A superb gothic fantasy with such an intricate magical system it keeps you guessing. I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait for book 2 and more from Hannah herself!!

I really enjoyed this book! I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did!

I loved Lore, the main character since she was unapologetically herself. She was fierce and amazing, and I enjoyed following her story. Her relationship with both Gabriel and Bastian was complex and intriguing, and it didn't seem like a typical love triangle. My absolute favourite character in this book was Bastian, the prince. I liked how charming he was, and how complex his character was. I think this book was definitely more focused on characters, which I usually prefer! The plot was interesting as well, with a bit of mystery that I'm not entirely sure got solved in the end.

The one problem I had with this book was the worldbuilding. Even after reading the entire book, I'm still not sure about the magic system and the Mortem. I wish it was explained better at the beginning of the book!

Overall, I recommend reading the Foxglove King and I can't wait for the sequel!

I have really struggled to get into this book. I've tried, I read a few chapters and it just didn't capture my attention. Still willing to give it another go some other time.

This book took me a little bit of time to get into, however once I got into it I couldn't put it down. It is a pure gothic read, filled with fantasy. I loved the intricate magic system, and felt that it was very interesting. Such a good read.

Prepare to be captivated by this sumptuous and enchanting dark fantasy, crafted by the same author who brought us 'For the Wolf.' In this fresh series, we delve into the world of Lore, a former cult member turned poison runner, with a unique talent for mortem – a forbidden death magic known as necromancy, allowing her to summon the departed.

Lore's life takes a dramatic turn when she's summoned by the Sainted King, tasked with the perilous mission of spying on his son, Bastian. This sets the stage for a riveting tale of political intrigue and shadowy mysteries that draws Lore into a realm teeming with darkness.

The infusion of dark elements, including death magic, necromancy, and toxic flora, is masterfully done, leaving us readers craving more. My only slight disappointment was that the theme of poisonous plants, initially highlighted, faded into the background as the story progressed.

The characters are an immediate draw, with Lore's strength and the intricate dynamics between all the characters adding depth to the narrative. Though the romance was a bit on the side-lines imo.

This book overall serves as a promising start to a new series!

I received an e-copy of The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten from Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley. Even though I have been gifted this book for review, all opinions are my own.

This is a new series by the author for The Wolf. I really enjoyed the debut series by this author, so I was excited to dive into her new series. This is book did not disappoint at all. I do enjoy gothic fantasy romance stories. I must admit I am not the biggest fan of triangle relationships, but I think the author did a good job. The story was engaging with deep political intrigue, forbidden romances, and mystery. Highly recommend if you are looking for a dark, gothic fantasy romance set in a dangerous but glittering court.

Thank you to the publishers for gifting me this novel to read and review.

Thank you to Net Galley for this advanced copy of The Foxglove King. It’s not my usual go to genre being a fantasy book but I am trying to read more of this genre so was good to get this from Net Galley to force me to to read it!!   
   
I think the storyline is great, but maybe where I don’t read an awful lot of fantasy some of it went over my head and I felt a bit confused in places! I also feel like the reader is thrown in straight away and there wasn’t much of a build up and sometimes this is needed with some stories!    
   
I did enjoy how complex and twisted some of the characters are! And there was so much mystery with the villages, I did enjoy that part too!!    
   
If you want a fantasy read with lots of mystery, romance, magic, betrayal and a love triangle this is the one for you!

3.5 (rounded up) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Little Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

I wasn’t sure coming into this if it was going to be a disappointment, having just read a book from the same genre that was very blah and samesy. But I really enjoyed this!

I liked the world building and the magic/mythology of the world and I’m very keen to see what happens next.

I liked the female MC, I thought she was a good mix of capable and sassy whilst not OP. The male characters weren’t as good, but I think they might be developed more in the next book.

This book was a total wild ride! It's got everything from epic battles to fierce creatures, and even intricate political drama, all sprinkled with some seriously steamy romance. I adored the world-building and the author did a really good job painting a vivid picture of a kingdom teetering on the edge of chaos. The characters are flawed, relatable, and oh-so-compelling, if you know what I mean. If you're into fantasy with a hefty dose of intrigue, magic, and a bit of spicy romance, this book will have you glued to the pages!

