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.

“‘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.