Today’s review is about THE NIGHTSHADE GOD by Hannah Whitten. It’s the final book in The Nightshade Crown trilogy. This review contains spoilers for the previous books in the series.
Author: Hannah Whitten
Series: The Nightshade Crown, #3
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Orbit
Publish Date: July 25, 2025
Print Length: 480
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The Nightshade God Synopsis
Synopsis
The Nightshade Crown is in the hands of a ruthless god and Lore will stop at nothing to defeat him in the final installment of this lush, romantic, New York Times bestselling fantasy series from breakout star Hannah Whitten.
Lore has failed. She couldn’t save King Bastian from the rotten god speaking voices in his mind. She couldn’t save her allies from being scattered across the continent–their own lesser gods whispering to them in their dreams. She couldn’t save her beautiful, corrupt city from the dark power beneath the catacombs. And she couldn’t save herself.
Banished to the Burnt Isles, Lore must use every skill she earned on the streets of Dellaire to survive the prison colony and figure out a way to defeat the power that’s captured everything and everyone she holds dear. When a surprise ally joins her on the Burnt Isles she realizes the way forward may lie on the island itself. Somehow, her friends must help her collect the far-scattered pieces of the broken Fount–the source of all the god’s powers–and bring them back together on the Burnt Isles, returning all magic to its source and destroying, once and for all, the gods corrupting the land.
But as Lore gets closer to her goal, her magic grows stronger… and to a woman who’s always had to fight for survival, that kind of power may be hard to give up.
The Nightshade God Review
I received a free, advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher. My review is my own and reflects my honest opinion about this book.
THE NIGHTSHADE CROWN is the final installment of Hannah Whitten’s The Nightshade Crown trilogy. After trying to save King Bastian from Apollius, Lore finds herself banished to the Burnt Isles. There she keeps her head low to survive the harsh conditions while figuring out how to leave such a desolate place. Alie remains at court, trapped in a political engagement. And Gabe and Malcolm are now in another kingdom running from the authorities. Somehow these friends must come together to reunite the broken Fount and save the world.
While I enjoyed THE FOXGLOVE KING and THE HEMLOCK QUEEN, unfortunately I didn’t find this finale as engaging. I found myself oscillating between enjoying certain points of view and tiring of them as each character moved onward in the plot. I thought Alie’s POV the most consistently engaging since she has front row seats to Apollius’s takeover of Bastian. She definitely has to figuratively tiptope around since Apollius can decide whenever he wants to force the goddess from her. This also allows the reader to see how the court capitulates to Apollius even though they realize He is not as good as they believed. (Though, what can one do against a god who can literally kill you?)
Lore’s POV starts off interesting. The reader gets to see what the Burnt Isles are like and how she keeps herself out of trouble. But as the story progressed it felt a little too quest-y, which is ridiculous of me to say since the characters are on a quest to reunite the Fount. But, alas. Lastly, I found Gabe’s POV relatively uninteresting. It provides the reader with a look into another kingdom. But it felt like a lot of the time Gabe wallowed in self-pity and easily became hot around the collar. This is all completely understandable since he has few choices. Regardless, the middle felt relatively slow, probably owing to needing to find the Fount pieces. The characters really shine when they can interact with each other. Obviously, they cannot do when each of them is in a different location.
Even though I wasn’t as engaged with this book, it remains well written. Despite my feelings about the slower pace, I liked the bittersweet ending. No spoilers, of course, but I thought the ending fitting. It really highlights the main theme of the trilogy, which is the perversion of religion to justify selfish motivations. Many people genuinely believed in the gods, only to have their faith shaken when Apollius acts antithesis to what they expected. And, after the dust settles, how does one put back together a shattered belief system?
Overall, THE NIGHTSHADE GOD is a satisfactory ending to the trilogy. While I found it slower than the previous two books, that doesn’t mean everyone else will as well.
Rating: 3.5
Content warnings: sexual content, sexual violence (off page), violence, blood, gore, death
Reading format: Paperback (ARC)
It’s a shame that this wasn’t as enjoyable for you as you had hoped although I’m glad that the ending felt right. I’m hoping to start reading it tonight.
I know, I wish I’d liked it as much as the first two! I’m curious to see what you think about it. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your review. 👀
Having got halfway through it last night, it’s strangely unengaging. Splitting the characters up really doesn’t work
That’s what I thought! They really come alive when they’re together, but not as much when they’re apart. Although maybe that’s the point since they all want to be together. 🤔
I guess that might be the point but it makes for a less engrossing read ☹️
I’ve read only one of her books, For the Wolf, and it just wasn’t for me. I skipped this series for that reason. At least the first two books were good, and it sounds like the ending worked!
I liked FOR THE WOLF more than FOR THE THRONE. I’m not sure if it’s because I let too much time pass between reading the first & second book or if it just kind of…dragged. Maybe a little of both? Anyway, it makes me sad because I did really enjoy the first two books of this trilogy.
I avoided reading your review until after writing mine, but it seems we came to similar conclusions. The quest bit dragged on for too long, and I hated that the characters were split up. Great review!
Thanks! Yea, I wish the characters had remained together. Without their dynamic together I thought the pace was just too slow and kind of boring, sadly. Not to mention their split up was just a little too convenient for the things they needed to accomplish.