Foul Heart Huntsman

Foul Lady Fortune, Book 2

By: Chloe Gong

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 19 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends comes the “fast-paced…impressive” (Kirkus Reviews) second book in the captivating Foul Lady Fortune duology following an immortal assassin in 1930s Shanghai as she races to save her country and her love.

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.

©2023 Chloe Gong (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"Emily Woo Zeller brings passion to the thrilling conclusion of a duology about the exploits of an immortal assassin.... Zeller's pacing keeps listeners on edge. As the threat of invasion looms, Zeller keeps that tension in the forefront. Each character sounds different, but all share Zeller's intensity. Zeller's powerful delivery enhances this fast-paced story." (AudioFile)

Love the conclusion

Narrator was great! I love this duet. It has the right amount of suspense, humor, angst, and even at times cheesiness.

Great Conclusion

For the most part, I liked the narrator. I wasn't crazy about her male voices. The story was engaging and filled with plenty of action and twists. It has a HEA, which I adored.

Very good

Very good, but I want more. 😃
I grew attached to the characters with their spy skills and love interests

Chole Gong Supremacy

As always Chole knows how to put me in a chokehold with her books. I was just waiting for time to listen to the book cause I couldn’t get enough.

Never really convinced me

Never really convinced me that this was early 30s Shanghai. Felt more like Vermont. My decades in a multimillion person Asian city do not lead me to expect that when fleeing, one just happens onto a decently paved road in 1931 Shanghai. And "dial a number" - that new invention introduced to America 1919, not in wide use until 1950s. Maybe in Shanghai? And what is a telegram machine? A teletype, a newly available machine in this time frame - maayyybe such advanced tech was available to rural armies. Again, in this novel, armed with a bunsen burner and a syringe, we can do genetic engineering. In the end, this duology fails for me. Of course, Gong does get to reinvent history to put women at the fore, so perhaps that's its good point. Better than having mid-teens save the world. Oh, wait, isn't that happening in this story? - the perpetual teen at least.
Dear Editors - "Just perusing the library" suggests a lack of knowing the ambiguity of this word, unless there is an intent of humor, like a a quick research in the pretense of thoroughness.

Love a minguo era spy story

When people hear “spy fiction” they usually think about the Cold War or the Soviet Union, but little authors write about the minguo spies, other than the Chinese authors who cater it towards Chinese audiences. I’m glad that Gong was able to bring that era to the international readers too.

Story wise it was very good. Yes the science part was a bit iffy but it’s a very fulfilling story. Almost every POV character got character development, I especially loved Phoebe and Alisa’s POV, but I never got bored of anyone else’s either. This duology successful talks about politics without being political, which I liked a lot.

I enjoyed the performance, but the bad Chinese did knock it down a little for me. I don’t speak French or Russian so I can’t comment on those languages but the Chinese pronunciation was pretty off. That said, I could clearly distinguish between the character voices so it was still very good.