The Foxglove King is a gothic fantasy novel which I had the opportunity to read as an ARC from Netgalley. This is actually my first time reading a book by Hannah Whitten, having already published a fantasy duology. I think Whitten is a brilliant story-teller, the plot was very creative with the magic system which was still easy to understand. I really liked the idea of Spiritum and Mortem, channelling life and death, and even the interesting affects of drugs/poison in this world.
Being book #1 in the series, there was a LOT of content and info-dumping to set up for the rest of the series. It took me a long time to get through this book, and for 500 pages I definitely read it slower than my usual reading speed. There was a lot of religious and political content, with the basis of the book being Church vs. Crown. For me it's just not my personal preference. However I really loved the characters, Whitten really developed all of the characters in my opinion and I thought they were great, especially as a reader not knowing who to trust. It was very enjoyable getting to know these characters and I really liked Lore, she was a great protagonist.
I am also confused if this is classed as an adult or YA series, however I would personally classify this as YA. The romance in this book mainly centred around a love triangle, which I dislike as a trope so the romance was a miss for me in this book.
A trilogy series is planned at the time of writing this review, known as The Nightshade Crown, and I would like to continue on with this series now that the characters and magic systems have been established in book #1.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group UK and Hannah Whitten for sending me this digital review copy.