There is some lovely and accomplished writing in this book. My only issue is that I didn't realise that this was a spin-off. It felt as though I was missing out on something having never read the previous works. I just didn't engage with the story or the characters as strongly as I should have.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and the author, for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After finishing These Violent Delights Duology, I was not sure if I would want to go back into the world again. But I did only and only for Alisa Montagova.

This book is placed 4 years after the events of TVD. Rosalind is now a spy and an almost immortal one at that. She is placed on a secret mission to uncover threats of Japanese invasion plots and the truth of a serial killer doing rounds in Shangai. She would have been ecstatic to be on an active mission as this except she was partnered up with Orion, the son of a high placed Nationalist leader.

I always find CG's prose really hard to sink my teeth into. But what kept me in this story despite that is the banter. There is thankfully much more chemistry between the MC's here compared to the first duology and the banter is absolutely amazing. The slow burn romance was worth the wait. We also get glimpses of other characters and their current whereabouts after TVD.

So I am someone who is extra proud of being able to correctly guess plot twists and I did guess almost all of the twists in this one. But Chloe Gong threw me a boomerang with literally the last 2 lines of the epilogue, making sure that the moment book 2 materialises I am rushing to read it.

TW: Blood, Death, Murder, Grief, Loss, Betrayal, Torture, Violence

Chloe Gong has done it again! Oh my god. As if I thought I couldn’t love Rosalind even more. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book!

This book is part of a spin-off series, but it was said the reader did not need to read the first series to understand this one. However, as a reader who came to the author's work for the first time with this book, I felt like this wasn't entirely true.

The writing seemed really good the book quite interesting, so I'll definitely give it another go if I end up reading the first duology

Rosalind Lang is back as a Nationalist spy and assassin with the code name Fortune. An experiment revived Rosalind. Her injuries heal quickly, she doesn’t need to sleep and doesn’t age like she’s an immortal. Since Rosalind went missing, she was presumed dead after the ending of These Violent Delights duology.

Assigned to uncover the secret plot endangering her country, Rosalind worked together with another agent, posing as husband and wife. In the times when the threat of Japanese invasion and its hands in Shanghainese politics, Rosalind and Orion needs to be careful. A serial killer is on the loose. The threat of being stabbed with a syringe and unknown substances flowing in the veins is prevalent in the streets of Shanghai.

Meanwhile, Celine is working for the Communist Party alongside Oliver, Orion’s brother. It seems like there’s something between them that’s more than just work. We meet another familiar character: Alisa Montagova, the last of the White Flowers. She’s older now, more daring than ever, and working as a spy. Making appearances are Phoebe Hong, Orion and Oliver’s younger sister, and their friend, Silas.

As always, Chloe Gong created characters that I enjoyed reading about. While Rosalind is always acting like she doesn’t care, Orion somehow broke down all her barriers. I was living for the little moments they had after their feelings were more obvious. They found each other while fighting, spying, and in absolute uncertainty.

This is historical fiction with an elemt of fantasy and is set in the same world as the These Violent Delights duology.

This takes place a few years after the end of Pur Violent Ends, and Rosalind is now an immortal assassin/spy. She's paired up with another spy to infiltrate a company to retrieve documents, which may or may not have something to do with a space of murders which are occurring across Shanghai - where people are injected with something.

I liked this more than the original duology, although that may in part be because I'm less familiar with the Shakespeare tale that this is inspired by.

However, after 3 books, I'm not sure that Chloe Gong's writing is for me. I find the phrasing or analogies used are sometimes awkward and need to be reread to understand what is meant.

I'm also not sure what genre this is aiming for. The fantasy element is very small, and it's much more historical fiction but on that side of things I don't think enough context is given. It seems to assume you know about the time period, and I didn't really understand what was going on between the communists, nationalists and Japanese. The main characters were on different sides but none of them really seemed to care about what they were fighting/spying for, which made it a struggle for me to care. They're all also terrible at being spies!

