scijessreads

I would like to start this off by saying Hannah Whitten has yet to disappoint in her books (for me). I love her fantasy worlds where so much is morally gray, and endings are often bittersweet, even when they’re happy. She is also the only person I now trust to write a love triangle that doesn’t make me hate reading it. Although this love triangle is more like a love knot…

The Hemlock Queen takes the deftly constructed world and tangled web of relationships established in The Foxglove King and pulls at the strings until they vibrate with tension. Lore, Bastian, and Gabe have all fallen uneasily into their roles within the kingdom. There are secrets and unanswered questions and obtrusive thoughts that lead them all to realize just how much things are not even close to being resolved between them and the Gods whose powers they channel.

The pace is slower than in the first book, but the simmering tension that lingers between Lore, Gabe, and Bastian is never far from the surface. They all wish for things to be different. They all wish for things that cannot come to pass if current events are allowed to unfold. Current events that involve learning more about Apolloius and Nyxara and the Gods that came before, that held the powers of Mortem and Spiritum that Lore and Bastian now control.

Full of political maneuvering – a chess match that no one realizes is happening until it is almost over – we see what happens when an unchecked thirst for power and possession takes the reins of the Sainted King. We see what happens when love is not enough to save those you care about. We see what happens when secrets finally come to light, and they are worse than you could imagine.

For a middle book in a trilogy, The Hemlock Queen comes alive in the quiet, internal moments when Lore discovers exactly what she is, what needs to be done, and how much finding answers is going to hurt. In the end, we are left as scattered to the winds as our characters, waiting anxiously for them to come back together and make themselves – and their world – whole. At the same time, you can’t help but feel resignation and despair at the thought that the road to an ending is going to be difficult to travel. I can’t wait to follow it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC. All opinions are my own. Publication date is April 9th, 2024.