Title: The Foxglove King
Author: Hannah Whitten
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, High fantasy, Romance novel, Romantic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
Release: March 2023
Price: e-book (eng) 0,99€ | Paperback (eng) 9,49€ (all via amazon)
Rating:
If you’re looking for a hickhack of Religion, Politics, and love … here’s your fix!
Summary:
Lore’s a poison runner (aka drug dealer), who can channel something called Mortem. When she gets caught by the bloodcoats, she gets dragged to the church and recruited to raise victims from a village that died overnight as well as spy on the Sun prince and heir to the throne Bastian. As cover she plays the cousin of Gabe, a duke turned monk with his own harsh past.
But then Lore realizes that Bastian isn’t the one she should worry about, her own past is catching up with her and the King has other plans with her, plans she isn’t fond of.
Review:
The beginning was a little slow for me, hard to get into it. But things started to perk up once Lore was snatched and dragged to the Citadel. The pace got better and we also got introduced to Bastian and Gabe. While Gabe is that brooding, darkish monk; Bastian is a rather bright, almost flamboyant character who always has the right (sassy) words at hand.
There was a lot of spark between Lore and Gabe, mostly because they spent the most time together. So, I really didn’t feel the promised „Love triangle“ between the three main characters. I find the idea of being able to channel death very interesting. I loved how it was described and its effects on people and the ones that channel it.
I also loved the political side of it, the tug-o-war between Bastian and his father, King August. Also, the way Gabe can’t get over his own brainwashing of trusting the head priest Anton (August’s twin brother) was amazingly written. How he struggled against it, being smitten with Lore and even once slipped so hard, he nearly broke his vows of celibacy.
That part was also the only „spicy“ part in the book if that’s an important part for you. I personally would’ve found any more a bit misplaced. It really was all about the story, the worldbuilding, and the politics. The love story wasn’t so important in all of this but gave a bit of a welcome distraction.
It was one of the best reads I had so far in 2024, and Foxglove King is book number 26 of the year. Its follow-up is „The Hemlock Queen“.
Kitty's Chatterbox 
[…] you wish to read a review of the first book, please read The Foxglove King review here.Summary:Bastian is crowned Sainted King with Lore by his side as deathwitch. While at first things […]
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