Review – Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune, Book 1) by Chloe Gong (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 525 pages
Publisher:‎ Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: September 27, 2022
ASIN: B09QLBXRT1
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Foul Lady Fortune series
Source: Borrowed e-book from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“It’s 1931 in Shanghai, and the stage is set for a new decade of intrigue.

Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was brought back from the brink of death, but the strange experiment that saved her also stopped her from sleeping and aging—and allows her to heal from any wound. In short, Rosalind cannot die. Now, desperate for redemption for her traitorous past, she uses her abilities as an assassin for her country.

Code name: Fortune.

But when the Japanese Imperial Army begins its invasion march, Rosalind’s mission pivots. A series of murders is causing unrest in Shanghai, and the Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalind’s new orders are to infiltrate foreign society and identify the culprits behind the terror plot before more of her people are killed.

To reduce suspicion, however, she must pose as the wife of another Nationalist spy, Orion Hong, and though Rosalind finds Orion’s cavalier attitude and playboy demeanor infuriating, she is willing to work with him for the greater good. But Orion has an agenda of his own, and Rosalind has secrets that she wants to keep buried. As they both attempt to unravel the conspiracy, the two spies soon find that there are deeper and more horrifying layers to this mystery than they ever imagined.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Foul Lady Fortune series. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed Gong’s “These Violent Delights” duology and was really looking forward to this new series. I am not very familiar with Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” (which is what this is supposed a retelling of) and wasn’t that fond of Rosalind as a character in “These Violent Delights”. While I appreciate the historical detail in this book I ended up finding it very dry and boring and almost stopped reading it numerous times.

This book follows Rosalind, who is somewhat immortal because of the medical treatment she received in These Violent Delights. She is now working for the Nationalists as an assassin to take advantage of her fast-healing, etc. With the Japanese Imperial Army set to invade and strange murders happening in the streets of Shanghai, Rosalind is asked to take on a new role, that of a spy. She is paired with Orion Hong and supposed to pose as his wife while they two of them try and figure out who or what is behind the Shanghai murders.

I just didn’t enjoy this book nearly as much as the These Violent Delights duology. This is incredibly focused on the politics in Shanghai at the time and I don’t enjoy reading politically heavy books at all. Gong does an excellent job providing historical detail around the Communists, Nationalists, and Japanese Imperialists if you are in to that sort of thing. I don’t have a lot of interest in this area and mostly found it boring and slightly confusing.

Rosalind and Orion were both fairly unlikable as characters and their relationship felt forced. The most interesting character in the book was Roma’s younger sister, Alisa, who we hear from quite a bit. Additionally, there aren’t as many exciting, fantastical elements in this book as there were in the last series. Yes, Rosalind is basically indestructible and yes, there are strange murders happening. However, the creepy madness and strange insects in the first duology were way more intriguing and compelling.

This was basically a political story with some murder mystery elements and a lackluster romance. I just wasn’t a fan. There were multiple points while I was reading this where I would just set it down and think “Why do I keep reading this? I just don’t care.” However, I liked These Violent Delights so much I really want to finish this and give it a chance.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I didn’t like this book very much. It was too heavy on complex politics with not enough mystery or fantastical elements to make the story interesting to me. I found it incredibly boring and slightly confusing (probably because I kept glazing over when they were talking about all the spying between the different factions). The characters were not all that engaging and the relationship between Rosalind and Orion felt forced. I will not be continuing with this series and don’t plan on picking up more Gong books unless they sound really, really intriguing.