A fairly ordinary YA fantasy romance, with an intriguing premise that it fails to live up to. The city of Dellaire worships a sun god and uses poisons as both recreational drugs and ways to extend their lives. Lore is a drug runner who escaped a cult as a young child, and also a necromancer. When she comes to the attention of the king, she is swept into court life and dangerous games of political power. Despite an attempt to orient towards older readers, The Foxglove King hits pretty much every YA cliche: love triangle, glamorous clothing that gets more attention than the plot does, Lore is The Special despite being basically an empty ball gown, she is magnetically attracted to both her gruff assigned bodyguard and the dashing prince she is supposed to spy on. Whitten also manages to recreate Christianity but with magic, and spends an inordinate amount of time on theology and transubstantiation. While competently written and with the bones of a good idea, this book was not my cup of tea, and I struggle to imagine who would like it. Maybe someone who wants the next Twilight complete with crap characters, melodramatics, and regressive ideas?

I screamed when I got the email that I'd been approved for an eARC of The Foxglove King. Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this early!

The Foxglove King is dark and atmospheric in the best ways. Queernormative with death cults, death magic, playboy princes, a love triangle that is the perfect OT3, and a lot of dead bodies. So many dead bodies. While life and death magic is a fairly common element in magic systems, Hannah Whitten's take is so fresh and we're learning how it works alongside Lore who has had the magic since she was little but is only just now learning how to use it.

It has a bit of a slow start as we learn Lore's background and introduce her to Gabe (the surly cultist) and Bastian (the playboy prince she's supposed to spy on) but it picks up quickly alongside the banter and sexual tension between the three.

I am so excited to continue the series and cannot wait to see where things go. Especially after THAT ending.

Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for the E-ARC

I truly tried to like The Foxglove King because the synopsis was interesting and really pulled me in enough to request a copy to read early. Unfortunately, once I started reading it though, I just could not get into it. I continued to start and stop and start and stop because it could not hold my attention. I love a story with deep world-building and tons of information because I am an epic fantasy reader, but the way the information was dumped into this book: religious orders, political machinations, death powers, etc. It was just not written in a way that was for me and that is not to say that this was a bad book, just not for me. I am sure many, many other readers will adore this, but I just could not enjoy this story.

I finished it, but it took me about four attempts and that's because it was an ARC and I did not want to DNF without leaving a review.

The Foxglove King, by Hannah Whitten, is full of mythology and court intrigue. Caught in the middle are the three main characters - Lore, Gabriel, and Bastian. Lore grew up working for her mothers as a poison runner and spy. Gabriel is a member of the Presque Mort, an elite cadre of monks protecting the kingdom. Bastian is the Sun Prince, a charming rogue set to inherit the throne. None of them can fully trust the others as they work together to uncover the King’s plans and stay alive.

While not a fan of love triangles, I did like the three main characters and all their smoldering desire. I enjoyed how they were caught up in the power plays of church and state. They knew they were being used as pawns but fought against their manipulation.

All this maneuvering is set against a dark world with catacombs, necromancy, mysterious deaths, worship of a "Bleeding God," and a buried goddess leaking deadly “Mortem.”

This is the first book in a new series, but the plot lines wrap-up enough at the end to give the reader some satisfaction. I am curious about how the relationships will play out in the next book. I expect there will be more secret maneuvering and a greater focus on the theme of destiny vs. free will. I also hope the world building expands. The threat of war is ever present in The Foxglove King, so perhaps we will learn more about the neighboring kingdom, its rulers and mythology.

I’m definitely on board to continue reading this series, and eager to see how the story plays out.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing this eARC for review.

Thanks Orbit for the ARC! 3.75 stars. The beginning was a bit slow for me, but there was a lot of world building and character history to unpack that helped me through. I LOVED the three main characters, their stories, and their development throughout the book. The romance in this is lighter than For The Wolf, with a love triangle combined with what is feeling like a slow-burn romance. I'm not even sure who I am rooting for yet. The magic system with mortum and spiritum is easy to understand, and I loved the slow trickle of hints and information we received. Some of the ending was predictable, but that didn't take away from the twists and turns of how we got there. I'm excited for the second already!

