The Hemlock Queen is one heck of a read, and if you haven't yet started on The Nightshade Crown trilogy, you absolutely should pick these books up! The Foxglove King was among my top reads last year, which meant its sequel held a spot among my highly anticipated titles for 2024.

Everything I loved about The Foxglove King still stands for the sequel, but while the initial instalment largely took place within the citadel, the plot is moved to a bigger stage for The Hemlock Queen. The main characters are all grappling with their new and more important roles, and instead of scheming within the court, we are now dealing with conspiracies on an international stage.

The novel hits that sweet spot in the mix of fantasy and romance - it has excellent world building, an interesting magic system with necromancy and old gods, and it delivers on character dynamics and tension in the somewhat love triangle of Bastian - Lore - Gabe, particularly in the relationship between the new king and his deathwitch.
Once I hit the 40% mark, it became impossible to put the book down, and the ending has left me needing more! I'll be eagerly awaiting the final book in the trilogy!

Thanks to @orbitbooks_uk and @netgalley for the eARC!

I really adore this series, it really does live in your mind rent free. Lore never gets what she deserves in this series but I’m absolutely rooting for her in the 3rd book.

Bastian reminds me of Dorian from Throne of glass, a loveable character with flaws but each book he makes some growth but also some poor choices.

Gabe is complex and so conflicted in this book, and I hope to see him find some concrete decisiveness in book 3!!

Truly an epic read and I loved every moment. Not quite as perfect as the first book - this one could have done with a little more explanation around magic and divinity… there were periods when I felt middle confused with what was going on. But it was ultimately just as pleasurable read as the first book in the series.

Characters we have come to know and love appear again (obviously) and they are well constructed with good arcs to see the depth of their journey. Lore especially, our protagonist, is something else. There are so many times I’ve come across characters who have no flaws and just exist to be self-inserts. Lore is not one of these characters. She is special in so many ways yet also incredibly mundane and relatable.

Bastian and Gabe, too, are expertly crafted. We see less of Gabe in this book, which is a little sad. And I wasn’t as sold on the mention of the little triangle of love they have going, I always felt like Bastian was the way to go in this book whereas I was more torn between the two in the first book.

World building.. like I said, could have benefited from slightly more input in terms of magic. The divinity aspects, on balance, were well explained, but it was a little… the writing felt more flowery and harder to discern. And perhaps it’s my own shortcoming because I have never been all that good at reading the lore of a book in the same way i read standard narrative passages.

Overall, this was an ARC (thanks to NetGalley) but I bought my own copy too, have had it on preorder for months, because I knew I would love it. Excellent continuation of the series, and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for our heroes in the next instalment.

After the clever and engaging world building in The Foxglove King, this sequel really takes off. Bastian is now king, with Lore at his side with her fearsome death magic. There are still questions to be answered and relationships to unwind, and this book covers them all beautifully with a non stop plot. A really exceptional fantasy, I can't wait for Book 3!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I absolutely loved this one. It was a great follow on from The Foxglove King, with rich world building, fate and magic from the gods.

It picks up straight after the events of book one, as we learn more about the gods and their power and how it links to the magic Lore possesses. The pace was good for me; in depth and steady. I really loved the way the tension and angst was written between the three main characters. I'm not usually a fan of a love triangle but in this case it worked and was well written.

I enjoyed learning more about the history of the gods and also the side characters. We get a little bit more romance with some spice which was very well written. There was also political intrigue and betrayal as the story progressed, the ending was just so so good and I really need book 3 in my hands.

The first book was fantastic and one of my favourite books, however this book wasn't as good for me because there wasn't much character development beyond dealing with the Gods. The love triangle was a bit tedious, especially because none of them were really talking to each other for a while or telling the truth.

The storyline progressed but the pacing was off, the first half of the book dragged a bit and we were introduced to the Gods but also not really. It was all a bit disjointed. I would have liked to read more about the characters I loved from the first book, however I felt like this book focused too much on the Gods, poor Bastian.

I will be reading the next book to see how this ends.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Considering I adored book 1, I’m not too sure what happened here.

