It’s been said before but if your a fan of the acotar series you will love this fast paced and engaging fantasy romance series. The characters and the plot suck you into this story and do not release you even after you have turned the last page.

This book picks up straight where these Hollow Vows ended, with Abriella reacting to finding out she’s now fae and Sebastian deceived her to get the underlie crown.

Abriella, who, if you recall, spent the entirety of These Hollow Vows scheming, lying and manipulating Sebastian while using his love and trust against him to protect her sister, is now incensed with the betrayal she has for Sebastian for, err, manipulating and lying to her to protect his mother. Thank GOD for Misha for pointing out she doesn’t have a right to act the victim because Brie reeks of hypocrisy. Did Sebastian do wrong? Of course. But let’s not forget Abriella literally made love to Sebastian and then snuck out to steal from him something he showed her in good faith, with the belief it would kill someone important to him. She slept with a man who said he had never experienced such intimacy with, while knowing she was going to break his heart, because she selfishly wanted to feel that moment before she broke it. She literally has no right for have any moral outrage or to act like she ever treated Sebastian with any love when it was all self gain. She bonded with Sebastian so that he could protect her (aka use him - again), she wooed him to take her away to the coastal castle so she could steal, she literally liaised, plotted and flirted with his enemy and then gaslighted him about it. And now she’s mad he lied to her and won’t even hear him out when he gave her countless chances when it was reversed. So help me she’s insufferable and self pitying, this is the hero of the book that everyone falls in love with and thinks is so special?!

Sebastian has the potential to be a complex character with a conflicting narrative of split loyalty, he’s a good ‘man’ with a lot of love, and yet he has stood back when bad things have happened. This never feels properly addressed, he’s a wasted, token character, a prop, the author made Sebastian the Prince Charming of book 1 and now just seems to have gone off him and isn’t invested. Rather than getting some gradual decline, some character deconstruction, we get whiplash when it comes to Sebastian and we’re just told ‘no, don’t like him anymore’ - then why try so hard in book 1??

Then there’s Finn, the cliche ‘dark prince’ against the golden prince - while Abriella’s love struggles to get over Sebastian being far, lying to her and, in part, having blood on his hands. When it comes to Finn, the fae bit never seemed to bother her, and don’t start me on the lies and, y’know, personally killing a bunch of innocent people. It just feels like the ending to this duology was written down before anything else with not enough energy spent on how to get there. You don’t travel to the conclusion, you teleport, and you get the whiplash that comes with it.

The review feels so negative but if romance and a love triangle is the heart of your book, you just need the characters to feel alive - not wish versions of SJM (and a plot that follows a predictable SJM path). I want characters that exist beyond their infatuation for each other so they don’t feel shallow, I want a heroine who I want to be happy and who has character growth, I want world building and political conflict (I mean the framework is there) and some sort of emotional build up that doesn’t treat love( both in regard of the characters and us as readers) as simple and like it has an on and off switch. I just wanted more. And talking of things I wanted more of - Jas and Misha I’m looking at you!

Sadly this just wasn’t for me. If you haven’t read SJM, maybe you can look at these books differently, but alas this doesn’t bring anything new to the world of fae. Thank you NetGalley for the review though.

I enjoyed These Twisted Bonds as much as i enjoyed These Hollow Vows. I love Brie as a character and the unfolding of her story, the book kept me guessing all the way through and I wish it was more then a duology. It meets all the things i love about a fantasy/romantasy book - waring worlds, secrets, slow burn romance, difficult choices and a quest to save everyone.

This book was indeed enjoyable. I had so much fun reading it. I found These Twisted Bonds to be just as addictive as There Hollow Vows. There was drama. There was spice. The stakes were high. I got swept up in it.

The book starts exactly where we left off - picking up immediately in the aftermath of the painful revelations – with Brie running away from the Seelie prince whom she fell in love with and who betrayed her, leaving the Seelie court in chaos. Even though Brie is more careful about who to trust, she kind of ends up running right into the hands of a new exciting character, Misha. He was the best! Can we get a book about him? He is the type of a side character who is able to steal the show in a blink. I loved his incredible friendly-flirty banter with Brie and his ongoing support of her.

