Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for the chance to read this early!

Unfortunately this was another DNF for me. 😱

In a culture where we will happily read about multiple partners, a love triangle is so 2008. Please. Publishers. No love triangle. It's as intolerable as a miscommunication trope.

Perhaps all the happily ever after RH I've read have ruined me, but this is torture. 🤷

Which is such a shame because the rest of the book is quite decent, but I'm more of a "came here for the fantasy, stayed for the romance vibe" kind of reader. So if the relationships between the characters doesn't hook me.. I'm just not invested in the outcome.

Other than this, the storyline is quite good. I do feel like the religion could have been worked on some more, had a bit more meat to it ya know? But perhaps that would have come later.

The world building wasn't quite strong enough to be a "fantasy with a splash of romance" but the romance element wasn't strong enough for it to be a "fantasy romance" either. So 🤷 I'm not sure.

Overall it was an ok book, with an excellent idea. It's a shame how it was executed because I'm sooo curious how the story itself would have played out.

I wanted to live this, but I really struggled with the writing and voice. It just didn't click for me, unfortunately! Loved the premise

*Thank you for the ARC. All opinions are my own.**

3.5-3.75 stars. Lushly magical and dark.

THE STORY: A rich and lush magical world. I enjoyed the build-up of religious lore featuring gods, prophecies, and elemental magic. To be quite honest, this story is not that different from other "Girl Grows Into Magical Powers In Fantasy World" books. In addition, the characters' motives were quite plain and transparent from their actions and words. If you're into that genre of fantasy, this will be a familiar treat for you.

THE ROMANCE: This is how a slow-burn love triangle should be executed. The main character clearly had chemistry with both love interests. However, similar to the genre of fantasy this book lands in, we're faced with the good ol' choice of Stoic and Quiet Love Interest 1 versus Charismatic and Charming Love Interest 2.

TLDR; Recommend this dark fantasy! Nothing too surprising, though.

Agree with many other reviews; this one was good but not great (in fact, I read it last month and had to refresh my memory on what happened). Sort of light on details when convenient for the author. Refreshingly dark, though, with no clear heroes, which is always fun. Would recommend but for older teens, not adults. Most certainly a part 1. I believe this is an author with promise, who will be commercially appealing, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

*4.5 stars*

Hannah Whitten beautifully crafted a grotesque world filled with lies, corruption, betrayals, and so much trauma, built upon the corpse of a long dead goddess leaking death magic into the city.

This books has it all: crown vs church politics, an interesting magic system, amazing world building, religious trauma, impending war, terrible parents, and of course forbidden romance. It conjures up images of a beautiful world filled with decay.

The character building is good but I would have enjoyed more of it. What seemed to be a set up for a love triangle wasn’t entirely convincing but I’m excited to see where the next book takes each of the characters. One thing I think Whitten does really well is create characters that are easily relatable and redeemable, despite all of them being a little morally gray.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

I adored the For the Wolf duology by Hannah Whitten, so I was foaming at the mouth to read The Foxglove King. I was hoping for more of what I loved from her first series: compelling characters, lush worldbuilding, and romance soaked in atmosphere, which is exactly what I got from The Foxglove King. Her writing, though, has only gotten better. Death magic is one of my favorite fantasy tropes, so it was almost guaranteed that I would devour this book, which is almost entirely based around that trope.

I would recommend The Foxglove King for any readers who look for political intrigue, atmospheric worldbuilding, or romance in their adult fantasy novels. At this point, I'll probably read anything Hannah Whitten writes.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah Whitten is quickly becoming an auto buy author! I loved For the Wolf and For the Throne so when I received this arc, I was so excited! I ended up reading it in a day, I just couldn’t put it down! I love the way Whitten writes, the way she developed the world, the characters and the magic system. The only thing I didn’t love was the ending, just because it felt rushed and didn’t match up with the lushness and detail of the rest of the book. But either way, I’m so excited for the next book in the series!

This was a great start to a new series! I loved the world Hannah Whitten created and I really liked the mix of political intrigue, religion and magic. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

The Foxglove King is a new series from Hannah Whitten. If you did (or didn't) enjoy For the Wolf this one has a different style.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced digital copy.

Be honest, you know you can tell if a book is for you or not from the first chapters, no? Well this book does it—it grabs you in from the first PAGE. You immediately tell the magic is well done, the character's voice are clear and distinct. The book tackles well the "darkness beneath a glittering surface" , and is a must read if you've read FOR THE WOLF.

