Within 45 minutes of starting this book, I knew that Beneath These Cursed Stars was going to become a 5 Star read for me. There is just something about Lexi Ryan's writing that makes it impossible for me to not fall in love with it.

However, readers beware of two things:

This book is not a standalone, and for some reason, I thought it was. It ends on a major cliffhanger, in each person's POV. I forgot that Ryan played dirty, and oh boy, did she do it again this time. I am not happy about having to wait now but I believe I can do it.

The second thing is, the book is raw. Prior to this book, Jasalyn went through some really rough shit. She was tortured, and Lexi Ryan did not leave details out. She tells you exactly what happened, and there are flashbacks of them. Often, my stomach turned.

Despite these two things, I loved the book. The world feels familiar, because it connects to These Hollow Vows, the Goblin are very intriguing, the magic is interesting, and so are the characters.

Love love love my girl Felicity and my fav goblin Nigel. Unfortunately, Jas drove me kinda crazy but the dual pov helped balance it out. The continuation of the series was unexpected but didn’t feel manufactured or forced and I enjoyed the continued exploration of this world. Do not pick this up if you haven’t read prior books though. 

I was given an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

<i>Beneath These Cursed Stars</i> is the start of a new <i>These Hollow Vows</i> spin-off series. As someone who did not read the original duology, I thought that Ryan reminded the reader of enough world-building to understand what was going on, but it wasn’t very fleshed out.

The story itself is dual POV between Jasalyn and Felicity. They both undergo missions that risk their lives as well as their hearts (that’s right, we get two romances!). The romances themselves were fun. The book is focused on the romances, making it dialogue heavy and slow-paced. The heaps of secrets in this book really slowed down the plot as well. Only the reader has all the details at once, as no one wanted to truly work together and share information. I personally prefer a bit more external motivation and action sequences, compared to character-driven narratives like this one. 

Felicity, I was unfortunately not a fan of. It was weird to watch her shapeshift into Jasalyn’s body and then fall in love in that body that is not her own. Her romantic interest is falling in love with Jasalyn yet is going to find out about the shapeshifting eventually. It was hard to be sympathetic. The most interesting part of Felicity’s storyline wasn’t even about her as a character but was when she was reliving Jasalyn’s memories of Mordeus’s dungeons.

That being said, I enjoyed Jasalyn’s emotional journey in this book. She starts off riddled with anxiety and depression and trades her life for a magical ring that grants her emotional stability and death’s kiss. Over the course of the novel, she questions her fear, anger, and prejudice and realizes that maybe she traded away her future too quickly. Healing from trauma is a major theme, which I enjoyed.

I think if you’re a romance fan and love slow burns that you’ll love this book, but I was expecting something a bit faster paced.

4⭐️ 2.75🌶️

Spin-off

YA Romantasy

Dual POV

Parallel Storylines

Morally Grey FMC

Destiny

Forbidden Love

Forced proximity

Secrets

Shifter

Revenge

Betrayal

There wasn’t much world-building. The author definitely counts on the reader having read the duology prior to this book. Many characters from the duology play fairly significant roles in this story. There was enough space where she could have given us a little more background and world-building. this was an interesting want to change things up in a genre and micro genre to make the story set apart. I appreciate that more than I expected to.

Some repetitive moments. The pacing was slow to start, I think due to the dual storyline needing so much attention, and then the double romance on top of it. 

Jas wasn’t  my favorite FMC, I definitely

Preferred Felicity’s storyline… I wonder if it was battle to remain fairly even in splitting the story. 

The cliffhanger was good and I’m excited to read the next book!

***2.75🌶️ means there was sexual intimacy implied off page or there was physical intimacy just short of an open door romance.

 Thank you NetGalley and HarperColins Children’s Books for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed the These Hollow Vows duopoly and was so excited to read Beneath These Cursed Stars, it is the logical and sequential follow up from the perspective of Jasalyn.  But this story is dual perspective, we also see events from the perspective of Felicity, who has taken on Jasalyn’s form and is posing as her.  The set up of this story is genuinely delightful and I feel like I scored big at a two for one sale, two fleshed out protagonists who feel a large spectrum of emotions, including inner strength but also crippling fear.  Two for one adventure in a world I was already pretty familiar with (so there was less set up in the realm of world building, I was genuinely surprised at how much I remembered, it all came rushing back to me as I read) and two for one slow burn romance.

At first I was a little disappointed with the concept of the return of Mordeus, I was hoping for a villain not yet explored or someone who could have stepped into the power vacuum he would have left.  However, it was really well done and integral to the plot and the characterisation, my initial reaction was way off!  The characterisation of Jasalyn and Felicity was spot on, I particularly liked how Felicity would remind herself of how exactly Jasalyn would act or what she would say, it gave the story another layer of legitimacy.  I did find certain elements in the relationship capacity a little predictable, but other parts of the plot completely smacked me in the face, I had no idea it was coming.  The writing was accessible and had a good flow, it was an easier read for a fantasy genre whilst still really descriptive and immersive.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Australia & New Zealand for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review, I had a great time and these thoughts are all my own.

tl;dr
Dual leads and plots with plenty of romance. Not necessary to read the previous series to enjoy this one.

Thoughts
I spent so much of this book thinking "The sister has so much MC energy." Turns out the sister was the MC of the previous series, so, nice. The good news is I had no trouble understanding this book, even with no knowledge of the prior one. (There are, however, significant spoilers for the previous series.)

There are two main POVs and two plot lines running parallel. Jasalyn gets the lion's share of plot and development, with more action and adventure. I found myself caught up in the main mystery, and the reveal with equal parts surprising and scary. Jasalyn herself could probably have an easier time of it if she didn't hate all fae so much, something that other characters point out to her pretty quickly. I understand she'll likely grow out of it, but it was a frustrating roadblock. Felicity is easier to read because she has no such prejudices, although she falls prey to one of my lesser liked plot conceits - instalove. Even with the instalove, her storyline was my favorite, and I want only good things for her. I think fans of two broken hearts finding each other will probably really enjoy her plot.

I have no idea how this stacks up to the previous series, but readers who think this one sounds interesting should be totally comfortable jumping in here.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for an advance copy! All thoughts in this review are my own.