This wasn’t for me and I so wanted it to be. It’s because this was confusing. It starts off as if it’s not a book that’s first in series. You, the reader just get thrusted into this world.
Also it was quite slow and very confusing world building, that didn’t seem to stop. So I got frustrated.
I did not care for the love triangle because I didn’t really care for the main character.

Sorry but this was a frustratingly, weird read for me and ending on a cliffhanger is not enough for me to continue with series.

I really enjoyed this book a lot! It took a while for me to get into the book, but once I did, it was totally worth it. TFK is definitely a unique and fantastic story that I recommend! Thank you Netgalley and Orbit books for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

The world-building in this book is incredible. I love how unique the themes are, characters, and environment. It was such an interesting concept that it was refreshing. Since this is the first installment in The Foxglove King, I am excited to see where Hannah Whitten takes the story in the future.

If you want something exciting and refreshing, this is the book for you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this! I would give a 4.5/5 stars if halves were allowed, haha. I've not read this author's other series yet but it's been on my TBR list. This however sounded more up my alley and I'm so glad I got to receive an ARC! I did think the worldbuilding was a bit clunky in the beginning and felt kind of thrown into it. Sometimes this works for the better but I found it a little hard to find my footing in the story at first. Also in the beginning, the magic system was a bit hard to follow - it's very unique and complex. That said, once I was about 1/4 through things really picked up and I felt more grounded in the story. I will also say that characterization, particularly of the three leads, is definitely a strength of Whitten's. I loved them all! I can't wait to receive my preorder of this book and will definitely be reading the rest of the series!

Lore is a Poison runner and spy, with a secret affinity for death. When a job goes wrong, she finds herself thrust into court life, which may just be deadlier than the streets.

This is such a brilliant story, full of magic and mystery and romance. Absolutely loved it!

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book to review.

Once again, Hannah Whitten has produced the start of a wholly original high fantasy series filled with political intrigue, God magic, and a romantic triangle where I am still unsure whom I want to succeed.

The Foxglove King centers around a girl helping run a drug smuggling ring who is called upon by the Citadel to spy on the prince at court. Lore also has an uncanny ability to summon and manipulate Mortem, which is more or less death magic, if not death itself.

Although this one started off a bit slow for me due to getting a handle on the religious and political hierarchy, I am glad that I did not give up because the pace quickly speeds up and the ending leaves the reader desperate for more. I loved the set up, the characters, and the world building,

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Orbit, and Hannah Whitten for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was honestly such a fun ride, and it really held my interest the entire way through. The premise balances the use of death magic, or Mortem, with a couple of strong-willed young protagonists, and the setting is inspired by the court of the Sun King (Louis XIV of France). Lore has grown up on the streets, and works as a spy trying to avoid demonstrating the more dangerous parts of her illegal magic and propensity for Mortem. When things go awry, she finds herself in the court of the Sun King, asked to spy on his (young and hot) son and use her talents for a questionable cause. Her companion: a (young and hot) priest sworn to celibacy.

Honestly, most of this book worked really well for me. Lore is spunky and lovable, and I found myself rooting for her to survive in the midst of the viper's nest. Yes there are some love triangle elements, but I've never had an issue with those if I feel like the setup makes sense to me, and this one worked well enough. Most of all, I really enjoyed the setting and the magic. I think that the way the magical elements are revealed throughout the book really works well, and I was super intrigued by the end which sets up a lot of potential conflict and action for the series.

I will say, as with Whitten's other book, this reads a bit young, despite the characters clearly being adults. However, unlike For the Wolf, I found the setting and magic system more detailed and uniquely drawn, and I can see myself remaining invested in this series!

A good series needs a good foundation & that’s what this book is. It’s laying the groundwork for the next book. On its own this book is maybe 3.5 stars. The world is interesting, the story unique, the writing atmospheric & haunting. But there’s so much exposition regarding religion, philosophy, & politics that I felt like I needed to take notes. Those details help flesh out the world but the book ends just as you feel you have a grasp on how things work.

While the world building is extensive, the character relationships are a little lazier. We’re told that the three central characters all feel a “connection” to one another which serves to catapult us into believing their immediate intimacy. A lot of actions and reactions to things were explained away because someone “just had a feeling”. I’m assuming their feelings will be explained in later books but I’m very much projecting because it actually reads as lazy and not foreboding.