This is a hard book for me to rate because fantasy is not my typical go to genre. When I first read the synopsis I got vibes of Six of Crow and since I loved that fantasy novel I thought I’d give this one a go. I realized immediately it wasn’t anything like Six, but I kept going. At 25% I was bored and it wasn’t holding my interest, but I kept plugging along. Ultimately, this didn’t hold my attention at all and while I finished it, I did so to move along to the next book on my list. Because this is an ARC from NetGalley I didn’t want it to be a DNF. Even with twists, 2 love interests, a little magic, and a lot of fighting it just didn’t hold my interest.
I applaud the author’s usage of a multitude of “SAT words” but her grammar skills are lacking in a few areas. Had my attention been held by the story I am sure I wouldn’t have noticed, but the story itself was just a huge bore.
I kept thinking maybe I’d have enjoyed this more if I really loved Fantasy, but I think the issue is more there isn’t a big grabber and I felt the idea of Mortem was hit over our head on practically every page.
The story beneath the story, if you will, was completely lacking. While I understand this isn’t a romance, it felt like the author tried to start a love triangle but let it fizzle out before anything could really happen.
It looks like this will be the first of a trilogy and perhaps the other 2 books will have more oomph to them, but I have no desire to find out for myself.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the Advanced Reader Copy.

"I thought you would choose the world over yourself,"
"I’m far too selfish for that."

This book combined some of my all time favorite themes in fantasy into a brilliant story.

Lore is a smuggler and, technically, not supposed to be alive. Her ability to control Mortem is outlawed and punishable by death. But when she accidentally exposes her powers, she is given a bargain by the King and his second-in-command: help them find out about mysterious village killings, and she can live. Unwillingly, she is dragged into the court politics and finds that she might have a much bigger, and darker, role to play in her kingdom.

Once I got past the first few chapters, I could not put the book down. There was a lot of information and characters thrown at us in the beginning, but it quickly settled into a medium-paced plot, filled with tension. All the characters were complex and made decisions that could not be deemed good or bad. The power struggle between religion and royalty had a key role in this book, and with our three different characters coming from vastly different backgrounds, we see tension even as their friendships build into something more.

The magic in this book is complex and quite confusing at times. There is a thin line in this world between magic deemed acceptable and punishable. There are several instances where the character goes into detail about history or myth in order to give us background information, and explain why the magic system is so tricky. These history lessons felt long-winded at times, and not organic to the story.

Gabriel's and Lore's relationship was my favorite out of the whole book. Because of their vastly different backgrounds, and less-than-stellar first meeting, the foundation of their relationship starts off rocky. Lore's magic is exactly what Gabriel is against, as a monk. Lore and Gabriel are very similar in abilities, but since Lore is not of the same god her power is banned. Their tentative alliance eased into a banter-filled friendship, as they had a common goal. Their relationship is fraught with attraction, and as the plot gets more convoluted, we see their differences eventually come to a head.

The love triangle was not bad. Each of the characters in the triangle had a strong personality outside of their relationships. I fell deeply in love with Lore, Gabriel, and Bastian as separate personalities. I do not know who I want her to end up with, which is impressive. Usually there is a clear winner in this set-ups.

Royalty and religion were tangled together and the cataclysm for the plot. There are both so intertwined, you can only have one with the other, no matter how much you might want otherwise. We see all of the key characters pulled to a different side, or somewhere in the middle. Lore is unwillingly pulled into this tug of war between religion and power, the sacrificial lamb whose powers are deemed suitable only for the use they provide to the very people who oppress her.

Huge thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Death magic, courtly intrigue, smuggling, a love triangle, a setting reminiscent of Versailles--there's plenty to like about this one! The ending felt a bit rushed and surprising, but overall I enjoyed this book and I'm eager to see where the rest of the trilogy goes.

The Foxglove king was an interesting read. In a way it was very cliché in a lot of the character development. This was a little frustrating in the beginning especially with Lore because I believe that her character could have given a little more. In all she was a typical heroine that acted a lot tougher than she was and had a mysterious forbidden backstory. I will say as the book continued to develop that sense of predictability was very helpful and almost comforting in a sense. When reading I was taken aback by the series of events that came between our main characters especially the ending sequence because it did feel like it came from nowhere. I want to see if there is some tie in that will come as well as some explanation for how the big climax ended. What I really appreciate from Hannah Whitten is her ability to make even some fairly predictable moments very interesting to read. I think that her ability to make these moments fun and exciting despite the fact that you may feel that "called it" feeling is very skillful. I couldn't keep my eyes off the pages even when I even knew I didn't want to look. I will most definitely read the next installment because I am interested to see how this ends for our main characters. Overall it was an interesting read and I was able to stay active in it.