This isn’t a bad book and I think the majority of people who liked the first one, will love this one. It just didn’t hit right for me. Definitely a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ book.

I didn’t love where they storyline was going and found the pacing to be a bit all over the place. The first part of this book I really struggled to continue and I really didn’t enjoy my favourite characters anymore.

The writing style is just as good as book 1 but I just didn’t connect with the story this time around.

I received an advanced copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

I loved the Foxglove King and the ending left me feeling shocked and betrayed! I could not wait to read the Hemlock Queen!

The book starts off with Lore numbing her pain with alcohol and trying to get over what happened in the first book.
Her anguish, pain and anxiety was beautifully written. All her feelings throughout the book were so amazingly written that you could just feel what she was feeling.

The love triangle is still strong in this book. Gabe still doesn’t want to admit to his feelings which makes it easier for Bastian to swoop in. Lore’s feelings are still split between them both.

Normally the second book in a series feels like a filler but The Hemlock Queen is definitely not one of them! It still had its fast pace and just so much happens in this book that you are in a constant mix of emotions you are going through!
I loved every single second of this book and I could not put it down until I had it finished!

I can’t wait for the last book and see, how the story and love triangle finishes!

Thanks Netgallley for the free review copy!

Thankfully this book does not suffer from middle book syndrome and was full of action! Continuing on with the court politics, amazing world building, and godly problems, this was an amazing sequel to one of my favourite books of last year!

The introduction of new characters was seamless and really added well to the plot of the book and really posed the question of what’s ’real’ for Lore and what isn’t, which added a whole new level to the book!

I still have absolute love for Lore, Gabe and Bastian, but I also have a newfound care for Alie and Malcom who play a much bigger roll in the sequel and if the ending of the book is any indication they will have a large roll in the next one too!

The ending was amazing and lays out the storyline perfectly for what is looking like is going to be an epic ending to the series

Death, religion, longing, betrayal this book has all of that and so much more, I just love Hannah Whitten's worlds.

3.5 stars rounded up because I'm still intrigued as to what's going to happen both with the main plot of the gods and with the characters and their relationships.

But...I didn't get on with the book as much as I'd hoped to. It chopped and changed a little bit too much for me in terms of what I expected, that's possibly more on me and what I was bringing to the book as a reader, but I felt like the book was slow to start, with Lore being extremely passive, being carried along by Bastian and events, not speaking up for herself. The book picks up pace and plot in the second half, but somehow in doing so, for me, it also loses the complexity and interesting threads at the same time. So let's try and organise my thoughts:

1. The romance (the love triangle)
I don't normally like love triangle tropes at all, mainly because there's usually lying and betrayal, but I don't think the relationships between Lore, Gabe, and Bastian follow the usual path. They all care for each other despite the complicated experiences they've been through, and how each of them deal differently with their beliefs and values, and they don't lie to each other, they just don't necessarily know how to communicate their feelings for and to each other, and the main plot feeds into this. So I think Hannah Whitten navigates their relationships really well, because this is the only three-person romance I've read where I actually care about and root for all of the characters in different ways. There is one steamy scene, and, while I often find steamy scenes cringey, especially dialogue-wise, that wasn't the case for me here, however, how and when it happened, and with who, given what was going on with the plot, I wasn't entirely sure about. It was kind of understandable, but at the same time, Lore doesn't really know the motives of the person involved at this point, and had been exploring the character's flaws and her own flawed responses to them for much of the beginning of the book, so, I couldn't really root for it.

2. Which brings me onto the gods. Their origins are a little disappointing, and a little, I don't know a better word for convenient. The source of the power is vague and intangible, and also involves a controlling abusive relationship that I can't understand, and didn't like reading about, and it brought the gods down to a human small level. This is interesting to me, because it explores the idea of the power of hero/deity worship, and what makes a deity, and the nature of control, but at the same time lessens the mystery of the gods, and therefore makes them less interesting to me, and reduces the main antagonist to just a bad man, powerful, but human in nature, and a pretty stereotypical baddie. Given the ending, we find that one of them has a lot more control over a certain person and events than originally thought, which brings into question that character even more, which again, makes Lore's romantic decisions a bit more dubious when it comes to this person.