It’s obviously important to the author that you know the main love interest’s are hot and the MC is attracted to both. It’s actually hilarious how often it’s noted how distracted she finds herself around their flexing muscle or the “vast expanses of bare skin” that often end up displayed. This is not a criticism. I’m also distracted by hot people.

There’s really no subtlety in this story. The “clues” to the twists are repeated so many times that it became annoying. Even if you can guess what’s going to happen (I promise you that you can guess what’s going to happen) it doesn’t detract from the story as much as you’d expect.

I absolutely love how creepy this book is. I slept with the lights on after I finished it. I also loved the characters and want more of them even though it feels like the actual plot of this book did them a disservice.

It’ll stick with you, if you stick with it. I didn’t consider DNF’ing it but I certainly wasn’t in a hurry to finish it until the last 25% of the book when things start to pick up.

I think this series will be Great. I think this book was Kind of Good.

(Thank you to Net Galley & Orbit for providing me an ARC of this book!❤️)

Really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, who were all sassy and nice enough that you rooted for them. I liked the gothic lore, and catholic aesthetics. The prose was vivid yet never purple. Can’t wait to see what the next instalment has in store for us!

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ARC of The Foxglove King.

This was fun to read, the kind of book that makes you want to try and solve the mysteries before they can be revealed only to discover new layers to consider.

The world building in this book was amazing. Both in the unique magic system and the stylistic execution. Information is revealed in a way that feels natural to the plot and the character development. It was a pleasure to read.

I found the pacing to be on the slower side, but with steady building intensity. The last few chapters felt like a dramatic shift in pace that was not unwelcome. Although, it resulted in the ending feeling a bit rushed and some important plot points not feeling fully developed. From the eclipse ball onward, when everything comes to a head, is where I would have wanted more development of the major events and reveals. They deserved more pages!

The dynamic between the three main characters was fun to read. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops in the next book.

This book was an excellent introduction to a series. The stage has been well set and I am fully invested. Whitten has done an amazing job giving just enough answers to provoke more questions.

Well played, I anxiously await book 2.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been reading ARCs of Hannah’s books since For the Wolf and I was very excited to see how her writing has continued to grow since her debut. While For the Wolf was rough along its edges, I felt like the gem of storytelling was still there and I was looking forward to see how that continued to be polished.

The Foxglove King is a clear successor in a lot of ways. The quality of her writing continues to improve with each book, however there are still some really heavy-handed cliches. What felt like a large “prophecy revealed twist at the end” was incredibly obvious from the very beginning of the book, but I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by that.

Some of the things that did strike me as odd were the blatant similarities between things and the book and the real-world inspiration they were pulled from (naming the Goddess of Night Nyx(ara) and God of Light (Apollo)eius for example). I feel like her intentions behind this were to give homage, but instead it came across as lazy writing. This can also be said of the setting, inspiration of the church, etc. Perhaps if the inspiration was more subtle and not based on shallow cliches it would have worked better.

(I was also very excited at the prospect of a potential poly pairing in this only to be disappointed when it took a turn to the more traditional love triangle trope.)

Ultimately I enjoyed the book and I will definitely continue with the series, if not just to continue to witness the growth of Hannah’s writing. While the skill isn’t quite there yet, the storytelling at the core of it is and if she continues to write like this I think we can expect fantastic things to come.

To be honest, up until about the 100th page, I was pretty immersed in this series and felt that it may perhaps pique my interest. Unfortunately, I was proved wrong. Here are some of the reasons I am disappointed in this book and had to force myself to finish it:
1. This includes some very typical YA plots like a love triangle and the whole thing about how it's fated for them to fall in love and blah blah blah.
2. Like 90% of YA fantasy, the romance is so stiff and flat. All the main characters basically just fall in love because they look good. Love at first sight I guess.
3. The language and mainly the expressions the female lead uses is honestly so modern America. The phrases she used sounded so 21st century and there's no way the story takes place anywhere around this time frame.
4. The author tried to make the female lead look so gorgeous, cool, and sassy, but it FEELS WAY TOO FORCED!!! {cry} Honestly, whenever the author mentions the female lead's curves and how she just cusses uncivilly as if she's so special, I find it just too much. I get that she's the protagonist and she should stand out, but I just am not feeling it.
5. One of the male leads just has totally contrasting characters. I just know that the author made him a monk with an eyepatch to attract hype, and there's nothing wrong with it, but at least make him a bit more monkish! Apparently, he blushes when he helps a girl button her dress and acts all monkish and shy, but whenever he goes to sleep, he feels perfectly comfortable taking off his shirt in front of a girl?! (I mean we all know he has impressive abs, but don't make it so obvious!)
6. The copy a received was an advance copy, but I did find a sentence quite poorly structured that I couldn't understand very well, I hope they fix it in the final copy.
Anyways, this book is just like your typical YA book and I would recommend it if you can't find anything to read. It's not terrible and also not something where you would have to wash out all your brain cells to enjoy, but definitely too many cliche ideas for me to like.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this opportunity to review this book!

