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Book Review #26 of 2024--

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten. Rating: 3.75 stars.

Read from April 9th to 18th.

When I said I needed something in my life to slow down my reading, I really didn't mean being overwhelmed with starting a class, having one of the worst migraines of my life, a car getting damaged beyond repair, and having to spend a day and a half purchasing a new car. But, really, I should know better at this point. It is 2024 after all. This is a book I would have read in 4 days or fewer if real life wasn't trying to tear me apart. And I feel like taking a week and a half to read it kind of took away from the experience. I would read 80 pages in a day and then put it down for a day and a half out of necessity. So, the reading felt so disjointed. I'm hoping when I reread the series before the next book comes out I'll have a better experience.

I really do absolutely adore a set of characters who are doomed by the narrative but continue pushing through because what else are they going to do? The thing I thought was happening pretty early on in the first book finally got confirmation in this one. It was the major plot of this one. I still really enjoy Lore, Gabe, and Bastian and it was weird in this one because it felt like they weren't as fully in the story as they were in book one. Which makes sense given the plot. I just missed them sometimes. I'm excited to see where the next (final?) book goes from here. The setting and the world still felt so real and I loved seeing all of my favorite places in this world again. In the next one, we're going to some new places so I'm excited to see it.

I struggled with some triggers that weren't there in the first book. It all makes sense for the plot and it isn't extreme at all, but it really did drag down my enthusiasm for the story as we were moving through it. I don't know if it's going to be a major thing in the next one so it does make me a little worried but I'm still planning on finishing the series.

Overall, it was a good middle book. I think a lot of authors struggle to avoid "middle book syndrome" where it feels too thin and like a bridge between set up and climax. I think if I had read this as quickly as I wanted to then it would have been slightly easier to follow and I probably would have enjoyed it at least a little more.

#book review #The Hemlock Queen #The Foxglove King #Hannah F. Whitten #Hannah Whitten #books read in 2024 #2024 reading challenge #reading challenge #goodreads challenge #goodreads #books #bookish #book #fantasy #adult fantasy

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Mr Darcy and Lizzie 💫

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there’s no greater betrayal than finally starting to read a book you’ve had sitting for months on your shelf or your desk or your nightstand and then finding out it’s bad. like. i gave you a fucking home.

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well well well if it isn't the consequences (two 400+ page books ready to be picked up at the same time) of my actions (putting too many library books on hold)

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🌙✨📖

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Top 10 of 2023 ✨

These were the reads that wouldn’t leave my head, that I loved the most, that I can’t stop thinking about even at the end of the year. What were yours?

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Weekend mornings / weekend evenings.

#I hope your taste in books is better than your taste in beer #I'm joking #but...also kind of not

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Has your #1 comfort character committed a crime?

#but it comes with a homoerotic subtext

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“He gazed up at her like he was fire and she was fuel.”

Hannah F. Whitten, The Foxglove King

#the foxglove king #Hannah whitten

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Currently reading: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

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Silvan Borer

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My latest Guardian Books cartoon.

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Tasty reading 🦋📚🕯️

Moth-bitten Library, the second prompt for Drawtober!

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It’s funny when American authors come up with a new European nation so their main character can be a secret royal without the pain of researching a real nation. We should all start doing that with North America, just make up a new state. My protagonist lives in New Utahioshington which is the 51st state and located between Delaware and Maryland

#as an American. I approve.

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who knew i absolutely needed to visit a bookstore that extended to the outside 📖🍂