The plot was fine enough to keep my attention but honestly, there is nothing better than the love triangle with those two fae princes. Sometimes it made me want to pull out my hair that´s how tense I got over it all. Yeah, I guess I haven´t read this duology for the plot but for the boy drama. I squealed. I laughed. I got frustrated. My heart felt sore. I sometimes forgot to breathe. Amazing! Now I wonder what I can actually say not to spoiler anyone. Therefore let me just state that I think that fans of Finn will be happy. The interactions that he has with Brie in this book are amazing. There are steamy and also heartfelt moments that I just had to read several times to properly savor them. It’s everything I wanted. The tension throughout this book is… on fire.

Until the point where Finn reappeared and became a constant there, I had a bit of a problem fully diving into the story but when he came back I could not stop turning the pages (or in reality clicking on my e-reader screen). It still felt a bit inspired by A Court of Thorns and Roses, but not to the point where I would roll my eyes over it. I think that ACOTAR friends could truly enjoy this duology.

Even though These Twisted Bonds contains some a bit predictable things so I was not exactly shocked by the overall plot, it was still great. I especially loved that in the sequel we got to explore the history and legends of the fae realm. It explores more of the formation of the two fae courts – Seelie and Unseelie – which is crucial there as it influences the characters and what they are going through right now.

I think the ending could be prolonged, it felt quite quick. It felt too rushed. It was too smooth. I would appreciate explaining some of it more and having more space to wrap everything up. I remember reading it and thinking – maybe around 80% - that the rest is going to be rushed because there is no way to wrap the duology in such a small amount of pages left.

Overall, despite some things that could still be better, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The sequel certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a great conclusion. Now give me a Misha spin-off, pretty please.

Having greatly enjoyed These Hallow Vows I was really looking forward to reading this sequel and I wasn't disappointed. It is just as enchanting and magical as the first installment, with great characters and a wonderful Fey world that swept me away. Looking forward to more books by this author.

I loved These Hollow Vows so much and read that whole book within a few hours so I was so excited to read the sequel but after reading 10% of this book I was bored and so put it down for a few months. When I eventually picked this book up, I did enjoy it but it did not have the same vibe as the first book in my opinion.
I liked the twists and turns that this book took and I found myself intrigued by how the book was going to end but something about the overall conclusion felt a little boring to me. I know that this book is a fantasy romance but this book felt more of a romance book than a fantasy one. I do think that the way the love triangle ended was really good but there was not a lot of focus on any of the fantasy aspects such as the war that was going on.
Maybe this series should have been a trilogy instead of a duology so that the author could expand more on the fantasy elements but overall, I did enjoy these books but the sequel was a letdown in comparison to the first book.

Interesting sequel

“These Twisted Bonds“ is the second book in Lexi Ryan's These Hollow Vows Series and tells the story of Brie.

After the first book in the series left me with mixed feelings, I still wanted to know what was going on with Brie and the others. I was pretty annoyed by the triangle and the plot was often way too predictable for me.

Book two was written from Brie's perspective. I would have loved to have had insight into Finn's thoughts. For me, Finn is the most interesting character in the story. I just really like him and I cheered and worried if he was Bries endgame. I really liked the pacing in the beginning of the story between Finn and Brie. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of Sebastian and that hasn't changed in this book.

I sometimes had trouble with Brie. Despite being brave and strong, her stubbornness sometimes just annoyed me.

The story itself was pretty mixed. In some places it dragged and then it got exciting.
“These Twisted Bonds” gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.

Thank You to the publisher and NetGalley for providng me with an ARC.

I first read These Hollow Vows when it first released and I absolutely loved every moment of it. It was so much fun and I couldn’t wait to read the second book. Fast forward a few years and I still hadn’t picked These Twisted Bonds up, so I thought it was about time I finally picked it up. I am so glad I did. I forgot how much I really enjoy Lexi Ryan’s writing. This was such a fun and fast paced read. I absolutely flew through it.

These Twisted Bonds picks up right where These Hollow Vows left off, with Brie running from Sebastian after he betrayed her in the worst way. Now Brie needs to decide what to do, and when it becomes obvious that all is not well with the Unseelie Court, she may just need to work with the last person she want to in order to save the Unseelie.