The premise of this book caught me right off the bat, death magic and a royal court? Sign me the hell up! I was super excited for the book especially since this is my first book by Hannah F. Whitten.
Lore is our main character and when she was 13 she escaped from a cult and she knows she cannot be found by them. But there's something that makes it hard for Lore, she has Mortem. Mortem is pretty much death magic and when she exposes herself she is thrown into the court. Here she works with the Presque Mort, people who use their mortem for the king.
I enjoyed the plotline and the magic system. Even the characters were amazing. I loved how Lore progressed throughout the story with Gabe and Bastian. I couldn’t guess at all who was behind the village murders and that was very surprising since in most books it can be pretty easy to tell / figure out but here I couldn’t. The biggest thing I loved in the book though 100% was the magic system. Mortem was super interesting and figuring out all the different ways it could be used was thrilling.
There was also a bit of romance and I’m glad it wasn’t empowering because I preferred the focus on magic more.
Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an e-arc copy in exchange for a honest review.

The Foxglove King was a really fun read. Hannah Whitten has created a vibrant, rich world that I am looking forward to exploring more throughout the series. It's been awhile since a book has captured me in this way, but I really really loved this story.

As someone who wasn't the biggest fan of For The Wolf and For The Throne (those books just weren't for me, but I can appreciate them for what they are), The Foxglove King is right up my alley. It's equal parts plot/mystery-driven (I really can't wait to see where all the seeds planted in book 1 go in the rest of the series!) and character/relationship-driven (Lore, Gabe, and Bastian are really special). I hate throwing around the phrase "for fans of ACOTAR" but I truly feel the descriptor fits for this book.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!

I'm so obsessed!!! I want multiple copies of this book. Take all my money, idc! I need more... I just want more, more more!!!

Lore is the female main character and the narrator of this story. She lives in a country in which citizens use poison such as Belladonna and Foxglove as a drug and also as a way to increase the length of their life. Lore has a secret ability, a way to control and contort death, or mortem. She's caught during a poison run and soon finds herself amidst a secret plot of the King in the citadel. She's paired with a pious monk (a very good-looking monk) while they work together to spy on the (also, incredibly good-looking) prince.

This book broaches the topic of religion and politics, and if there should even be a relationship between the two while the main characters attempt to trust one another and face possible betrayals at every turn. This love triangle is also more than it seems, which is one of the myriad of reasons I'm looking forward to much more in a sequel.

There is so much to this book. I felt just riveted to this story and thought about it even when I wasn't reading.

Out March 7, 2023!

This book was GOOD. Fits right in for lovers of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Sarah J. Maas. I will definitely be reading book 2 and hopefully book 3.

A very believable fantasy world with characters you love and want to root for. Very interested to see what’s next for Lore, Bastian and Gabriel. At first I didn’t know what was happening, but the further and further you read, you’re hooked. I stayed up until I finished reading because I needed to know how it ended and I think you will too. Enjoy!

*Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dark fantasy, court intrigue, and forbidden romance all written by Hannah Whitten?! SIGN. ME. UP.
Hannah did an amazing job of painting the world and explaining the magic system without explaining the magic system.
This is an amazing start to a dark fantasy duology I can not wait for the next installment. I felt like this book/story flowed a bit better than For the Wolf, and I was a huge fan of that one.
The only thing for me was that it was a bit slow to start and I struggled to keep going in the beginning, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.

I really enjoyed Hannah Whitten’s “For the Wolf” duology. The first book came out back in the “summer of ‘Red Riding Hood’ retellings,” as I fondly dubbed it, and I think Whitten’s version was my favorite of the three I read over those months. “For the Throne” was also an excellent sequel, taking the characters and the world in directions that I hadn’t expected. All of this to say, I am fully on board Whitten’s train, and I was super excited when I saw that she was releasing a new book this spring that would be the first in a new series. Let’s dive in!

