Author : Hannah F. Whitten
Book : The Hemlock Queen
/Fantasy Romance,Adult/
Publication date : April 9, 2024
Blurb:
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.
My thoughts:
The Hemlock Queen is the second installment of The Nightshade Crown trilogy by Hannah F Whitten that continues the story of our favorite former poison runner turned Queen—Lore and the two halves of her heart, Bastian and Gabriel.
Things pick up shortly after the events of book one ended, and we face the consequences the three of them have to face. Dancing around their problems and their relationship, sooner or later, they have to face the problems that are festering so they can avoid the looming war with the Kyrithean Empire and simultaneously, figure out how to save themselves and their kingdom from a threat much bigger than the war.
In the previous book the main dynamic revolved around Lore and Gabriel and I love that in The Hemlock Queen we see more of the relationship between Lore and Bastian what is their connection.
Furthermore, we have an intriguing backstory of how their powers came to be with a lot of history rewarding us with all the answers that were following us since book one.
When you put things together after gathering all the pieces on this immersive journey, the Gods role in all of this and their personality is intriguing and well implemented with the other characters.
As a character development, I, personally, loved Nyxara and was always curious about her reactions when she was in the picture.
When it came to Gabriel, I was a bit sad that he didn't as much time as I would've liked because since the beginning of the story he remained somewhat of an enigma for me—questioning how does he feel about numerous things and burning for answers. But it wasn't what the story needed and, like Lore, I'm greedy for both of them 😂🙈 so I'll shove my Gabriel addiction for book 3 that I can't wait to read!