Week 15 Review: The Hemlock Queen

From Goodreads:

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 Review:
I loved reading this book! I loved the first one, and I was excited to see where this one would go. And oh, the places that it went! I had to keep reading and watch as the story unfolded, it was so good and I was very much entertained!

I really enjoyed seeing these characters settle into the new roles that they assumed at the end of the previous book. I know Lore was particularly uncomfortable with it, since she didn't grow up in that world, plus with her powers being expanded upon.

What was going on with both Bastian and Lore, well, that was pretty scary, since they didn't know what was going on. But once we knew, well, yeah, that was pretty big! And it makes sense, too, that one bit of information. It all fits together so well! 

Oh, but that ending was so fantastic and so evil! I need to know what's going to happen next, with all these characters in various unwelcome states-I have to see them get out of them! The wait for the 3rd book is just going to be evil.

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more! 

Author: Hannah Whitten 
Series: The Nightshade Crown #2
Read: March 8th, 2024 
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Love her writing and this series, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2024 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Orbit
Expected Publication: April 9th 2024

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars