I was a little nervous going into this one because love triangles have never been my thing and I knew this book had one….
I loved it! There were plot twists from the get go and I didn’t see ONE of them coming. At times I did think there were certain aspects of the plot that felt a little too convenient and I found myself thinking “really? That’s too easy!”, but actually I realised as the plot went on that there were reasonings and explanations behind everything, so it was all set up intentionally and I thought that was actually really cleverly done in the end!
Brie is a really strong character and her strength and determination are really admirable!
I’m already eagerly (VERY eagerly) awaiting the sequel.

Brie, the protagonist in the story is not a fan of and doesn’t get on with the faeries but it’s about to change when her sister is sold to one of the courts of the faeries. It’s then upto her to work with the faeries to retrieve some magical relics in order to get her sister back. But it’s not going to be as easy as she thinks especially when she falls for one of the fairy princes. To make matters worse the leader of a gang of misfits is doing his best to woo her.

Question is, can anyone be trusted?

In every corner there are secrets to be unravelled and people who had the potential to stab you in the back. There are some political affairs within this book which Brie finds herself caught up in when she gets involved in the courts. It reminded me a little of the politics in Romeo and Juliet and how the two lovers were caught in the middle.

There’s a bit of action throughout the novel but this one felt more based around the characters. It’s mainly Brie’s relationship with the faerie prince and the leader of the gang that takes centrefold.
I thought Brie was also a very strong willed character.

The author has done a fabulous job of creating this visually stunning and enchanting world although I would have liked to have read a bit more on the world although we do learn more about the fairies and how they live.

I whipped through this book and found myself engrossed in what was going to happen next. It’s a gothic fairytale of epic proportions. A fantastical and brilliant read for anyone who loves fairy tales or fantasies.

A charming and seductive book that will bound to have you spell-bound. I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

These Hollow Vows is an intriguing new book joining the fantasy and had a lot of expectatiosn to live up to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for allowing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Plot summary:
It’s safe to say Brie hates faeries. But when her sister is taken to their land it takes all she has to go over there, try and charm a prince, and get her sister back. It’s much more difficult than she could have imagined

With 2 different princes competing for her loyalty, and her heart, which way will brie Choose to save herself and her sister?

Review:
Plot and World Building – This was a really well developed world, and the different fae courts where explored pretty well, although there were points I did have to reread and check I had understood the lore. The general plot and story premise was advertised as the Cruel prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses and I can definitely see that this is a story all on it’s own, with elements of both books, but by using that comparison when I was reading I struggled to engage with the story and keep reading. It was fine, but I felt like there was just some spark missing.

The general plot was pretty good, as I have read a lot of books like this I felt it was a bit predictable but that might be just me.

Overall pacing of the story was really quite varied and it worked well for the plot.

Characters and Development- Brie was slightly frustrating as a character, mainly because I read her as quite childish at some points and extremely mature at others and the clash was just a bit too far for me.

Both of the love interests, Ronan and Finn, were developed quite well and I loved the background to them. I will say that I am very much a Finn supporter, Ronan was giving me some serious red flags while I was reading which genuinely put me off him as a love interest.


Final Thoughts:
A solid fantasy debut which made a good start, but the sequel may have a long way to go.

When her sister is sold to the Fae as a slave, Brie must make a deal with the wicked unseelie court in order to save her. Posing as a potential bride to the golden Prince Ronan, she must pretend to fall in love while infiltrating his court and stealing his prized possessions. To help her, she joins forces with a rebel group of Fae who have their own agenda - to reclaim the unseelie crown for the rightful heir and leader, Finn. Caught between two warring courts, Brie must decide who to trust with her secrets, and her heart.

I loved the premise of this. The Fae are normally portrayed as devious and tricky, and a story that revolves around these type of characters mixed in with court intigue and an angsty love triangle was always going to grab my attention. The Fae are everything you would expect here. Brie can trust no-one and nothing. Everyone has their own agenda and will use Brie and her abilities for their own selfish advantage. To see her thrown into this lions den of creatures, ready to tear her apart at any given notice, was rather satisfying to read about. They know they can use her naivety about their world to their advantage, and they do. Multiple times. I particularly liked Finn's group of ragtag friends, who seem like the ultimate bad guys until you get to know them. They feel like a cohesive, believable group of friends - although I do think we could have spent more time with them to get a bit more out of their backstory and character development.

