ARC review, book review, young adult

Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong (ARC Review)

Title: Foul Heart Huntsman
Author: Chloe Gong
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster)
Date published: September 26, 2023

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

Winter is drawing thick in 1932 Shanghai, as is the ever-nearing threat of a Japanese invasion.

Rosalind Lang has suffered the worst possible fate for a national spy: she’s been exposed. With the media storm camped outside her apartment for the infamous Lady Fortune, she’s barely left her bedroom in weeks, plotting her next course of action after Orion was taken and his memories of Rosalind wiped. Though their marriage might have been a sham, his absence hurts her more than any physical wound. She won’t rest until she gets him back.

But with her identity in the open, the task is near impossible. The only way to leave the city and rescue Orion is under the guise of a national tour. It’s easy to convince her superiors that the countryside needs unity more than ever, and who better than an immortal girl to stir pride and strength into the people?

When the tour goes wrong, however, everything Rosalind once knew is thrown up in the air. Taking refuge outside Shanghai, old ghosts come into the open and adversaries turn to allies. To save Orion, they must find a cure to his mother’s traitorous invention and take this dangerous chemical weapon away from impending foreign invasion—but the clock is ticking, and if Rosalind fails, it’s not only Orion she loses, but her nation itself.

⤖ My Review ⬻

Chloe Gong’s Foul Heart Huntsman is the most recent fantasy book I’ve finished, and I’m very excited to be talking about it so soon after finishing not only because everything is still fresh, but also because I really enjoyed the book and how it wrapped up not only the Foul Lady Fortune duology, but the prequel series—These Violent Delights—as well.

By the point where I dove into Foul Heart Huntsman, I had already spent extensive amounts of time with some of the core characters, and got to know the rest pretty well while reading the first book in the duology, Foul Lady Fortune. Some of the aspects I enjoyed most about this duology are tropes that I usually enjoy: pining, forced proximity, marriage of convenience.

foul heart huntsman

What I also enjoyed was the characters in general, their development (inner development as well as how their relationships evolved with each other as the story progressed), as well as the banter (and dialogue as a whole). I also appreciated the novelty of the setting going hand-in-hand with some of the historical tidbits I was able to pick up (I know this is a work of fiction, but I know that it’s also based on some real historical events as well).

The pacing was great, and Foul Heart Huntsman was action packed. I think the pacing in this book was the most satisfying for me out of Gong’s novels so far—there wasn’t one dull moment. I was on the edge of my seat, figuratively and literally, for a good portion of the story. I really enjoyed this book, the duology as a whole, as well as the other series in this universe, and I hope that this isn’t the last I hear of these characters or the setting I got to know them in.

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in The New York Times, People, Forbes, and more. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and international relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult.

⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let's Chat ⬻

Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you plan to? Let me know in the comments!

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