3. The magic - I found the idea of mortem really interesting in the first book, but the combination of spiritum and mortem makes Lore's magic less interesting for me, because it seems to solve every desperate situation she's in, in the main parts of the book. Bringing life back, bringing death to plants, animals, people, and things, manipulating stone - Lore can use her magic in every situation, but at the same time, it's not used in a complex way that can help her think her way out of the main problem she faces.
<spoiler> I was pretty glad that the solution she tries at the end doesn't work out, it followed the pattern of the magic use up to this point, and would have been another case of this being too convenient, so the ending is what gives me hope for the third book. </spoiler>

4. The rest - The side really are side characters. Alie was the better fleshed out of all of them, with a story of her own, but Malcolm was pretty non-descript, and Lore's adoptive mothers while brought in at the ninth hour, don't have much to do except serve the plot.

So, a mixed bag, but note my star rating, my mixed feelings not withstanding, I enjoyed reading this book and want more! What Hannah Whitten does really well for me is write immersive worlds with a sense of past and history, grounded in human conflict that I find really convincing, and write romances that feel real and not too cliched, the characters react to their experiences and I can understand and empathise with their characters which makes me care about romantic plotlines that in other hands I just wouldn't like. I feel like the third book is going to redeem my issues with this second one, because it felt like the book was headed in a definite direction, it just wavered a bit in how it was getting there. So still excited to read about how Gabe, Lore, and Bastian are going to get out of their various predicaments (if they all do -eep!)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC to review. All thoughts are my own.

I hadn't read the first book in this series, so I rushed to read and finish it so I could be prepared for the second installment, but boy.. i think I needed some more time.
Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long to dive back into this world, and what a world it is.

Returning to this sumptuous, dark world of slumbering gods and prophecies and terrible secrets was wonderful. Lore remains one of my favourite FMCs, and Bastian and Gabe continue to make it impossible for me to choose between them. This is definitely the middle book of a series - questions were answered while more were raised, and the ending has me desperate for book three and all the potentially terrifying conclusions it will bring. There is a very dark sense of foreboding which hangs over every page of this book and I'm very worried for all the characters!!

I love this series, from the complex world lore and religious themes to the cast of characters - those I love and those I hate. The only downside to reading this early? Having to wait even longer for the final book!

An epic sequel to this trilogy which delivers:

✔️ Adult gothic romantasy
✔️ Epic magic system (death/life magic)
✔️ Forbidden romance
✔️ Love triangle
✔️ Warring gods and goddesses
✔️ Political conflict

The Hemlock Queen takes place immediately after the ending of book 1. I love the gothic, dark feel of these books. One of my issues with book 1 was the world building but the sequel delves more into the magic system and gods. While this does make the pacing slower it didn’t bother me and I loved the added inclusion of the gods which are the driving force of the conflict.

The romance was also expanded upon in book two which I loved as book one only had some glimpses. There’s minimal spice in these books, however, the angst and tension was not lacking. Love triangles aren’t a favourite tope of mine but this is executed well.

Lore is outspoken and a strong FMC but she did take more of a passive role in the sequel. She’s fiercely protected by Sebastian, the sun prince and Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, bound by his vows to the church. Gabe is more involved in the first book and while does have a presence in this book I loved getting to know Sebastian more. I didn't love Sebastian at the beginning but I find myself leaning more towards him at the moment. You get the sense there is an unknown tether tying the 3 of them together.

I was still confused at some points due to the large amount of information you are consuming but I’m definitely invested in this series. The characters and magic system are the main appeal to me and I can’t wait for the conclusion after that cliffhanger!

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK & Netgalley for sending me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many of the plot elements and tropes I enjoyed from the first book in this series were still great in this sequel - the death magic, the gods, the catacombs, the politics - but unfortunately, this book really suffered from second book syndrome.

The plot was choppy and oddly paced. I just got this feeling that the author knew where she wanted to go in the third book of the series but wasn't sure on how to get us there. The time between the events of the first and second weren't properly explained so it took a while to figure out what was going on.

Everything that happened was all just a little too convenient. A good political fantasy should feel like I'm playing a game of chess. The pieces move into place and when the opponent declares checkmate I should be able to look back and have a 'ah ha!' moment. But getting the end of this book wasn't like that at all. Things just seem to happen without any real thought or intention behind them.

I'm still excited for the third book as I enjoy the world building and the characters but this was definitely weaker than the first one.

Second book in this fantasy series. Which for the author brings the pressure of continuing the story, and the author has presented us with a book to enjoy. If I hadn’t read the first book I think I would have been lost. But I have read book one, I liked it, so with understanding: I found the first part of this book a little slow. But Hannah Whitten is just preparing the ground for the action and explanations to come. Cliff hanger ending, though different than I had expected. I look forward to reading the next chapter in this epic fantasy series. Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group uk and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

The glittering and dangerous world of the Sainted King’s royal court is forever changed by Prince Bastian’s assassin to the throne.The corrupt king may be dead but there are dark forces gathering. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore, a necromancer and former smuggler, to be his closest ally. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the royal court and truly help the people. But not everyone is happy with the changes.

The nobles are sowing dissent and the people of the empire are beating down their doors. Even the prince has changed: becoming reckless domineering and cold. And something has been whispering in Lore’s ear. A voice, dark and haunting. It’s telling her there is more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she could have ever imagined. A truth buried so deep that could change everything.

With there coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince and her country before they all come crumbing down. And stop whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs becomes unleashed. A delay and seductive satisfy that will whisk you away to a land of royal intrigue, dark secrets and even darker magic. A beautifully unsettling and myserteous novel that will leave you craving more and you won’t be able to stop yourself from turning the pages.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘮𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘩 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯

Overall I really liked this! As with almost all second books, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first one but I still enjoyed revisiting these characters and their world again. I believe this series is perfect for romantasy readers who want a magic-infused world with a darker tone.

I absolutely loved how often the sky was described. The author really brought attention to the transitions between day and night and the colours of the sunsets and rises were written so beautifully:
"Lore watched the sky through the window, honey and lavender and encroaching indigo. No moon tonight."
"Night fell like layers of veils, each darkening the sky further. Lavender became indigo became midnight-blue, pricked through with stars."

If I'm being honest, this did feel a bit slow to get going for me personally and I didn't feel fully immersed in the story until about the 50% mark. After that, I became swept away by the mystery and clues being dropped left, right and centre by the author. I wish there had been more suspicious activity and characters to throw the reader off the scent and keep things interesting in the early stages. By the end we knew for definite what was happening, who was joining forces and who could be trusted but the characters just couldn't speak openly about it and I would have enjoyed some more detective work, suspects or twists thrown in along the way.

"His throat ticked as he swallowed, hard, shifting his eyes between her and Gabe. For a moment, he looked like someone on the edge of a confession, as if the space between his deathwitch and his Priest Exalted was the only safe place to let his guard down."
"That triangle, again, three points that left them all bleeding."
I spent most of the book on the edge of my seat and eating every bit of sexual tension I could get. I know all the signs are pointing to a love triangle but I'm still holding out hope for a throuple. I said this in my review of the first book and we got such a tantalizing glimpse of what could happen through the flashback memories. Lore has had to make choices for the greater good or survival her whole life - she deserves a why choose era.

I enjoyed that this book started to draw some of the minor characters from the first book into the spotlight and plotlines. I really like Alie as a character but I would love to learn more about the inner workings of her mind and her motivations, as we so often see her behaving gracefully and acting noble. I'm excited to see more elemental magic in the next book, as the spiritum/mortum magic system and poison use was minimal and purposefully performative in this book. which was a bit of a let down after how well it was utilized in the first book.

Thank you to Orbit & Hannah Whitten for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I loved The Foxglove King and had high hopes going into this which Hannah more than delivered on.

The sense of foreboding and anxiety that Lore felt transferred brilliantly on the page to the point where I felt that anxiety with her.