Lore is a spy and poison-runner, working for her adopted mothers. When a job goes wrong, her secret is exposed, and she finds herself caught by the Presque Mort. Lore has the power to wield Mortem, though unlike the Presque Mort, she’s not sanctioned to do so. She’s dragged away from her home, but instead of death or imprisonment, she’s enlisted to do a job; find out who is responsible for the mass deaths at the country’s border, and discover if the Sainted King’s heir, Bastian, is spying for the enemy. Lore can’t trust anyone at court, but senses something tying her to Bastian, and to the former duke-now-monk Gabriel, the man assigned to guard her.

The Foxglove King had me gripped right from the start. There’s a sort of love triangle between Lore, Bastian and Gabe, but it’s not overdone and Lore remains conscious throughout that she doesn’t fully understand the connection she feels to them. As we move with Lore from the city to the citadel, and down into the catacombs, we learn more about this world, the strange powers of Mortem and Spirtum, and what ties Lore in with the larger plan unfolding around her. Whitten gives us these flawed characters and makes it so you really want to see them come out on top, no matter the cost, and Lore herself is totally compelling.

There are some truly creepy moments here, too, as Lore’s magic involves raising the dead, though even beyond that the way the various people act at court is creepy in itself, from those who poison themselves to extend their lives, to the way certain people deliberately withhold information, or are clearly using Lore and the others for their own gain. It’s hard to guess at the motivations for certain characters, to know when they might be lying or, at least, not telling the whole truth, but there are some truly sweet moments, especially when Lore tries to forge some kind of life for herself, and attempts to find a bit of joy at court, feeling particularly flattered when she feels she might actually have a chance to make some friends.

In some ways, and especially with the character of Bastian, this book kind of reminds me of a more grown-up Holly Black’s Folk of the Air trilogy, with the prince you can never quite get a handle on, the secretive nature the characters surrounding the MC, and the constant sense of unease at court. If you like intrigue, mystery, and a court where you never quite know where you stand, The Foxglove King might just be for you, and I am really excited to read the next book in this series.

Thank you to Orbit for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley.

This is an absolutely perfect autumn, gothic read and should be on all Halloween tbr’s!

Lore has necromantic magic and escaped a cult at 13 years old hiding and making a living for herself until her powers catch the eye of Kings Court.

This features a potential love triangle, enemies to lovers and although is marketed at adult fantasy it felt a bit more YA to me with older characters. Nonetheless I did enjoy the gothic vibes and necromancy.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 1st instalment in the new series of Hannah Whitten. Here, we have the story of Lore that doesn’t have a very good start in life, finding out about her new magical power to raise the dead and putting her in a dear situation that she has to help the king to solve the deaths of whole villages or die. So, she gets dragged and tangled in all the court drama, politics and religion matters, but also she find loves and herself in the process.

I want to start with the first thing that jumped to me in this book. The story telling quality was a lot better than previous books. It felt more concise and considerate than previous reads. The world and character building was with more intention and purpose to serve the plot. The background story and magical system are easy to understand and the world that is immersed feels complete and real.

It’s been a while back since I read it but I remember liking the anti-hero, prince Bastian more than all other characters. However, it felt that all characters were adequately developed, with the required depth that the story and audience needs and expects. Descriptions are lush and wonderful but they don’t stretch that much to take up too much of the plot and feel and exaggeration. Overall, this read was more than I expected and I’m super glad to have the opportunity to an advanced copy!

This one took my pleasantly by surprise. In a book market that is swimming in fantasy romance, The Foxglove King stood out for me due to it's dark premise and fascinating characters.

