The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten – Review

Published: April 9, 2024

Publisher: Orbit

Series: The Nightshade Crown #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 470 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
In the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten’s lush, romantic epic fantasy series, a young woman who can raise the dead must navigate the dangerous and glamorous world of the Sainted King’s royal court. 

The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore—a necromancer and former smuggler—to his right hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the sainted court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kyrithean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore’s old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian’s changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he’s reckless, domineering and cold.

And something’s been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that’s telling her there’s more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian’s 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 crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.

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It’s not everyday that a sequel is just as good as the first book in the series and The Hemlock Queen definitely took me by surprise. I picked it up with the thought that I’d just read a couple chapters… and two hours later I had finished a quarter of the book already. I actually didn’t want to put it down and I feel like that feeling is getting rarer lately.

The Hemlock Queen picks up very soon after the unbelievably dramatic events of The Foxglove King and honestly, I loved everything about it. Bastian is now the Sainted King of Auverraine and he has openly declared that Lore, the deathwitch, is by his side. His friends Alie, Malcolm, and Gabe are now also installed in positions of power within the court, most notably Gabe who is now the High Priest. The kingdom is unstable and Bastian and Lore are uniting their magic at every opportunity to show their power to their own people, but to also show that they are powerful to the outside forces closing in on Auverraine. Unfortunately, this has the unintended side effect of making Apollius and Nyxara, the two gods they represent, more powerful influences over them and for Bastian especially this is a very bad thing.

Lore has risen from poison runner to the King’s right hand seemingly overnight, which has put an enormous amount of strain on her mental health. She spends the first part of the book feeling quite certain she’s going mad because she can’t accept that Nyxara the goddess of death and the night is whispering in her mind. I do feel like she had more agency and drive in the first book and this time around, it’s more things happening to her rather than her causing things to happen. Bastian is a complicated character, particularly since he has a guest in his head that continues to try to take more control anytime the sun is shining. It’s made really obvious when Apollius is in control of him and his actions are uncharacteristic (which makes sense) to the point that he’s a danger to be around. Alie, Gabe, and Malcolm have distanced themselves from Bastian and Lore both because they see what’s happening and everything gets very secretive and everyone is so untrustworthy. I totally loved the inter-character dramaaaaa! And though I got to the point that I hated love triangles, the thing going on between Lore, Bastian, and Gabe creates the most delicious tension between the trio and I am HERE FOR IT.

I personally thought this installment was great, but I know it’s not going to work for everybody. I’ve seen a couple reviews where people go on about this having middle book syndrome and they didn’t like the way Lore has changed, so keep that feedback in mind as well if you’re thinking about picking this up. I’m really glad that all of these things worked for me at the time I was reading this and I can’t wait to check out the third book!