A review by woolgatherer
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

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.
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