Brie herself I was less enamoured by. She has a past with the Fae which makes her dislike them, yet she's quite quick to get over this. Her constant pondering over how much she wants Sebastian also started to grate on me after a while and I found that her relationship with him relies on a lot of telling rather than showing. This made it more difficult to believe it as the reader cannot see this love develop organically over time. Also, considering she has this amazing ability to use shadows etc we don't actually see her use it all that much, especially given how many times Finn states she's so powerful. Overall she just feels a bit underwhelming.

I also found the world building and magic system to be poorly explained and developed. We know so little about Brie's power and by extension that of the Fae that I just ended up feeling like I was missing some crucial information that is never given to me. There's also a confusing curse going on at one point in the story, as well as strict rules about what the Unseelie can and can't do that really makes the whole thing feel a little bit messy and overly complicated. There's also a whole side plot involving Prince Ronan choosing a bride and multiple women that doesn't really go anywhere as we never see any of them. It's as though they're invisible, which makes one plot point later in the story rather lack lustre as, quite honestly, I'd forgotten they existed.

In terms of the main plot, I found it to be very predictable and I guessed all of the reveals long before they are exposed. This meant that my reading experience did feel a little bit like a let down. I genuinely thought this had so much potential to be amazing, but the execution just wasn't there and that's probably why I'm being particularly critical. I had an enjoyable time, and the ending redeemed this somewhat for me, but it could have been so much better. Perhaps the sequel will be better.

I really need the second one.

This book reminded me of why I loved ACOTAR and Folk of the Air series. It is the way the fae are done and the darkness that is brought from the folk laws. These Hollow Vows was no different. I loved the way the author handled the land of Fairy and I enjoyed the main character she created. I also did not see the ending happening the way it did. I need more like this week if possible? I am definitely going to be keeping an eye out for book 2 and refuse to give anything away about the storyline. But if you love thief characters
Fairies or love triangle troupe, then pick it up, you know you want to!

I’m quite conflicted about this book, because I enjoyed reading it but there were so many issues that I couldn't ignore.
A seventeen year old human girl, named Abriella (don’t get me started on this awful name and its equally awful nickname: Brie), is forced to go into the faerie realm because her sister was sold by their aunt to the Unseelie King. The king offers Abriella a deal where she must retrieve three things from the Seelie Court in order to get her sister back. Love interest number one is Sebastian, her “human” friend with blond hair and green eyes, who is actually fae Prince Ronan, heir of the Seelie throne (shocker). The brooding, mysterious, dark haired, and silver eyed fae male, named Finn, is love interest number two, who turns out to be the rightful heir of the Unseelie Court obviously (another shocker).
Let’s start with the things I didn’t like, which are a lot. Abriella was the typical I’m-not-like-other-girls MC, who prefers to wear pants and is supposedly a thief. She got on my nerves so much, she had the potential to be a badass genius, but she was just a gullible, average heroine. Her thieving skills are clearly non-existent as people do the job for her. I began to like her a bit halfway through but then she makes the stupidest decision ever. In her defense, there were some other decisions that were not that terrible, but still. I did like her determination in finding her sister, doing everything she can to have her back.
I hated Sebastian from the start, he irked me so much that my brain was ringing red alarms whenever he appeared. He was extremely manipulative, obviously he was going to betray her at the end. Abriella kept choosing him every time, worrying about his feelings and stuff, and it frustrated me so much. Their chemistry was lacking and I was cringing and rolling my eyes in every of their romantic scenes. On the other hand, I loved Finn. Despite all the awful things he did, he was way more interesting than insufferable Sebastian.
Another thing I didn’t like was the way the faeries were portrayed. They weren’t clever nor cunning, nor they could only speak the truth. They were basically like humans but with pointy ears. Apart from that, the setting was not developed well, it felt very dull and boring. The writing style fell flat; it was childish and repetitive, full of rhetorical questions, with barely any memorable quotes.
This is nothing like The Cruel Prince, unlike stated by the premise. This is exactly like ACOTAR. I don’t like to compare but I can count like a hundred similarities between these books. Abriella is basically Feyre, Sebastian is Tamlin, and Finn is Rhysand. There are three “quests”, the courts, the mating bond, even the Unseelie people are cursed by the queen, and they literally can’t speak about it. It’s as if ACOTAR, From Blood and Ash and The Selection had a baby.
One of the main things that I didn’t like was that Abriella was a minor, and even though this is advertised as YA, it felt like a less explicit NA novel. There was mature content involving her, while the love interests, Sebastian and Finn, are 21 and 500+ years old respectively. Like couldn’t they just make her the same age as Sebastian?
Now, that being said, I really enjoyed reading this. Did I guess everything that happened because it’s basically just like every other faerie book? Yes. Did I eat it up? Also yes.
Once I accepted that this wasn’t going to be a ground-breaking and original fae story, I have to say it was quite entertaining. I loved the backstory of the courts and the secondary characters. I also loved the second half of the book and the ending. Even though the final “fight” between Abriella and the Unseelie King was not as powerful as it could have been, I really liked it. Then, Abriella discovers the truth about Sebastian after she bonded with him, which was the stupidest decision ever. And she becomes like a storm of darkness and rage, which I loved. I really hope the author exploits this version of dark Abriella, because it’s the reason I’m excited to read the sequel.
I also hope we get to see more of Finn and his court, one of the three stars of my rating is for them. The other two stars are due to my enjoyment. I’m definitely going to read the sequel because the ending kept me hooked and I want to see how this develops.