I’m going to forego my usual summary chapter, and instead talk a bit about the fact that I think the official book’s summary is a bit misleading. It’s not truly important, but I think Lore’s connection to the catacombs is much more complex than “she escaped a cult and is in hiding.” I also think there are simply bits of the few sentences about this aspect of the book in the summary that are just factually wrong. I’m always mildly fascinated when there are discrepancies like these in book summaries. Was there some purpose behind this choice? Did the summary writer only skim the book and this was an accident? Who knows? Beyond this, the rest of the summary seems clear enough.

First, let’s talk about worldbuilding, particularly with regards to the magic and gods of this world. I think it’s interesting that this is now the second series that Whitten has written where her magic system involves magical forces directly interacting with the body, often resulting in mildly horrifying temporary changes to one’s physical self. I mean, I guess if you know what you like in a magic system, just go for it? I just found that interesting.

I will say, however, that it took me a bit to truly understand how this magic works, not only Lore’s abilities but also Mortem itself as used by others in the form of consuming poisonous substances. At a certain point early in the book, I had to consciously choose to stop trying to understand this and just go with it. As I continued reading, some of these details did become more clear, but honestly, I’d still struggle to write down a concise explanation of how it all worked. I’m not sure if this was a failing of the system itself or how it was described, but readers should be prepared to devote some thought and reading time into absorbing this aspect. I do think it is worth it, however, since as the book continued and I felt more comfortable with the concepts, this magical conceit opened up a lot of interesting story lines and theories.

As for the gods, I thought this part of the book was a bit familiar. There are a lot of fantasy books that deal with a religion that has been built up around one god after the destruction of a larger pantheon that came before. So, too, the relationship between a god of life/light and a goddess of darkness/death. The book played its cards pretty close to the chest with these themes, however, leaving a lot of questions still to be answered in this area. But I also feel fairly confident that I know where this is going, and it might read familiar to other readers as well. Who knows though? As I said, we don’t get any clear answers here, so Whitten could still surprise me!

Lastly, the characters and, most importantly, the love triangle between them. Yes, a love triangle and if you skip to the end of the review, you’ll see that I gave this book a good rating, so what’s going on here? Well, I’ll say that the success of this particular love triangle comes down to one key thing: all three of these characters are fully realized individuals with their own arcs and struggles within this book. Yes, it’s mostly Lore’s book. But the story does an excellent job of also setting up Gabriel, a young man who has been shaped by a great tragedy in his past, and now must struggle with dueling loyalties to Lore and to the religion and its leader who gave him refuge during that tragic event. Bastian, too, is a fully realized character, and his story explores themes of responsibility, power, and trust. Truly, the “romance,” such that it is, between all three characters is very much in the background to the growth that they experience as individuals, as various pairs, and as a group of three together.

I’ll also say that the romance plays out in a very non-traditional manner, in some ways. Part of my problem with love triangles is that I always feel as if the true love interest is telegraphed so clearly and so early that the second romantic storyline just feels like rather boring subterfuge. Here, I almost had the opposite problem. At various points in the story, both characters feel as if they are being set up as the end game couple. But then at different points in the story, each does something that I would typically say points to them being ruled them out as the end game partner. I found myself not only confused but intrigued, and I’m now half-wondering if Whitten is pulling a fast one on me and neither character will be a true love interest by the end of the series.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think some aspects of the world-building were a bit confusing, on one hand, and overly familiar, on another. But it’s also clearly the start to a series, so both of these questions could be resolved in follow-up books. I do think the story lives and dies on the strength of its central three characters, and I, for one, was completely sold on them all. If you enjoy character-centric stories and want a more complex look at a love triangle, this is the fantasy novel for you!

Rating 8: Like the book’s own magic, Whitten perfectly balances darkness and light to create a new fantasy world and leading lady that feels both dangerous and opulent, ferocious and soft. An intriguing start!

(Link will go live March 8)

The Foxglove King is a gothic political fantasy, filled with deeply rich world-building and an intriguing main character. Lore's journey through a Versailles-like court was filled with a fun mystery, romance, and high stakes - I found this one hard to put down thats for sure! I also thought Whitten wrote a fairly convincing love triangle that I can't wait to be explored in the next two books. Gabe and Bastian were both very different but I rooted for them all the same. The twists and turns felt a tad predictable, but I think that it's more a testament to Whitten's world building being so immersive.

Hannah Whitten has become one of my favorite new authors over the last year. I was looking forward to reading this new novel from her. I enjoyed the world building on in this novel. I liked getting to know Lore as the main character. I thought it was interesting about the magic of Lore being able to handle death or mortum. I can’t wait to read the next book to see what the plot will be like.