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A review by ashkowalskaa
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
5.0
Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for honest review!
Foul Lady Fortune is the first Chloe Gong’s book I had chance of reading, even though These Violent Delights are sitting on my TBR for quite a long time now. And if I’m being honest, I’m glad I started with this one. Romeo and Julia is story well known, and I was missing the interest to begin reading, as the ending was- expectable, however, I had no idea what to expect with FLF. And I was amazed by it. Brief throwback to the events of TVD eased coming into the world and meeting the characters, as well as the relationships. It was well written, enough to explain the consequences, yet still leaving me interested for first duology. I absolutely loved writing and the sense of historical setting without heavy wording which was great for YA and made the book great to read. As English isn’t my first language, that I very important point for me. I will not describe what the book is about, because you can find the synopsis very easily, and I’m very afraid of accidentally spoiling anything, but the most important question is: would I recommend it? Yes, no hesitation. This book single-handy broke my reader’s block, and I’m so excited for more. Also, I will be buying physical copy just to have this gold on my shelf.
What I loved:
• Orion and Rosalind’s relationship? I would give ANYTHING for them. I would read a book on two of them just living day by day. All my favourite tropes stacked in one pairing.
• The ending of the book, incredible. The first part didn’t even come out yet, and I’m already looking out for second!! I did have my suspicions and they worked out 50/50 but it still punched me right in the gut as everything revealed itself.
• Number of characters was perfect to keep up the pace, reveal enough to the reader yet keep the good amount of information in the shadows. Plus, third narrative following different POV’s worked great.
What I didn’t loved:
• Orion’s and Oliver’s names. I suppose there was a reason for this but having two characters with similar-looking names was very confusing at times. I’d say similar with the amount of names all characters had, but I know there is a good reason for it, and I absolutely loved the use of them!! This whole point is purely due to the fact that I have no name-memory and am dyslexic! Please, do not make your mind on this book based on this point:)
• Celia’s backstory. I know that not starting with TVD I missed out a lot of story, but FLF was supposed to be explanatory enough. For me, Celia needed a bit more light because the short description of what happened to her before got me only more confused. I’m sure there was better way to word it.
• It kind of seemed- rushed? With the amount of tricky plot and worldbuilding it feels like characters got a bit lost, I would like to know more about them!!
• Random flashbacks even though the change of tense was quite clear, it did take me by surprise, throwing out of the rhythm.
Foul Lady Fortune is the first Chloe Gong’s book I had chance of reading, even though These Violent Delights are sitting on my TBR for quite a long time now. And if I’m being honest, I’m glad I started with this one. Romeo and Julia is story well known, and I was missing the interest to begin reading, as the ending was- expectable, however, I had no idea what to expect with FLF. And I was amazed by it. Brief throwback to the events of TVD eased coming into the world and meeting the characters, as well as the relationships. It was well written, enough to explain the consequences, yet still leaving me interested for first duology. I absolutely loved writing and the sense of historical setting without heavy wording which was great for YA and made the book great to read. As English isn’t my first language, that I very important point for me. I will not describe what the book is about, because you can find the synopsis very easily, and I’m very afraid of accidentally spoiling anything, but the most important question is: would I recommend it? Yes, no hesitation. This book single-handy broke my reader’s block, and I’m so excited for more. Also, I will be buying physical copy just to have this gold on my shelf.
What I loved:
• Orion and Rosalind’s relationship? I would give ANYTHING for them. I would read a book on two of them just living day by day. All my favourite tropes stacked in one pairing.
• The ending of the book, incredible. The first part didn’t even come out yet, and I’m already looking out for second!! I did have my suspicions and they worked out 50/50 but it still punched me right in the gut as everything revealed itself.
• Number of characters was perfect to keep up the pace, reveal enough to the reader yet keep the good amount of information in the shadows. Plus, third narrative following different POV’s worked great.
What I didn’t loved:
• Orion’s and Oliver’s names. I suppose there was a reason for this but having two characters with similar-looking names was very confusing at times. I’d say similar with the amount of names all characters had, but I know there is a good reason for it, and I absolutely loved the use of them!! This whole point is purely due to the fact that I have no name-memory and am dyslexic! Please, do not make your mind on this book based on this point:)
• Celia’s backstory. I know that not starting with TVD I missed out a lot of story, but FLF was supposed to be explanatory enough. For me, Celia needed a bit more light because the short description of what happened to her before got me only more confused. I’m sure there was better way to word it.
• It kind of seemed- rushed? With the amount of tricky plot and worldbuilding it feels like characters got a bit lost, I would like to know more about them!!
• Random flashbacks even though the change of tense was quite clear, it did take me by surprise, throwing out of the rhythm.