With thanks to Lexi Ryan and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced readers copy of this book.

2*

This book was just not for me. I haven't really bought in to the whole fae phase YA/NA fantasy is going through, so that is probably the reason for me not getting on with it.

There was a lot to process in this book but heres somethings that have affected my review for good or bad;

- Every single character is dull or in Brie's case infuriating.
- Love triangles are only interesting if you're routing for someone. It's hard to do that when you don't care at all about either character.
- There wasn't any need to have a date rape drug scene.

I really wanted to like it, however it just wasn't to my taste.

This was a really good read! The story was really capturing and I found myself reading the whole book in one sitting! 4/5

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan is a YA fae fantasy romance. At its centre is Brie, a girl with a hate for the fae. But when her sister is sold to the Unseelie Court, she will do anything to get her back. Including bargaining with the Unseelie King to steal relics from the Seelie Court, flinging herself head-first into both courts and their machinations. I was quite ambiguous about this book – it is entertaining and a very quick read, but there isn’t anything very special about it for me. There is the expected love triangle, hinted at already in the blurb, and really nothing that makes it stand out from the many fae YA books out there. Originally I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to read These Hollow Vows, then was sucked in by the hype, and it was perfect for a train read, but not more than that if it makes sense. If fae are more your thing, or if you’re a lover of books like The Cruel Prince, this is probably more your cup of tea than it is mine!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC of this book in return for an honest review!

This book had me absolutely smitten, I devoured it within 2 sittings as I just didn’t want to pull myself away.

With the premise starting off very ‘cinderella’ vibes - an orphaned girl, a cruel aunt and two mean cousins - then add in a sprinkle of magic, a love triangle you can’t say no to and an adventure to save a stolen sister, this book has everything you need to keep you encapsulated.

Our main character had one main goal, to find her sister Jas - and she would do anything (including infiltrating the Fae court) to save her.

This adventure sees her facing menacing beasts in the land of Faerie, tied up with a rag-tag band of outlaw Fae who want to ‘help’ her succeed and a whole rollercoaster of twists that leave you questioning who is actually safe and whether anyone was ever truthful about who they are and what they want.

I’m still very much processing my thoughts on this story as it’s left me with a deep morning-after book hangover (I need more! That ending left me pining), but I can say it solidly reaches the list of my top books for 2021 so far.

Perfect for fans of ACOTAR!

These Hollow Vows follows a girl called Brie as she attempts to save her sister from a terrible life that has gone from serving a cruel and heartless human woman to serving the villainous king of the Unseelie court, Mordeus. Brie will do anything to get her sister back to safety and, when she finds out that the king needs her to infiltrate the Seelie court and steal back what he believes to be rightfully his, she barely hesitates before throwing herself into a dangerous and incredibly conflicting quest.

