Lexi Ryan

From New York Times best-selling author Lexi Ryan, Cruel Prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses in this sexy, action-packed fantasy about a girl who is caught between two treacherous faerie courts and their dangerously seductive princes. Brie hates the Fae and refuses to have anything to do with them, even if that means starving on the street. But when her sister is sold to the sadistic king of the Unseelie court to pay a debt, she'll do whatever it takes to get her back--including making a deal with the king himself to steal three magical relics from the Seelie court. Gaining unfettered access to the Seelie court is easier said than done. Brie's only choice is to pose as a potential bride for Prince Ronan, and she soon finds herself falling for him. Unwilling to let her heart distract her, she accepts help from a band of Unseelie misfits with their own secret agenda. As Brie spends time with their mysterious leader, Finn, she struggles to resist his seductive charm. Caught between two dangerous courts, Brie must decide who to trust with her loyalty. And with her heart.

These Hollow Vows

Jenna-Lee Gordon

May you always have a star to wish on, Abriella, and a reason to believe. 

That no matter how hopeless I feel, there’s always a little more hope inside me. That no matter how faithless I think I am, there is always something to believe in

You can never trust a thief you’ve welcomed into your home. 

“But you eventually grew to care for him?”  “Some days I wish I hadn’t,” she says, pressing a fist to her chest as if she’s trying to stave off the ache there. “But he was so damn easy to love.”

When Finn stands, his gaze locks on the hand I pulled away from him. “Abriella, every star in that sky shines for you

raia

I am shadow and darkness and stronger than the girl he sacrificed for that crown.

 “May you always have a star to wish on, Abriella, and a reason to believe.”

“You should make use of the dagger you’re hiding in your hand and kill me then. Because as long as I live, I have an obligation to my people. So as long as I live, I will fight for that crown you wear.”

“You killed her,” I whisper. “You killed your own betrothed.”

Drawing in a breath, I offer a prayer to the gods above and below that I am right about this. Then I make a quarter turn away from the false king and take a seat on the Throne of Shadows.

A lifelong bond with the darkest, ugliest soul I’ve ever encountered. Never.

All these years, I’ve hated the fae, never knowing that their magic is the only reason I’m alive.

I point at the door. “After you leave.”

His perfect lips quirk into a mocking smile, and I remember the way they felt against my skin—soft against the sharp sting of his teeth when he bit me. “You didn’t mind stripping in front of me last night."

He chuckles. “You didn’t want me to go away last night. In fact, when I tucked you into this bed, you were begging me to stay. I have to admit, you made some pretty intriguing promises.”

I peek at him between my fingers, and just as I expected, the ass is smiling. He never smiles, but of course this most mortifying morning of my life would be the occasion of his shit-eating grins. “I hate you.”

Gods above and below . . . so much begging.

I shake my head. “Everyone wants something from me, but nobody wants me. He always leaves when I kiss him. I think it’s because I won’t promise to be his bride. But he didn’t want to leave her. He wanted to keep kissing her.”

“You’re beautiful. I think I want to kiss you. Just once.”

“But you’re falling for her. I saw the way you were looking at her when you returned with Jalek. I watched you two on the patio, and I saw—”

“Abriella, every star in that sky shines for you.”

I see Finn sitting in an upholstered chair on the opposite side of the room, his wolves on either side of him.

“Easy, Princess, focus on the magic. When we’re out of here, you can go back to imagining all the ways you want my hands on you.”

I stare at that smooth skin on the inside of my wrist and frown. I like my scar.

“Anyone who goes to that court has a death wish, Jas. You know as well as I do that there are no good faeries. Just degrees of evil and cruel.”

“Not so different from humans then.” She drops my hands. 

Sidney Schaffner

I honestly was not expecting this book to be this good. I’ve owned it for over six months, and just never picked it up. This was very fast paced, and I enjoyed it immensely. The main character does not follow the number one rule. And that is; never trust the blonde love interest.

One of the best books I've read recently!!! The story, the plot, the character !!! 😘👌🏻 Idk why someone said it's similar with Acotar cuz it's not, it's more similar with the books with Fae written 6-7 y ago!!! Anyway, it's worth reading and being hit on a wall after all the betrayal

Andrada Nane

britt

Raquel 

what else can I say? I pretty much love anything with fae males, however, this lacked in some areas.
although it was fast-paced and pretty easy to read even though it's a fantasy book, the character lacked something and I just can't put my finger on what it was, but they pretty much fell kinda flat. I felt like smacking Brie for being dumb most of the time, she just forgave everyone so easily it annoyed the hell out of me. 