Gothic yet hopeful and full of tension.

I didn't know what to expect as I eased into the first installment of the Hannah Whitten's Nightshade Crown series, since she's a new author to me and this is clearly a new series.

From the first pages, Lore is a strong but chaotic anti-hero, and we're introduced to the Mortem darkness almost immediately. Within a few pages, it seems, we're introduced to the two men in the series, as well as double-crossings, mysteries, and Lore's slow understanding of her own powers, or lack thereof.

The characters are written with so much depth and detail that we're struggling along with them, in how we feel about them and their decisions in any given scene. An interesting twist on the dark and the light, piousness and chaos, with intrigue of a country playing with powers they don't understand.

Be forewarned, this does end with a bit of a cliffhanger on several levels, but honestly, I can't wait for the next installment.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.8/5

Necromancy! Political intrigue! Prophecies! A pending apocalypse! Complicated relationships with religion AND with each other!

I don’t even know where to start, so this probably won’t be much of a review. All I can really say is that this book was phenomenal, even better than I imagined. The characters are all fun and complex (and absolute messes), and while some of them do play into fantasy archetypes, they’re all still fascinating. The story is long, and dense, and can take some time to get through, but I was never bored of it. Death magic, light magic, the history with the gods, etc all give the book such a strong background, and the plot is one part intrigue and action, one pry messy interpersonal relationships. I loved it.

My only real critique is that the characters were very slow to pick up on some things that are very clear to readers early on—which, fair, but the story is from Lore’s POV, so we know for a fact that she has all the same facts the reader does. Of course, in the end, half these very things end up being manipulations or lies, but still.

If you liked For the Wolf but wished it was more traditional fantasy than atmospheric vibes fantasy, this book is for you. If you read Gideon the Ninth and wished those necromancers were a little more sane and/or not in space, this book is for you. If you loved both those books, like I did, this book is for you. And if you have religious trauma, this book is extra for you.

I definitely love this author. Lore is different. I loved everything in this book. I need more. What an ending that was.

Necromancy, court intrigue, religion, and a dash of romance! Such a delightful mix of themes that really engaged me. One moment we were exploring ancient catacombs and the next, at a lavish masquerade. The hedonistic life-style of the courtiers really lent itself well to the discussion of one of my favorite element of this story which is the use of poisons both as a drug and as a means to extend life. Lore-the-poison-runner would face death if caught with poison, while Lore-the-courtier could partake of the same poison as openly as drinking water . The ways poison use interacts with the politics of the world was fascinating to me.

The romance aspect of the book was so minimal and anticlimactic that I hesitate to call the love triangle a love triangle. Let's just say if you like pining you will definitely find it. That being said I did love the interactions between the three characters as I found them all compelling and the banter and conversations had me hooked.

One thing I appreciate about the book is that it embeds queernormativity in the world building. Lore had two mothers & Bastian is Bi and their sexuality was never questioned nor the source of any trauma (at least so far in this series), they simply exist in the world and I wanted to acknowledge that. However in terms of world-building, I wish that the court has a more distinct personality. As fun as the court scenes were, I find the setting would not stand out when compared to courts of generic fantasy worlds.

I found I got along well with the writing style, it was both beautiful and accessible in a way that kept me happily turning the pages. It wasn't until the last 60 pages where I found myself feeling more lost than I hoped for. The ending was resolved a bit too quickly and a lot of the questions I had were not answered in a believable way, at least not to my mind. However that didn't stop me from enjoying this book greatly and the aspects I enjoyed far outweigh those I didn't. The magic system, the characters, and the themes are all things I will be coming back to this series for!

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit books for an eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for letting me read an ARC of this book.

I LOVED this book. Lore is an amazing character and the whole premise of this book is absolutely fantastic. It reminds me of Throne of Glass in all of the best ways. I really hope that the series is continued and we hear more of what happens!!