Also I feel like more care needs to be taken with anachronisms when it's historical fiction - for example, the terminology of "serial killer" didn't exist in the 1930s.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars.

I maybe should have actually read TVD/TVE before I read this, but nevertheless, I absolutely adored it, I love Gong’s style of writing, I love her characters, I love the whole atmosphere and this has motivated me to actually get off my arse and actually read TVD/TVE

Goodreads Choice Awards 2022

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Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune, #1)
by Chloe Gong (Goodreads Author)
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Read in November 2022
A very interesting story

"Foul Lady Fortune" is the first book in Chloe Gong's These Violet Delights spin-off series and tells the story of Rosalind and Owen.

I would highly recommend reading the Violet Delights Duology first. Otherwise, you will not only lack understanding but also lose reading pleasure due to spoilers.

This story comes up with incredibly exciting characters! Rosalind is an assassin who specializes in poisoning. I find it very complex and very tough. And their unique abilities make them not only interesting but also very deadly. I also really like her big mouth. Owen is kind of a super spy which I never would have guessed! He is very charming and probably a real womanizer. These are probably the best prerequisites for his job. 🤭

I also find the political aspects and situations of the story very exciting, but unfortunately, I have to admit that I can't quite get through there because I simply have no idea about the subject.

"Foul Lady Fortune" gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Unfortunately life got in the way and I didn't get chance to read this book 😕. I will most likely purchase in the future though.

The chemistry between Orion and Rosalind is amazing, and seeing so many characters from the original duology return was fantastic. I feel like this is slightly more grown up than TVD, but that may be just Chloe Gong developing her writing skills.

It was a fun story and I actually preferred it to her original duology and cannot wait for the sequel to this. The mystery was entertaining and genuinely kept me guessing and I loved exploring more of Shanghai.

I was super excited when this was announced and then when I got approved for this. Unfortunately, I was unable to give proper feedback as the book wouldn’t work for me when I tried to open it but, if Chloe’s other books are anything to go by, this will be absolutely amazing and one to get me hooked. I have very high expectations and I can’t wait to read my physical copy!

3.5 (rounded up) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Hodder&Stoughton and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

I have to say-so enjoyed this so much more than the Violent duology.

I think that for me Rosalind is a more interesting character and the story this time was more compelling and interesting.

I am eager to see more characterisation in the next book, this is just an area the author falls short on in my opinion.

Another incredible novel from Chloe Gong.

Foul Lady Fortune is filled with high stakes and tension, brilliant twists and fantastic characters. I loved all of the nods to the previous books.

The historical setting is immersive and well developed.

I cannot wait to find out what happens next.

I didn’t realise until I started reading it that this book draws lightly on some Romeo & Juliet threads – having never read or seen the play except the lovely Cbeebies adaption, I expect there’s more references in here than I noticed, but even coming to it blank it was a really good story. Similarly, I didn’t know it was set in the same world as the author’s previous duology, and while it references events from those stories I never felt like I was missing something for having not read the books.

I enjoyed the slow evolution of Rosalind and Orion’s relationship from grumpy people forced to work together into friends who care about each other. I hate reading instalove and I really appreciated that the changes in how these two felt about each other develop gradually over several weeks. It felt very believable and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing it turn into something more romantic in book two.

I also liked the little peeks into Celia and Oliver’s relationship. I get the feeling that will be explored a lot more in the sequel, and again I’m excited to see that.

Over the course of the story, as they unfold the mystery, you can really see Rosalind shift from being very self-reliant and not trusting other people or letting anyone close, into gradually accepting help. She has good reasons for having closed herself off and although early in the story it’s against her will that she has to work together with Orion, and then put a little faith because of him into his other friends, by the end of the book she’s started to realise the benefits of having more people on her side.

This was a great mystery story and gave me a real insight into a historical setting which I didn’t know much about. I really liked the character development, and I’ll definitely be looking out for the sequel.