As if these characters hadn’t already been put through enough in the first book Hannah really doubles down on it in this.
Apollius was so menacing and there were many points that I was nearly in tears for Lore and poor Bastian.

Middle books in trilogies can sometimes feel like a bit of a “filler” book but this had me hooked.

I cannot wait to get my grubby hands on book 3.

Synopsis:

The Hemlock Queen picks up where The Foxglove King ended. August is dead, Bastian is King and Lore has been elevated from shunned necromancer to his right hand. Together they plan to transform the royal court, ridding it of the corruption allowed to flourish under August’s rule, but it soon becomes clear that Bastian isn’t the same man he once was. Gone is the roguish charm, charisma and kindness. This new version of Bastian is cold, reckless, and has invited sworn enemies into his court.

To make matters even worse, a dark voice whispers in Lore’s head, telling her that there’s more to Bastian’s sudden change than she knows, and more to her power than she could ever imagine. She must quickly figure out how to protect herself, Bastian and her country before everything she holds dear is destroyed, and the dark power hanging over them is truly unleashed…

My thoughts:

Second books in a series can be hard to pull off, and it took me a little while to get into it, but I very much enjoyed all of the court intrigue and the continuation of world building in The Hemlock Queen. I also enjoyed following Lore as she got to grips with her new life and court role and ended up completely immersed by what was happening with her and Bastian, and in turn the country. The only tiny negative was that there wasn’t enough of Gabe for my liking! The ending definitely set up for more of him in book three though, and after that twist I can’t wait to see what happens next!

The Hemlock Queen is out now. A huge thank you to @netgalley and @orbitbooks_uk for the e-ARC.

I needed some time to get into the first book in the series. The mythology was quite complicated and I didn't always understand what was going on. However, I absolutely loved the characters, the world and the build up towards the finale. Once I reached that finale I was hooked. I was therefore really excited that publisher Orbit granted me a review copy of the sequel. As always I waited until release week to start reading and last week it was finally time!

I loved this book from start to finish. It's not an action-packed book, on the contrary, and yet I wasn't bored for even a second. That's mostly because there is this constant tension throughout the book. We feel something is happening, we feel something is changing, we feel that a game is being played and that not everyone can win or survive. Throughout the story we get more pieces of the puzzle and it makes everything even more exciting.

Once more the character stole the show though. I love how layered and complicated all these characters are. Even though some of them mess up quite badly throughout the story, I did understand why they were doing what they were doing and kept on loving them anyway. I don't wanna give away too much, since part of the fun is discovering what is going on and things slowly starting to make more and more sense, but I never knew you could love and hate people so much equally.

I also loved the mythology in this book. In a way it gets even more complicated than everything we've learned in the first book and yet it also felt easier to understand and grasp. It's hard to explain, but for some reason everything in this book made so much sense. I already had an inkling of some things that were gonna happen, but I couldn't even dream of how well thought out it all would be. The finale of the book was quite brutal though, so I can't wait for the last book in the trilogy!

This is the first sequel ARC I've received where I'd already read book 1 when it came out! So I found this quite exciting in my little NetGalley world.

One thing I appreciated about this book is that although it was the middle book of a trilogy, it didn't suffer from second book syndrome. As soon as I started reading, I was thrown straight back into a world of political intrigue and a complicated love triangle (is it even a triangle? Not too sure about that one and I love it). There was also a significant difference in the tone and setting from the first book which really highlighted the progression of the plot.

In book 1, the plot is restricted to the city and spends a lot more time running the streets rather than in the citadel. Book 2 allowed us to venture out into new locations, and began to look at the wider world, examining other kingdoms and histories from more than one perspective. Without giving any spoilers, the relationship between Lore and Bastian takes a stark turn and I was thoroughly captivated by the push and pull tension in that particularly plot line.

There was a bit less of Gabe in this book, but it looks like he's going to get more stage time in Book 3 perhaps, and the story still covered faith and religion in such an interesting way. Can't get enough of the shifts in power structures between the crown and the church in this series!

Thrilled to have been able to read this before release day and excited for the final instalment!