kill living things. After being sold out by a mother figure she worked for, Lore had to spy for the king on the wayward prince, but the clergyman by her side is also attractive.
First of all, characters. Was this perfect? Nah. I liked it, but it was also super annoying. I would say the most annoying bits were the repetition of Lore being curvy and Gabe's vow of c3libacy. It felt like both were constantly mentioned, and it was annoying. I couldn't tell if Whitten wanted us to know that Lore was mid or plus size or that she just had great assets. However, it didn't completely ruin my enjoyment. I liked them overall, and the side characters were great. I didn't see a lot of dimension, though.
Next, romance. There's a love triangle here, but I didn't love it. Both relationships felt kind of weak. It entertained me, but I either see viability or chemistry, not both. The friendships were sweet, but nothing got too much development besides Anton being Gabe's father figure and boss.
Lastly, plot and worldbuilding. It wasn't bad, but it felt lacking. I got the mild politics, I got the magic, but I wish there was a tad more. The plot seemed very simple, but not unenjoyable.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this for people super similar to me, but probably people that like similar things with different inner preferences. I liked the book, and I could see myself reading the sequel, but I didn't love it.