I really, really enjoyed this one. Lexi Ryan’s writing is so easy to find yourself lost in. I have been really slumpy lately and it has been taking me a long time to get through a book, but I absolutely devoured this one in a couple of days. It’s just so easy and quick to read and I loved that about it. I was quickly drawn back into this world, however I did have to pause to look up a recap of book 1 online, as there were parts of the curse etc that I didn’t remember as it had been a while since I had read book 1. If this is you, I highly recommend that you look up some of the minor details before picking this book up.

I am always really torn when thinking about the characters in this book. I love Brie… I do… and I understand that this is a young adult book and the characters are young but my god… is she stupid! I was getting so frustrated with her all the way through for her stupid decisions and failing to accept what was right in front of her face. Other than that I absolutely loved this book. It was so fun… there were a few plot holes, and plot twists that didn’t really make much sense, but I feel like with this series you can’t delve too much into it and analyse it, you just have to accept it on surface level for what it is and you’ll really enjoy it, and that’s what I did.

This series is definitely one I will re-read. I really, really enjoyed it and it’s such a fun, fast-paced and quick read. It is perfect for getting you out of a slump. I really liked this one and I kind of wish Lexi would write a book about Sebastian (don’t hate on me) to see what happens with him after the events of this book. I feel like that would be really interesting. I will definitely be checking out some more of Lexi Ryan’s books in the future. These Twisted Bonds was enjoyable and definitely worth the read.

I have a lot of feelings about this book, and unfortunately, not all of them are good.

One thing that I absolutely loved in this second book was the way Brie held on to her hurt and anger for such a long time. I know a lot of people don’t like angry female characters but this is something I love. I adore a female character allowing herself to feel the hurt and to stop trusting the people who hurt her with her feelings, making them have to earn her trust back, and not having her rationalize what they did because they had good reasons. So not only did she do that, but her anger and bitterness were such a part of her it was something she embraced. This would have made me rate the book 5 stars if the issues I had with the rest of it had not been so overwhelming.

Because here comes the contradiction that made me sigh and roll my eyes every other page. She’s holding on to the fact that everyone betrayed her and none of her friendships had been real… but somehow it’s all her fault because she destroyed the kingdom? The constant self-loathing was horrendous and since she kept bringing it up in every conversation, the repetitiveness in those was exhausting.

Another point was terribly annoying and I will start this part by saying that predictability in a fantasy novel is not something I inherently have issues with as long as the anticipation leading to the reveals keeps me on the edge of my seat. This story did not. Every single plot twist in These Twisted Bonds were SO predictable that I had actually guessed it at 20% in the first book. I don’t mind tropey books when they’re well done, but this was way too tropey for my taste. And the thing is, this much predictability made all the characters seem like complete idiots.

The pace of the book was also constantly thrown off by the multiplication of ellipses. As soon as I would get into a scene, it would be cut off by an entirely useless ellipsis that could have been avoided with a single transitional paragraph.

However, I will say that the romance grew on me. I was not convinced at all by it until the middle of the book, but the angst of that relationship was very well done in the later half of it. I found I bought into the desire and forbidden trope and the impossibilities and I liked the book a lot more because of it.

I wished I had liked the book more, but I was still entertained while reading it. If you’re not bothered by classic YA tropes, I would still recommend this duology.

I loved the first book and enjoyed this one but don't think it was as good. A highlight for me was the romance between Brie and Finn and that was what made me enjoy the book as much as they did. I knew they were going to end up together but I love that they still had to fight for it!

This isn't the best YA fantasy I've ever read but it's fast-paced and absorbing. It held the reader's attention and was an enjoyable read.

Following on immediately from the events of These Hollow Vows, These Twisted Bonds was a quick, easy, and engrossing read.

I loved the twists and turns that occurred, not only with the plot, but also between the characters. They were flawed in a way which felt genuine (caveat: for fae royalty) and created and interesting dynamic.

I am not usually a fan of love triangles, but I didn’t really consider this to be one because it felt very clear to me from the beginning that there was never really a choice. She knew who she wanted to be with, and at most circumstances might keep them apart, but it wasn’t the excruciating ‘But I love them both!’ which can really ruin a book for me.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the duology and would absolutely read more books by Lexi Ryan in the future.

