Reviews with content warning for Death - Foul Lady Fortune

Chloe Gong returns with a new story in the same world as These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends, this time focusing on Rosalind Lang, the cousin of Juliette Cai. Unfortunately, I was not particularly invested in Foul Lady Fortune, though I didn’t feel that it was a slog to get through the book either due to good pacing (for the most part). I found that the plot and characters were fairly predictable (with one or two exceptions) because of Gong’s overuse of tropes. There’s nothing wrong with using them, of course, but I felt like there were a few too many that made this book a little boring for me. In addition, the way she structured the plot felt a little too similar to the previous books, right down to the politics (though I felt it was somewhat better handled in Foul Lady Fortune). I think if she fleshed the politics out a bit more and the characters’ involvement with different parties, it would have made the book a lot stronger and possibly less riddled with clichés.

I’m not sure if I want to read the next installment or not. On the one hand, I do want to see where Gong will take the story due to a couple plot twists. On the other hand, I’m not sure if I can handle another book full of tropes. I may actually have to pay attention to others’ reviews for once to make my decision.

Content Warnings

acequeen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

dame_samara's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

CW: Assault, Blood, Child Death/Death, Drugs, Gore, Gun Violence, Human/Medical Experimentation, Hospitalization, Kidnapping, Murder, Needles, Poison, Torture, Minor Transphobia, Violence, And War.

It would be wrong to say "It's Gay and It Slaps" but this book does squarely sit in the Queer Rep, category. With Celia taking a much more prominent role in this book alongside her sister Rosalind, who we find out sits somewhere in the ace spectrum.

This book was honestly a blast from beginning to end for me, I enjoyed the switch in Point of Views between Rosalind, Orion, Celia, and Oliver. Though later we drop off more to just Rosalind and Orion's POV.

I was a sucker for the Married for The Mission plotline, paired with Rosalind trying to do Spy work when normally her normal area is strictly assassinations. Also Orion and and Rosalind's banter is top notch the entire time, and also adorable especially the way Orion's terms of endearment shift towards Rosalind as they grow closer.

Other fun things you can find: Stereotypical Sexualized Gun Vehicle Fight Movie Scenes

The twists that are pulled out or the woodwork at the end of this book. Had me honestly so excited, because I'm normally the type of person who puts pieces together before the big reveal but I was genuinely shocked, I had to pause and get up from my desk at work to process what just happened after the first reveal because it was so shocking.

Then our second reveal, I do feel like I have to reread this book with that knowledge to see if I can find any clues in the text that would have clued me into them as our BBEG.

The third reveal ended up being the only one that I was even semi close on and even then I had uncertainty on who that individual was, especially after the first reveal. But looking back all the close Gong gives since in alluding to them.

TLDR: This Book was great, I love this series, someone come read it with me so I can gush about it.

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