I was initially very excited to read The Foxglove King after hearing about the royalty themes and the possibility of a love triangle in an adult book. Unfortunately, this book just fell flat for me. This could be due to the fact that I have not been very interested in fantasy books recently, but I found that the characters were a bit too YA for me. The scenes felt very long and I felt as though I was trudging through certain chapters. The descriptions were heavy in a way that I would have preferred Whitten to show what was going on rather than tell. I can see how this would appeal to a certain audience, but I am not that audience. Something I did enjoy was learning about the magic system and the elements of religion. The writing was also easy and accessible.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for the eARC

I want to give a more extensive review to this but I feel this is a book I may need a second read of to really grasp my full feelings about it.

Hannah Whitten has certainly grown as a writer. I DNF'd For The Wolf and returned later to finish and found it enjoyable but not memorable. Unforutnately, The Foxglove King is also somewhat unmemorable for me for two reasons:

1. The magic system takes inspiration without knowledge of its source.
2. The setting feels more like stgae dressing than a breathing world.

It's not all bad, to be clear. I still feel this is a solid 3 stars. Lore is a wonderful character to follow along with Bastian, and Gabriel was one of my absolute favourites of the novel. I enjoyed following their story even if at times I felt choices were made more for plot than character, something I dislike as a reader. I feel like characters must be grown around their setting, not the other way around.
I did enjoy the foundations of the plot and I think the book itself didn't overstay it's welcome and was paced well enough I could get through the parts I was less fond of without it feeling like a chore. I love a good court spy story and I did enjoy the atmosphere Whitten created around the mystery of it all. The tension was good - I have to say this is one area I feel Whitten is very strong in.

If I offered any advice to Whitten it would be the same I would offer to most authors: the use of intricate and overly descriptive prose has a time and place... and that place is not all the time. I started skimming some paragraphs because it felt like descriptive bloat.

To touch on one of the two points mentioned: I grew up Anglican with a mother who was raised Catholic. As a queer person I saw the impacts of the church in my life and the lives of many of my friends and was involved with the church for most of my childhood and teenage years. When I compare this to works like Rogerson or Sanderson, who both use their knowledge of religion to build complex worlds, I can't help but feel Whitten actively chose to only engage with the skimmed surface and treated it like pop culture - all show and no substance. I found this feeply disappointing and it lacked, in my opinion, meaningful commentary in how it only engages with the extremes. It's not that this can't work, but the lack of understanding of theology and practice weighs this book down in a way I couldn't ignore.

I may be on the unpopular side here, but I was not overly fond of the way Whitten chose to write her disability rep. I feel more sensitivity was needed.

I'm not sure if Whitten is completely for me as an author. I have yet to read For The Throne but I'm told it's her storngest work. I'm willing to try again, because I truly feel her ideas are for me... but they lack in some areas of the execution.

4.75 ⭐️
No spice but there was the tiniest moment of steam

I’d like to thank the author, and OrbitBooks for the eARC opportunity. With that said, this review is completely voluntary and honest.

Wow this book really put me through it. Hannah has a way with telling a story and keeping you on the edge of your seat! I think I held my breath the last 10% of the book. I had ideas where the story was going to go but there were so many twists and turns.

While it did start a little slow for me, once Lore gets to court things really picked up. I found the religion aspect a little heavy, but I think that’s the point and it’s not a typical religion, the magic is all connected to it. It, in a way, reminds me of Serpent and Dove in that aspect. But I was still really intrigued to know more.

Our main character, Lore, is a Poison runner. Poison is a way to access Mortem. A way to make you live longer by poisoning yourself. It’s far to intricate for me to accurately explain, but it’s illegal. Lore’s ability with Mortem (death magic in a way) catches the eye of the King and Priest. Thus Lore is thrown into court as a Duke turned Monk’s cousin, to spy on the prince and raise bodies of dead villagers.

Gabe, our Duke turned monk, is so sweet and seemingly innocent. The sins of his father has followed him for 14 years and it’s shaped him a certain way. His and Lore’s banter is *chef’s kiss*

Our prince, Bastian, has so many layers. He’s funny and cocky, but also cunning and lethal in a way all his own. The banter between him, Gabe, and Lore it top tier. I laughed so much at them all together.

I have no idea where book two is headed but I’m thoroughly hooked and need to know more!

This book was a solid read. The cover was nice. Would definitely recommend. Hopefully others enjoy it as well. Can’t wait for more to come.

Good LORD. This book knocked it out of the PARK harder than I ever could’ve guessed. I’m dizzy & confused in the best way.

The Foxglove King is an AMAZING series start, and it brings so many amazing and unique things to the table. We’ve got a gothic backdrop, a morally grey death witch, a snarky prince, a broody priest. Cinematic magic, necromancy, stunning and full world building. And this only scratched the surface.

Lore is the kind of MC all MCs seem to strive to be these days: she’s ruthless and complex, she’s morally grey (but actually, but just touting that she is), she’s also caring and riddled with loneliness that she bones into a blade. She manages to be all of these things while also being unique, and utterly likable. There’s a love triangle here, and I LOVE when a love triangle is well handled, although not many are. This one on the other hand is a WINNER my friends. I loved the tension with Lore & Gabe, I loved the forced proximity and the hidden identities. I loved this cast against her confused connection with Bastian, our snarky and fun loving prince who we later find to have the most complex set of goals and emotions. I loved all of these characters so much.

I also love when the threat takes me by surprise. There are a lot of sinister folks in this tale, and it all unfolded at the end in a way that I hadn’t foreseen, leaving me frantically trying to learn who the real villain was until the very last moment.

I had seen nothing but rave reviews from other arc readers up until this point, and I am so happy to learn that the raving was well founded. I cannot WAIT until the next book, and I think this one could be a total sensation in the next few years

Thank you to Orbit & NetGalley for the eArc of this title!

If you love the structure and pacing of YA fantasy, but always wish the plot was a little edgier, the characters a little older, and the romance a little spicier – then I have just the thing for you!

The first book in a new series, The Foxglove King is set in a world that feels loosely inspired by Paris and the Sun King’s Versailles. The story follows Lore, a spy for a criminal syndicate and a necromancer who is captured by an order of monks and given an ultimatum: get close to the prince to learn if he is a traitor instigating war or die.

So Lore finds herself suddenly living at the Palace with Gabriel, a haunted and loyal duke-turned-monk, and clinging to a flimsy backstory as she tries to get close to Bastian, the rakish prince who has mastered the art of persona. It isn’t hard to do since she feels a seemingly supernatural pull toward both Bastian and Gabe – and they feel the same.😏

There’s court intrigue, there’s political tension, there’s culty religious fervor and mystery, there’s crackling, angsty chemistry beneath all three of our main characters, and the writing? There were several moments when I had to pause because a line was just *that good.*

It’s basically a book full of all my favorite things – including a third act filled with twists and reveals that will have you shrieking in both horror and delight, and an epilogue that will have you gasping and waiting very impatiently for the next book.

I enjoyed every second I spent with Lore, Gabe, and Bastian, and can already tell I won’t be shutting up about this one for a very long time.

4.5🌟
1.5🌶️

As a fan of For the Wolf / For the Throne, I was really looking forward to this book! Thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC.

Hannah Whitten's style is dreamy and, particularly in this book, very heavy on the vibes, very light on the logic. Readers who like to go for a ride and are happy to set their realism-glasses aside will adore this story.

The religious magic system was really interesting. I didn’t understand how the magic worked entirely at times, but then, neither did the characters. Otherwise the worldbuilding felt a bit surficial and left me with questions.

I really enjoyed Hannah's writing style, for the most part. She crafts lovely prose, gorgeous turns of phrase, and very pretty descriptions. It is very easy to consume and despite the bumpier elements, I did want to read on most of the time. There were some unfortunate anachronistic phrases sprinkled throughout which dragged me right out of the story. Some readers will love them. I didn't.

The content of the pretty prose is, for better or worse, very unsubtle. Everything feels spelled out; we’re told key info two or three times to be sure we got it. (We got it!) It gives the book a strong YA feel and undermines any complexity to the plot. There were many times I wish things had been left a little more vague.