Taking out the fact that brie annoyed me and I didn't particularly cared for Sebastian, it was still a good and entertaining book. the reason why I rounded this up to four stars, is because of how entertaining it was and how I just couldn't put it down and I immediately felt like reading the second book. 3,5 rounded up to 4 stars ⭐️

Julie Failde

Okay, I have a good amount of things to say. 
For the first half of this book, it was a great, maybe four or five stars. It was fun, the love triangle was good because I hated Sebastian the whole time, and Brie was a likeable protagonist. 
But somewhere in that 60-75% mark, everything about the book becomes incredibly unlikeable. So it fell from that four or five star to a two-star read for awhile. Brie gets a little dumb because her feelings for Sebastian, Sebastian is disgusting, and then Finn is kind of thrown on the backburner. 
Brie loving Sebastian to the point she does, even after (view spoiler)[seeing him with another woman immediately after he lies and ditches here AND after she gets drugged that same night (hide spoiler)] is very, very dumb. So their big "romance" scene just left me feeling super gross inside.
(view spoiler)[And then, when Brie goes to confront Finn later, and was not listening to anything just pure rage, that was pretty annoying. (hide spoiler)]
Anyway, there are some things I want to address about other reviews here too.
I get that Finn is like every other tall, dark, and handsome fae in media, but he's a way more enjoyable character than the wimpy and whiney Sebastian (even before the consistent betrayals), so people commenting on that is pretty funky. So, at least in this setting, Finn is good.
A lot of people seem to be commenting about the dancing and faerie wine effects are a straight rip from Cruel Prince or ACOTAR, but like, that's just faerie lore. Fae is such a weird term now because of how over used it is, but FAERIES have wine that makes you loopy and music that makes you never want to stop dancing so . . .
I even saw a comment saying how the Unseelie Court was ripping from another book, which is just—idk maybe all the people behind these comments know is Sarah J. Maas fae which is more Lord of the Rings elves than actual faeries. But it's been upsetting to see people bashing these specific inspirations, especially since Lexi Ryan did an incredible job weaving those traditional faeries with the hot fae people love and made a world that had both. I think that, more than anything, explains the whole "Cruel Prince meets ACOTAR." 

Anyway, idk, I just loved the goblin guy and that last chapter brought the book back up to like a 3.5 stars.

nuélle

I don't understand why I do this to myself😭

ok spoilers below :) 
brie and bash were so fucking annoying I wanted to throw my phone at times. the only character that I found kinda interesting was finn and thats cause he is probably very old and I REALLY wanna know his backstory (like why he to killed isabel) and the thing that made me hate this sm is because it had a fucking love triangle and I despise them with my whole heart 
the only part I liked was at the end brie realisng her powers a storming out and also fuck bash he is annoying and was literally using her the whole time 

anyway I still will be reading the next book cause I'm curious abt what happens to finn and also want to know abt his past

Naiya

Just what is that ending...but who knew I would complete my first Fae book! (After DNF-ing Once Upon a Broken Heart and This Vicious Grace I was pretty sure it was hopeless to ever want to finish a fantasy romance book).

Surprisingly Lexi Ryan's writing was easy to grasp and imagine let's pretend the smut scenes don't exist for this compared to ACOTAR which I'm currently only at Chapter 2 *sob*. The plot feels very much like a Cinderella-esk timeline with an assassin spy feel - go to ball, find items, seduce Prince, don't get discovered. 

(view spoiler)[Except also in this case, there's 2 Princes. And well, the Princes actually are the ones who need her more than the other way round. At least she can pick between the lesser of the two evils? Spoiler - there's only one manipulative one. Ngl, the whole garden scene with Sebastian was such an obvious lead into the fact that he's Prince Ronan. Sometimes Brie feels a bit of an airhead all of a sudden she's with Sebastian/Ronan, like we get it, you like like him. But hello, he did just basically lied to you about how he's actually a Fae?? And a freaking Prince?!? 

It's funny because she would question herself at times of, how come he never helped us out of our debt if he's Prince? Yes, girl all you have to do is connect the dots. He's red flags central from then on in my head. Then we have Finn. Tsk tsk the whole dancing sequence half the time, I legit didn't fully imagined her high from being drugged, I thought it was from her exhaustion lmao. Like how does she even have energy to go to a freaking ball after not getting sleep from sneaking into Gorst's vault? 