If you enjoyed The Selection or The Cruel Prince, there is every chance that you will adore this book, because it combines elements of both to make a swoon-worthy fantasy thriller that is difficult to put down. Brie’s heart is tugged between commitment to her sister, a newfound lust for an Unseelie rebel prince, and the real love that she has for her long-term crush who isn’t exactly what he originally seemed to be.

This book is dark, magical and gripping. It definitely has lighter scenes and lots of romance as well but the whole story combines well to make a consistently entertaining read. Some of the elements of her quest seemed a little too easy at times and some of the characters were a little too suspicious all the way through, but I found that that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the book overall. In fact, the constant suspicion I felt for almost every character made me even more interested in carrying on reading to figure out who was really untrustworthy and who I was just building up as a villain in my head.

I really enjoyed reading this and found the manipulation, suspense and plot twists incredibly entertaining. If there’s a sequel in the works, I would absolutely pick it up and I’m really glad I got sucked up in Brie’s mission and the dark and beautiful realm of Faerie.

This was a fun book, I like the take on faeries but I did find the triangle a bit tedious. I am intrigued to see how the next book picks up. I did find the writing beautiful and very easy to follow.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Great world building great characters. Very well written, I finished it in one sitting and would 100% recommend this

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an early copy of this book for review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.


I am going to soft DNF this book for now. I am about a third of the way through it, and although this book is by no means a bad book it just doesn’t seem to be quite working for me.

This book has one of my favourite trope devices present, as this is a book features Fae! The folk of the air series and A court of thorns and roses are my two all time favourite series and this book was recommended to me as being similar to those two amazing series. I think this recommendation clouded my enjoyment of this book. I found the beginning to be extremely predictable and the characters lack lustre.

However I am still intrigued to finish this book as I’ve heard a lot about the ending of this book and how infuriating it is but also how much people love it because of this fact! I am hoping to come back to it at some point in the future and hopefully finish it.

Wow! Wow! Wow!
For me personally, this was an easy 5 star read. I’m a sucker for Fae stories with twists and turns. This book is described as being “The Cruel Prince meets A Court Of Thorns And Roses” and I totally get it. Is it the best writing in the world? No, probably not. Does that mean I loved the book any less? Not at all. I completely devoured this. I loved the characters. Abriella is strong and proud and will do anything for her sister; Sebastian is handsome and ‘perfect’ and completely devoured to the woman he loves; and then there is Finn - dark and mysterious, who is this Faerie?. Even the ‘background’ characters are brilliant and I loved Kane’s witty banter. The plot was brilliant. I was drawn into the alluring world of the Seelie and Unseelie and had so many questions. You are left wondering what the Fae have in store for Brie and I honestly loved every moment of it. Having to wait until July 2022 is going to be tough but I cannot wait to find out what happens next.

I really enjoyed a lot of the elements in this book. The relationship between Brie and Jas was amazing, i loved how no matter what they knew that the other would do whatever it took to save them. Especially with Brie being such a strong character. I enjoyed the thief aspect and how the magic was used to aid with making the stealing process easier. The book also has Cinderella vibes, especially at the start with the mean cousins and how Brie has to clean up after them and Jas make them dresses. However, the book did remind me a lot of ACOTAR with the use of a curse and light and dark love interests. Also there were times where Brie was really annoying she just didn’t pick up on some of the stuff which was very obvious which made the last 50 pages a little predictable. I did enjoy the book and can’t wait for the second one though.

So where do I begin? Ha ha

A very late review yet again and a very late happy publication day to Lexi Ryan and These Hollow Vows.

Thank you to Net Galley and to Hodder and Stoughton for allowing me to read this early. I will admit due to a busy work schedule I was unable to read till the end but all the same I have a lot to chew over. For example which sexy Fae do I go for? Ha ha I cannot yet decide.

But I am loving this book so far and absolutely love anything Fae! The characters are all loveable well the ones who are meant to be loved anyway. The story flows so well and keeps you gripped. If life hadn't got in the way I wouldn't have stopped!!!!