Now, I love tropes. I am vehemently Team Trope. But there were so so many tropey, cliché moments and phrases, some of which felt contrived in how they were squeezed in, that it began to detract. The prince is a perfect archetype and walking trope — and honestly, I loved that for him, the dark sensual prince is my fave, hashtag guilty pleasures — but I was really disappointed that he never did anything to live up to his reputation.

Which was too bad, because this book really lacked in romance. All we got was some over-the-top deja vu reincarnation-trope feelings and a single horny kiss "mistake" with the meh option in the supposed love triangle. And don’t get me started on the number of threesome-coded hints sprinkled throughout. (What the heck were those? Promises broken, and weird cringey ones, at that.)

The protagonist was inconsistent, and her “show” didn’t match her “tell” in terms of behaviours and choices. She did things that didn’t make sense or align with her backstory as we'd been told it: the entire initiating incident would never have happened if she’d acted in line with the character and backstory we were told about. She seemed to care very little about some things. (I can relate.)

I can’t tell if I’d read the next in the series. Maybe. I’m a sucker for tropey romance and boy oh boy Hannah owes us after all the non-delivered romance promised in this book, but… we'll see.

Recommended to readers who prefer aesthetics over logic, enjoy pretty prose, and don’t mind if they have to wait til book 2 for (hopefully) romance. 2.5-3 stars

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and my overall rating is 3.75

I was excited about this book when I first heard about it. To be able to receive an arc of it, had me over the moon. I had already pre-ordered it with Indigo since the day it became available to order. I have not read Hannah's books before, so I was going into this relatively blind to her writing style.

The overall plot and world-building of this series are both fascinating. You can tell how much work went into Hannah creating this world for us. A religion based on life/death magic with mythology and the catholic church practices blended together with monks, monarchy and death wheelers. I loved that Hannah included scriptures from the religion and from other sources from within her world. They were fun clues and also a great way to recap what was happening.

If you're looking for romance in this series, it's not in the first book and whatever happened is definitely a slow burn with more longing and temptation but nothing that is going to bring the chilli peppers to the rating system. But the two male counterparts to our main gal, Lore are both special in their own ways and you're emotions are still tugged in different directions all the time. I love the different dynamics that Lore achieved with both Bastian and Gabe, and how both of them brought out a different side of her. I don't know if I can choose right now who I like better for her. I absolutely loved the way the story started and how I was so intrigued by who Lore was right from the start. Hannah sucked me into the story in the first chapter.

While I really loved the plotline and the characters, there were times I had a hard time following along with how the magic works. The story is very heavily focused on its religion and how it works and how our characters are linked to it. And at points, I had to re-read over and over to make sure I understood what was happening and what it all meant. In the end, I knew what was happening for the most part, but I never felt like I fully grasped the entire thing.

There were times when I had to put the book down (responsibilities are evil) and it was all I could think about. My theories were running around in different directions. Some I got right - but even without knowing fully what was happening with the magic, I was just in love with this story and needed to know what was going to happen.

The book leaves on a cliffhanger that will have me pondering until the next one comes out and I will be checking out the next book as soon as it drops.

The Foxglove King the first in a dark fantasy duology. It does have a gothic feel to it which I think most will appreciate!

The world building was phenomenal to me! Everything was laid out clearly and intriguing! The character development as well! While usually not a fan of love triangle because they never end up with who I want them to - I do like the one in this story.

My only criticism would be that it was slow to start and lately I find that books which continue to begin this way are a struggle for me to read. If it does hook me from the beginning in some way or at least include some brief action there - I lose focus and it take me more effort to get through.

I think that this book is about to be absolutely everywhere -- it's a compelling romantasy novel with a dark, beautiful vibe. I loved Hannah Whitten's first two books, and I think she's shifted into a new gear, with a larger, more expansive world, and a slightly snappier voice. I really enjoyed reading The Foxglove King and I have a feeling it's going to be the new bookstagram/BookTok sensation.