The Foxglove King is an enthralling descent into prophecies, politics, and religious prognostication all while trying to determine who’s on the side of good and who’s going to betray whom.
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This story follows Lore, a woman nearing her 24th year and consecration, that can channel mortem, death magic. Because of her unique control over mortem, Lore is recruited by the king to solve the mystery over deaths of entire villages while also playing spy. However, things aren’t as they seem in Dellaire, and in order to survive, Lore has to determine who she can trust when faced with betrayal at every turn.
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I really enjoyed the magic system, particularly the different ways mortem affects the inhabitants of Dellaire, how it can be shaped, as well as the balance between mortem and spiritum. I also really enjoyed the juxtaposition between the two men Lore is drawn to — on one side you have the religious devotee, on the other the heathen Prince. Additionally, I was a huge fan of Bastian as a whole and trying to peel back the layers of the various masks he presented based on a given situation.
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There was one element within this story that didn’t work for me. I felt at times the writing was repetitive with recycling certain phrases over and over again.

4.5 stars

Thank you to Orbit books and Netgalley for providing me with this arc.

Hannah Witten has cemented herself as one of my most loved authors. Her work never ceases to have me desperately turning the pages.

The Foxglove King has a magic system that isn’t confusing and is so well fleshed out. It’s full of moments that challenge organized religion, and it’s lined with politics and a court that has some evil teeming in it.

I’m a huge sucker for love triangles, and the one Hannah Witten wrote has me foaming at the mouth. Both Bastian and Gabe are well-rounded characters. The fact that we get a love triangle but we don’t have one that’s clearly above the other is also another reason I love it so much.

This book has easily found its way into my top books of 2023 and I cannot wait to re-read this book.

I was immediately hooked and couldn’t put this book down but I’m a sucker for a good “pretend to be royal“ troupe. The Foxglove King was fast paced and kept me interested throughout the entire book which isn’t an easy task with my ADHD.

I thought I had trust issues and this book really amped that up in the best way especially with Gabe who I had the biggest love/hate relationship with.. every time I thought I knew what was going to happen I would get it partially right and then it would go a completely different direction!

I knew I was going to enjoy this book by the synopsis and because I love how beautifully dark Hannah Whitten writes her worlds but this exceeded all my expectations.

Thank you Orbit, Netgalley and Hannah Whitten for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I do not want to wait for the next book dear God I don't. This book was just chefs kiss, I loved it so much. The political drama, the magic, the love triangle, the action and the pacing was all so good. This world was so amazing as well, the power struggle of rich and poor, church and state, life and death all lead to a fantastic story. I would have loved to have seen more about the other gods and the backstory to the whole past. Hopefully some of that comes in the next book in the series. This was my first Hannah Whitten book and man I now have to read all her others because if they are anything like this they are amazing.

One thing about Hannah Whitten is that she's going to create a world that sucks you in. I loved this book. I was enthralled from the first page. I absolutely loved the setting of this book, it was so lush and it was so easy to imagine living within the court. This one goes out to all the readers who love forbidden romance, dark settings, political intrigue, and an incredible main character. I wish I could read this book for the first time again.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Orbit for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I wanted to request this one as soon as I saw that cover. It is STUNNING. But then I looked at the synopsis and was immediately sold on the premise too. In a world where a brush with death can extend life, we follow poison runner Lore as her magic is discovered by the crown and she brought into a world of politicking, backstabbing, and spying. Lore soon learns that her underground drug running world has nothing on the Citadel and its court. The Foxglove King comes out on March 7th and is available for preorder now.

I kept the synopsis above a little vague because I want people to be as blown away by this one as I was. There is so much about this story that I adore. The first is the magic system built around 6 gods whose deaths left the world with their different magics--the deadliest of which is mortem, the power over death. Only those who have had a brush with death can manipulate mortem for their own uses. I also love how the author used scraps of scripture or notes or scientific papers at the beginning of the chapters to help build up the world without shoving it in the reader’s face. There’s also an element of this story that I LOVE seeing that I really don’t want to spoil for you because seeing the threads of it throughout the book made me so happy. It’s something that doesn’t get used in a lot of the SFF I read, but I know it’s used in other genres more liberally. So seeing this element really did something for me. I also enjoyed the characters. Though, I do think they remind me a little too much of other characters I’ve read before. I think there was just so much plot, world building, etc. to get through that they weren’t able to shine the way they should have. I hope they get a little more attention in the next book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. This has been the best book I’ve read in January and it’ll probably stay that way with so few days left in the month. I think this is great for Fantasy fans. I wouldn’t suggest it as the first book for a Fantasy beginner to start with since it is a bit dense. But in the first handful for sure. I’m already so excited to see where the next book goes and to see if some theories I have rattling around in my head come true.