People will definitely love this book and brings you to a new world of Fae for you to sink your teeth into and fall in love with.

#TheseHollowVows #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Fans of Sarah J Maas will love this book. Ryan is tapping into a well-worn trope of young adult fantasy, that of the faerie kingdom and its dangers, and the heroine who has to brave it in order to save her family/loved one. Despite this, These Hollow Vows feels fresh and there are twists in the plot that readers might not see coming (though the main one is quite heavily sign-posted). Brie is an engaging protagonist and the plot moves along at a fair clip while still giving enough time for world-building and some development of secondary characters. I'll definitely look out for the second book.

This was such a promising book! I saw a lot of love for it in the weeks up to release date, but unfortunately it wasn’t that special for me :(

I found the main character Brie quite likeable although naive, and the other characters were mostly unremarkable.

The plot wasn’t really carrying the book, and most of the major developments didn’t happen until the last 10%. I prefer a slower release starting earlier in the novel!

It really reminded me of the Cruel Prince series, which all culminated in big plot twists with little really happening through the rest of the book.

I would definitely read the next book (leave me on a cliffhanger why don’t you?!) in the hopes of some more developments, but overall I found this pretty average for a YA fantasy :/

3 stars

Thank you so much to Hodder and Stoughton for gifting me an ARC copy through NetGalley :)

Review will be live on my bookstagram (link below) in the coming week or so :)

***SPOILERS BELOW, BE AWARE***

Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for a review! This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so thank you!

I am kind of sad here. I feel massively conflicted on this one.

So let's start with the good. The prose is beautiful. Lexi Ryan is clearly a very talented, wonderful writer. I appreciated the points made by Nik and Jas about how women have all sorts of dreams, none better than the other. At the beginning, I really liked Brie. She had flaws and traits, and really felt like an older sister. I also really liked Pretha, and her relationship with Lark was lovely.

And here's the rest. I predicted most of the major events in the book. The book was compared to ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince, and based on those, I could pretty much tell what was to happen. Which was a bit boring for me.

Brie also began to really, really frustrate me. <spoiler> She always believed Sebastian over anyone else, always thought she was the one at fault. His manipulations were so obvious, so Brie just came off as really dense. She literally found him in bed with someone else and was like "oh no it's all my fault because I can't commit". Her "moral dilemma" over the courts was basically "the Seelie queen has people in camps, but her son is hot, so oh gosh what do I do?" She kept going on and on about how much Sebastian has done for her, and how kind and good he is to her, but literally?? WHAT HAS HE DONE? NOTHING! </spoiler>

So that brings me to Sebastian. I hate him. And not in a fun way. It actually started to make the book difficult to read. He was such a #niceguy, and I didn't trust him at all. But at the same time, he's so boring, predicatible, and long-winded. Any scene he was in took me double the time to read. <spoiler> He was obviously a Tamlin-style betrayer to set off the next book, but he was just so obvious! Like I said before, he may as well have said to Brie, "I am going to betray you" and she w0uld have just gone on about how she didn't deserve him. I never cared when Brie started angsting about losing Sebastian because honestly, I think that would have made the book better. </spoiler>

And Finn. I guess he's fine? He didn't piss me off, so I guess that makes him the better option. He sort of felt like Rhys or Carden lite. Not interesting enough to be dark and sexy, but not boring enough to annoy me. <spoiler> What did annoy me was how easily Abriella was like "gasp Finn is trying to bond with me", even though he was pretty much the only dude in the book who didn't ask her to bond with him. And then she turned about to be right? Which didn't feel seeded in the book at all. My note from this part of the book literally says "FINN IS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T ASK TO BOND WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT, also I bet Sebby has an Unseelie father," so that kind of tells you everything. </spoiler>

The love triangle is unsuccessful, as I don't feel pulled between them at all. I hate Sebastian and I'm pretty indifferent to Finn. They don't really have developed personalities beyond being princes and liking Brie.

So that's my dilemma. I was so excited for this book. I loved the pitch, the cover, everything. And it had a really good start. But, the characters just started to ruin it for me. I'm going with 3 stars.