Review: Rite of Poison and Whispers by Laura Greenwood

Posted October 16, 2026 by Lola in Fantasy, Review, Romance / 4 Comments

Rite of Poison and Whispers (House of Blood and Roses #9)
by Laura Greenwood

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Being a princess comes with its challenges, especially when Beatrice is at odds with the Queen.

Whispers are circling the court about Beatrice’s twin brother, and there’s very little she can do to stop it, especially when Bastian is acting without consulting anyone in House Rothorne.

To make matters worse, the Queen’s dislike of Beatrice is only growing, and when a royal dinner turns into a disaster, things become even more complicated.

Beatrice’s allies are close, but could her enemies be closer?

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Rite of Poison and Whispers is book nine of House of Blood and Roses. It is a fantasy romance series full of vampires, court intrigue, and an established m/f romance.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

This is the ninth book in this series already and I really like it. It’s filled with vampire politics and a likable heroine who tries to gain her footing at the vampire court. It has a great established couple who work together and are there for the other. And I am having a lot of fun seeing the plot play out as well. I read this book during a stressful period of time which meant I couldn’t enjoy it as much as usual, but still had a great time reading this one.

This book is pretty heavy on the plot elements. Bea and Linc have to deal with something that happened at the end of book 8 and Bea is having to deal with what they think her brother has done this time. There is some political maneuvering dealing with the aftermath of that. And then there is the queen who really doesn’t like Bea. And then in the later half there is this big event that really shakes things up and the role Bea and Linc have at court. And I am really excited to see that all play out. The overarching political plot line is really well done.

I felt this book had a bit less of focus on the characters. There are some still some sweet moments between Bea and Linc and I love how they handle everything together. But the focus really is on the plot. I am very excited about what’s going to happen to two certain side characters that we’re going to be seeing more of in future books and I look forward to Bea finally meeting them in real life.

To summarize: I really liked this book. There is a lot of political intrigue going on and some big plot events that play out and will have consequences for future books as well. I really liked seeing where the plot goes and what’s happening. I like seeing how Bea and Linc deal with everything and I like reading about them as a couple. I am really excited about two side characters who will play a bigger role going forward and I look forward to seeing them interact with Bea.