The Nightshade Kingdom Books in Order

The Nightshade Kingdom series follows Lore, a young woman whose life is tangled up with death magic and the crumbling faith of her country. The books are set in Auverraine, a kingdom ruled from the decadent city of Dellaire, built above the buried body of a fallen goddess. Centuries after a cataclysm called the Godsfall, the living worship a single sun god, but traces of older divinities still leak into the world and refuse to stay quiet.

In this world, Mortem is magic born from death, a dangerous force that seeps out of catacombs and bones. Lore was once part of an underground cult in those tunnels and now survives as a poison runner, using her forbidden gift to move quietly through the city. Religion, crime, and royal power are all wrapped around Mortem, and the series starts with Lore caught at the point where those forces intersect.

In The Foxglove King, a job goes wrong and her command of Mortem is exposed, drawing the attention of the Presque Mort, warrior monks who serve the Sainted King. Instead of execution, she is offered a bargain she cannot refuse: assume a false identity at court, help investigate villages that are dying overnight, and spy on Bastian, the charming but suspect heir to the throne. Guarded by Gabriel, a devout monk who is also a disgraced duke, Lore is thrown into a court full of silk and secrets where every alliance has teeth and the gods might be moving pieces behind the scenes.

The aftermath reshapes the kingdom. In The Hemlock Queen, the old king is gone, Bastian has taken the crown, and Lore stands at his side as a deathwitch bound to the throne. Gabe has risen to lead the Presque Mort, yet the distance between the three of them keeps growing as nobles plot rebellion and a rival empire presses at Auverraine's borders. Lore begins to hear a voice in her head that does not feel like her own, and channelling both Mortem and its mirror magic, Spiritum, only sharpens the suspicion that a god is using her as a doorway.

By The Nightshade God, the cracks are impossible to ignore. Lore has been exiled to the Burnt Isles, a brutal prison colony where survival means mining dangerous ore and trusting no one. Back in Auverraine, Bastian is slipping under the control of the life god Apollius, while Gabe and a handful of allies race to find shards of the Fount, the source of divine power. The final volume turns the story into a desperate fight that spans the continent, as mortals try to put magic back where it belongs and decide whether people or gods will shape the future.

Taken together, the books offer a romantasy that leans into poisonous courts, found family, and characters who are allowed to be angry and afraid while they try to do the right thing. Expect velvet cloaks, candlelit cathedrals, bone filled tunnels, and a heroine whose greatest strength is also the thing that might destroy her. If you like your fantasy full of necromancy, slow burn entanglements, and questions about what faith looks like after institutions fail, this is the series to sink into.