Lexi Ryan did it again! You have to pick this one up!

An amazing book, I loved the plot and the writing!

These Twisted bonds was better than the first one and I loved every second.
Many Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Teen for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review:

Plot- I love Fae romances, after the plot twist at the end of book 1? I was desperate for this book and devoured it within a day. It had everything I could have wanted- scheming, fighting, romance. Beautifully written with enough twists to keep me invested. Also the romance?? The ending??? Ugh i was a mess it was amazing.

World building-This is still really good and i loved seeing more of the Fae lands in this book. The pacing felt slightly rushed throughout but honestly it's something I can survive with as i tend to prefer fast paced books.

Characters- I have a new Fae Book boyfriend to add to the list. Everyone was honestly well written and had great development so zero complaints from me.

Final Thoughts:
Loved every second of this- Can't wait to see what this author does next.

I'm so so sorry it took me so long to read this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed These Hollow Vows and was eager to see where the story took us next and These Twisted Bonds did not disappoint.

Whilst it took me a while to get into this one (this may be down to my mood), I found the story to be incredibly gripping once things started to really happen.

Brie is a strong character whose life has drastically changed and she finds herself learning to adapt. I adore Finn so much. I just want to hold him and never let go.

I do wish that this book had either been longer or the duology made into a trilogy as I felt like the last 15% felt rushed.

Overall I really enjoyed this series and do recommend it to any fantasy romance lovers!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed These Hollow Vows and I had high hopes for These Twisted Bonds. Lucky for me, These Twisted Bonds delivered and some!

The beginning of the book starts where the previous book ended, and although the start was a little slow, it sure made up for it later on.
I really loved Brie and her character growth throughout the book, and even though the spice levels were low, I absolutely loved the romance in this book. It made me swoon — something I look for in any decent read — and it just left me feeling good inside, you know?

Although some aspects of the plot were predictable, it didn’t change my reading experience or my overall opinion of the book.

This is a five-star read for me, for sure!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Really brought things together and followed on amazing from book one! Kept the high tension and high stakes while still keeping me on the edge of my seat. Really love the series and gonna purchase a second copy for friends

This was an amazing conclusion to the first book, and I was reminded just why I love Faeries books and why I always pick them up or request them - there's just something about them, and this was no exception as it was full of loveable characters, a great plot and an amazing ending. What more could you ask for?

I don't really have words for how great this was. But it's definitely a series I'll be reading again and again.

Following on from the first book, Brie finds herself two between two princes and finds herself in trouble and on the run. With her sister been sold to the fae and her webs of lies catching up with her as well as a war that’s beginning to brew, Brie is stuck unable to decide which side to be on and which Prince to choose.

She soon finds out though that people will try anything to get what they want. Can she even trust her bonded partner?

The main character, Brie is a kind and caring soul, even though she tells fibs constantly, you can tell that she really cares about her people. I liked her character and felt I could sympathise with her. A lot seems be happening and it seems as though she is facing a hard time with trying to decide what the right choices are to make. I felt for how the kids in this book were treated too but I don’t want to say too much there!

This one goes into their background and the land’s history more so if you enjoyed that aspect of the first one, there’s more! The world building is still just as fantastic. It’s filled with orcs, faeries and other fantasy monsters. There’s also lots of politics, morally grey characters and of course, faerie magic!

It really hots up as the book goes on, if they’re not all arguing then the two main characters are always getting it on. They definitely had that steamy I want to be with you thing going on.

A fast paced, well written and gripping read, this one is just as good as the first, it’s a brilliant duology which I highly recommend! One for fans of Once Upon a Broken Heart.

This is actually the kind of series that maybe would have worked better as a trilogy than a duology as everything moves so fast. However I did enjoy this book. It managed the transition between boyfriends quite well and actually didn’t only turn the first love interest into a bad guy. The book took the time to give space for the characters to be wrong but also it evil and I liked that fact that he did genuinely love her but made some incredibly misguided choices due to his family and his idea of what she would think. I do think the second lead was a bit of a fast turn around which again I think probably would have worked better with another book and some more plot to learn more about the characters and the world. However I did leave the book satisfied and the ending was good.