Spy thriller set in the Republic of China era with delicious fake marriage for cover between the two spies…
If that didn't pique your interest, I don't know what will!
The same writing style that we know and love garnered with a lot of twist and turns and keeps you at the edge of your seat.
We see few familiar characters from the previous books, and it was intriguing to see how the events from Our Violent Ends had shaped the way of thinking of Rosalind Lang.
The plot was action packed, unraveling multiple mysteries.
That coupled with multiple POV's and the fact that our both main characters are keeping secrets of their makes it all the more complicated and intriguing.
The chemistry and the banter between Rosalind and Orion was perfectly made, but I wish we had more spotlight on Orion, so I can dig deeper and understand better his character.
Loved this book from start to finish.

*Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.*

This book was my first to read from chloe gong. I had heard amazing things about her previous books so had to see what the hype was about. I was not disappointed, this book is great!

Amazing amazing amazing. I love Chloe so so much and this was no different. Gong is a go to author for me and an automatically buy author too so it was no surprise at all that I’d love this. I loved loved Rosalind and absolutely adored the new cast of characters we got: Oliver and Celia were definitely my favourite though and the ending??? I cannot wait until book 2!

I absolutely devoured Foul Lady Fortune and couldn’t put it down! It’s filled with intriguing politics and plot twists that made me want to throw my Kindle across the room (in the best way). I wasn’t too sure how I’d feel about Rosalind being the main character but I loved how she was developed throughout the book and couldn’t help but root for her by the end. Orion was the absolute sweetest and I fell head-over-heels in love with him. Their banter was perfection and they had such good chemistry. I really loved that we got to see quite a lot of the characters that I’d already grown to love in These Violent Delights. The pacing was overall quite good and the unexpected twists made up for Foul Lady Fortune featuring quite a lot of information about the history and politics of the time. Chloe Gong has grown immensely as a writer and I loved her writing even more in this one.

Foul Lady Fortune is an action-packed and addictive new novel in Chloe Gong’s monstrous version of 1920s Shanghai and I can’t wait for the next one!

I have to admit I was at first taken aback by Rosalind's "immortality", while with These Violent Delights the existance of the monster could have been, and actually kind of was, presented almost as more of a scientific experiment, it still sort of gave a sense of "reality" to the whole situation (of course largely accentuated by the historical setting of the story), but here this plot device was too much of a "fantasy" one.
But despite this it was still a great book, I particularly enjoyed the multi POVs and I confirm myself a great fan of Gong's prose (and especially her meme references). Can't wait to read her next works

Chloe Gong really said "LET'S MAKE THE READERS SUFFER AGAIN". *cue crying and screaming*

Okay, but really now, Foul Lady Fortune is the PERFECT TVD spin-off with more political intrigue and even more characters to adore!

In this story we follow Rosalind who is still trying to atone for her past betrayals by doing the best she can - be it by doing spy work and uncovering dangerous plots or by helping and saving the people she loves (even if the circle is vastly smaller than it used to be, at first).

I loved how this book included so many different POVs and characters and I think I can easily say I adored every single one of them!! From Rosalind and her brisk manner (that started melting further into the book, I spy another new favourite OTP of mine), Orion and his shameless flirting (and deep pain on the inside! The perfect combo, no?), Ceclia who is still just as wonderful as she always was, the dedicated and smug Oliver, and of course Phoebe and SIlas - I NEED to know more, I wouldn't mind 5 more books about these characters one bit!

Foul Lady Fortune is quite a bit politically heavier than These VIolent Delights and Our Violent Ends (and even those two deal a lot with politics), but Gong's writing makes it all seamlessly fit together with more dramatic and action-heavy scenes and with the soft proclamations of love. I absolutely ADORED it all! (also I now need to read up on China in the 30s. The powers shifting through the country back then, the political parties, everything!)

Basically, another amazing Chloe Gong book you cannot put down! I am SO READY for this sequela and for Last Violent Call, I need them now!