I mean sure Finn was questionable with his approach and everything but I never felt he was like bad and with the whole "dark mysterious attractive" stranger vibe, I knew he had to be the main male character, so there's that. I mean I do appreciate the "walk like an angel, talk like an angel" but is actually the Devil in disguise concept that's applied to Sebastian (Silver hair, white tunic) just that twist at the end made everything about Sebastian gross. Only credit I give him is that he had the Potion of Life and the Bloodstone he gave her (I digress, this is revealed in These Twisted Bonds). 

I actually couldn't care for the history much after getting 50% into the book and I hardly really remember much other than there's like 3 courts/kingdoms(?) - Wild Fae, Moon Court, Sun Court. The historical debrief is interesting but nothing I really tuned in for. (hide spoiler)]

Side note: I started to read These Twisted Bonds while 50% into this book. No regretsss.

THIS TWIST. THIS. TWIIIIIIIIIIST. HOLY SHIT I SAW PART COMING BUT WHAT THE HELLLLLL. it’s only 4 instead of 5 bc the beginning was slow but it really got me going at the end!

fris🐝

Dominika

Okay, stop, im screaming. This was AMAZING. Fantasy with fairies… my kind of book. Amazing story, beautiful characters, the world building was astonishing. And that ending… Need the second book. Love love love

Jodie Reads

While it felt a little like it was borrowing arcs from ACOTAR, I loved reading it. 

Katie Buchanan

Vanessa

Couldn’t put this one down!! The main focus is on Abriella and man… does she weave a tangled web. I don’t want to give spoilers, so just read this one.

It’s so good. I immediately started the second one. I also was yelling out loud during the end and my partner found that amusing. 

Megan BV

No lo podía soltar y estoy en época de exámenes y me quiero seguir el segundo pero no puedo aún ;;;

Isabel Menchón Martínez

I was unsure as I started this book. I didn't like the main character much but this book explored her motives and the two princes so well, though slowly. There was a moment at the end when everything clicked into place and everything made sense and I needed to read more! Alas, I need the second book for that

Kira Del Caro

Zaina ahmad

this was my first book with faries and I am in love with the faries trope omg I am in love with this book

Overall, this is a good book. The writing, plot, and characters are executed well and work well with each other. I can see why this is a popular book. However, I don't think the book is my style.

Despite enjoying my time reading it, I never felt a strong connection to it. The characters were well-written and distinguishable. The author did a good job of making the reader cautious of all faeries. The writing was easy to read and never confusing. And the plot was well stitched together and perfectly flowed from one point to the next. But I never felt the need to pick the book up. I wasn't drawn to keep going or see how it ended. Just a little nitpick, too. I felt like this should have been a standalone, but I see why it's a duology. Even though it wasn't my favorite, I'd definitely recommend this book to others.

Brandyn

Overall, this is a good book. The writing, plot, and characters are executed well and work well with each other. I can see why this is a popular book. However, I don't think the book is my style.

Despite enjoying my time reading it, I never felt a strong connection to it. The characters were well-written and distinguishable. The author did a good job of making the reader cautious of all faeries. The writing was easy to read and never confusing. And the plot was well stitched together and perfectly flowed from one point to the next. But I never felt the need to pick the book up. I wasn't drawn to keep going or see how it ended. Just a little nitpick, too. I felt like this should have been a standalone, but I see why it's a duology. Even though it wasn't my favorite, I'd definitely recommend this book to others.

Rachel Galdino

at first my mind kept going back to acotar and from blood and ash and for a while there i was scared i wasn’t going to be able to separate the stories, but i wassss!!! after a while i didn’t even remember the other books, the story developed and became its own. this was so good and the first ya book i truly liked, so so good.

Kelsey Joëlle

** spoiler alert **
           How can somebody get betrayed so many times and still keep it going. Is she dumb? 

Even though i saw the whole crown thing coming from the first time it was mentioned, and I knew both bash and Finn would betray her, the book was fine. I liked it, liked abriella even though this girl is dumber then a brainless corpse. Hope she gets her revenge in the next book and doesn’t just fall back in bashes arms. Or Finn’s. Even though I like Finn more.

Kimberly Burgess 

Lily Balderston

** spoiler alert **
           Plot twists. Love a smarty pants MC. I never trust a bitch named Sebastian. Literally what the hell. I didn’t like him anyway when he was mr nice guy from the MOMENT Finn came on the scene but wow oh wow do I hate his guts now. Giving me some tampon vibes iykyk. Rly mad I don’t have book two but as soon as the book store opens tmr I will 😂

Sloan MacDonald

3.5⭐️

I was honestly pretty bored the whole time but i’m sliving for the drama. however, the thought of reading more of Brie’s pov (she’s so fucking dumb) in the second book is giving me hives. might pass.

These Hollow Vows

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