Honestly the second book can't come sooner I truly need it. Some people may find that this book doesn't have the action that we had in these twisted bonds but I feel this book is a great set up towards the following book. We've already experienced the world so there wasn't as much worldbuilding and honestly I love that it drags you into the book so much quicker. I loved most of the characters they were complex and well thought out in my opinion. I truly think this is another masterpiece from Lexi and I can't wait to return to Faerie and Elora.

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. 

Thank you to Harper Teen for the ARC of Beneath These Cursed Stars by Lexi Ryan. All opinions are my own. 

Before reading this book, I read both These Hollow Vows and These Twisted Bonds and loved both of them. I was so excited to read this first book in this spin-off series, and it did not disappoint! 

If you haven’t read the These Hollow Vows duology, I would recommend reading them first because a lot of the world building takes place in those books, and this book takes place after those two books. 

Unlike the other books in this world, Beneath These Cursed Stars mainly follows two points of view and an additional POV at the end of the book. I really liked reading from all the different perspectives, and I enjoyed the romances of each main character. 

The first POV in the story is Jasalyn, Brie’s sister. She is living as a scared princess by day and a maiden of death by night. When the opportunity arises to team up with Kendrick, a man she met when imprisoned by Mordeus, she decides to take it. In order to be able to leave without Brie knowing, she agrees to allow Felicity, a shapeshifter, to take her place. Thinking she’s Jasalyn, Brie sends Felicity to go stay with King Misha in his court, where she gets to know him while trying prevent the fated prophecy about herself from coming true. 

I loved both Jasalyn and Felicity as main characters, and I enjoyed the romances between them and their respective love interests. There were a lot of cute moments that made me smile. 

The plot of this book was so fun, and the story ended in a way that makes me want the next book immediately. I hope that I don’t have to wait too long for it! 

I listened to the audiobook for this book and really enjoyed the narrators. I thought they did such a great job, and I liked how both main characters had different narrators. 

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book! 

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.

I don’t know how I missed that Beneath These Cursed Stars was a sequel series to These Hollow Vows, but here we are. There was a lot of lore and casual references to events of the first book that felt like they were lacking in context—and it’s context I had, I just didn’t realize it was actually connected and would have reread (or at least read a synopsis of) the duology before diving into this.

Jasalyn’s story is separated enough from These Hollow Vows that you could technically read it as a standalone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

While this is presented as being more Jasalyn’s story, Felicity was the character I was rooting for. I felt she had the more interesting plot (who doesn’t love a case of fake identity and hot fae king?)

The novel ends on a cliffhanger, which is incredibly rude because waiting is the worst.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for the opportunity to read an ARC, all thoughts are my own.

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.

“‘If we have to act like them, then how do we keep from becoming them?’. ‘We remember who we are and what we’re fighting for. We put our cause before ourselves.’”

“We don’t get to choose the burdens we bear, only how we bear them.” 

5/5⭐️

I absolutely did not want this book to end. The betrayal, the romance, the plot twists, the world, the overall story was so amazing and what I’ve been wanting out of a fantasy book lately. 

The characters were all so great and I loved all the little goblin guys 🥲. I appreciated that romance was a part of the story but didn’t make up the whole plot. The multiple POV’s were great and flowed perfectly throughout. 

I’m already on the edge of my seat waiting for the next in the series because !!!! WHAT AN ENDING! I need more. I am very looking forward to reading more from this author. Their writing style is so unique to me as I can play everything from the book in my head as if it was a movie and I love being able to visualize the books I’m reading so vividly. 

Thank you NetGalley & Harper Collins for the E-ARC.