The story is firmly centered around heroine Lore. She's a bit of a loose cannon at the start of our story - spying on poison runners for her industrious adoptive mothers and living life on the edge. She's running from a past she'd rather forget, yet the past has a funny way of manifesting itself in Lore's life and shaping her future. Which is how she ends up thrown into Court life. Lore has some unusual powers, blessed by the dark goddess to reanimate the dead and her powers are going to come in very useful for the crown. But when someone has spent their whole life being manipulated and used for her gifts, it becomes very easy to win Lore over with kindness.

Enter Bastian and Gabe. One is the sun prince, destined to rule all and prophesised to bring the return of the one true God. Except Bastian is more interested in playing the field and trying to stop his father from killing him to both about ruling. The other is a gloomy monk, dedicated to upholding the Church laws and preventing the spread of death. Except chastity is the last thing on Gabe's mind when he starts to get feelings for Lore. I really enjoyed the dynamics between the three characters. They're mirror opposites of each other in a lot of ways, especially Bastian and Lore, and the rising sexual tension between the thee was fun to see unfold especially when it started to encompass themes of destiny and eventuality. There's a lot of slow burn tension.

The world building was intriguing however it wasn't perfect. The poison aspects and how it is abused by the population needed some developing as at times I found it quite confusing and at odds with the overall magical system involving life and death. However I did really like the backstory involving old forgotten gods, and would even have liked some more development and stories about the minor gods in particular as I thought their development was not as good compared to the life and death gods.

The plot was fun, fast paced and intriguing, following Lore and Co. to uncover a murder mystery and political intrigue within the Royal Court. There's lots of spying and skulking to uncover secrets and all round it was just a fun time. I did find the ending to be very melodramatic, and there's a lot of loose ends that are yet to be tied up, however overall I found it oddly satisfying and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Something a little different to the fantasy romance genre, with nice well balanced characters and a whole lot of sexual tension paired with a fast paced and fun plot of death Gods and spies.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
An epic fantasy in the style of Leigh Bardugo and Sarah J Maas.

Lore, a woman with a magic secret - the ability to raise the dead - is plucked from the streets where she works as a drug runner and thrown into the Sun King's court.
There, she must spy on the king's son.
It's that, or the pyre.
Faced with court intrigue, navigating politics and religion and no idea whom to trust, Lore must uncover a secret that's more deadly than she could ever imagine.
On the journey, she forges friendships, and learns about her origin.
This story has some tropes I really enjoy.
👉The 'tentative love triangle' that always teeters on the verge of friendship.
👉The fight between the clergy and the state.
👉 Found family.
👉 Self discovery.

While the novel is well written, I found it took too long for the story to progress to a stage where it became a page turner. I believe some scenes could have been shortened or omitted.
Did I like it? YES!
Did I love it? Not all the way thriugh, but I did in places.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the series continues.

I will be coming back to this book when I am in the right head space: for now I was not able to finish it unfortunately.

I wanted so badly to love this book! The entire premise was right up my street but I felt like there was just something missing. I think my main issue was that I just didn't feel very attached to the characters. That being said I'll still be picking up the next book.

Apologies for the delay in this review, i have been battling ill health.

A really great fantasy book. I would probably say it was more yound adult but im over 50 and really enjoyed it.

It took me forever to start reading The Foxglove King, but I ended up enjoying it a lot.
The plot was fast-paced and exciting, the writing style really worked for me this time (I didn't love the author's writing style in For the Wolf), and I'm really curious how the story will continue in the sequel.

I went into this blind, just having enjoyed Hannah Whitten’s other books – and I had a great time! As I’ve said before, I love me some death magic, and add to that a pantheon of gods, fated connections and reincarnations and destiny, and I’m a happy reader. I’m not always that fussed about the dreaded love triangle, but I appreciated the specifics of this one, and I didn’t mind it as much. It’s a very accessible writing style that is more modern than classic fantasy, which might not work for everyone, but I didn’t mind. I can’t wait to see where this is going to go, as I do have some thoughts and they make me very excited. Love me a bit of court intrigue as well, though that definitely takes a backseat to the rest of the plot.

Sometimes I struggle with fantasy books, this was no exception. However, I persevered and I enjoyed it once I got into it.

It was well written and is a well structured story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.