This book picks up right where the first one ends. There's a love triangle with two fae princes, which I couldn't get enough of. The main plot was pretty predictable, but I loved the drama!

4.5 stars
Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC of These Twisted Bonds.

A curse is broken, civil war looms ever closer and trusting was never so difficult. Abriella's struggle through love and trust continues in this wonderfully easy and immersive read. To save the realm she must figure out who she is and how to harness the power and prophecy that lies in her veins, all while unravelling the role of the two fae princes that each have a piece of her heart.

These Twisted Bonds picks up right where These Hollow Vows leaves off and we are thrown immediately back into this universe.

Brie has so many decisions to make in this book and watching her work through them is one of my favourite aspects of this series. From book one she was a character I loved because she was thrust into a magical world and actively didn't have answers or know what she was doing. She was driven by her desire to help others and her love of her sister, but her naivety when it came to fae and the magical realm got her into trouble and I loved that. Though she has learned much from the start of the series, we still get to watch her weigh her options and knowledge in this book and it's a strong choice for her character.

I really enjoyed the love triangle in this series, and I typically don't enjoy love triangles. I find them tedious, I usually have a clear favourite, but Lexi Ryan made me love both of our love interests and I never knew which one I liked or trusted more until later in book two.

Overall this is a strong sequel and a duology I will read over and over again. Highly recommend!

Three cheers to Lexi Ryan for writing a love triangle I enjoyed. This was a fantastic conclusion to These Hollow Vows. We really get all the tropes in this duology. The character development was what really blew me away. If you can make me hate, then love someone, you're getting five stars. This has all the classic fairy tale vibes with romance, pining, and a satisfying ending.

Absolutely perfect sequel to These Hollow Vows. Brie is a fierce female who fights for the rights of all the less fortunate. She deserves nothing more than to be queen, but the unexpected always seems to happen in the magical realm of the Seelie and Unseelie. Betrayal, love, and hope intertwine in this excellent sequel.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 4/5 stars.

This is a sequel to These Hollow Vows. Did I immediately binge read this after rereading These Hollow Vows? Yes. To echo some of my comments from my review of THV, I felt like this was written for readers of the Cruel Prince/ACOTAR/etc., because Brie embodies many of the same qualities as the MCs in those novels; however, the world is still unique enough to where it doesn't feel like an exact copy of the YA fantast novels that are common. Additionally, there is spice that is a little bit more detailed than expected from YA so...there's that.

Anyways. I really enjoy how this series really pulled from the idea of Faerie stories and prophecies. I'm also glad with how it resolved the cliffhanger of THV, and the ending of this duology left me gaping like a fish because OH my GOD. Both Bash and Finn find redemption in this novel, but the true redemption is with Brie and accepting all parts of herself. Honestly though, I was hoping for a Poly relationship to appear...but I'm still satisfied with how it ended.

I gave it 4 stars because it does feel similar to a LOT of YA fantasy -- shadow magic, queen mab, love triangles, bonds, etc., and some of the plot was predictable...but overall it's a fantastic duology and I could not put it down.

The must anticipated sequel to These Hollow Vows is here!! These Twisted Bonds, starts off right where the last book ended. Abriella is feeling betrayed by Sebastian and has taken off into the night. This book is packed full of incredible world building, intense longing, passion, found family, redemption and betrayal. It was so fun to navigate this world with Abriella who never wanted to be fae, but that is who she is now. I loved seeing her friendship grow with Kane, Pretha, and Misha. I also adored Finn's wolves, I wish we could have seen more of them. They seemed very intelligent, and I enjoyed every little scene that we got to see them in. This book answers all the lingering questions we had from book 1. The love triangle finally resolves itself in this book. I was worried about how it would play out, but I was happy with how the author wrote it. This book was incredibly well written, and I was hooked throughout the entire thing. An incredible conclusion to Abriella, Sebastian, and Finn's story.

I really loved These Hollow Vows, so I was beyond ready to get into These Twisted Bonds. A civil war is raging in the Court of Darkness and Abriella seems to be a key to finding the answer of how to find balance in the fae realm. I can’t say too much because I don’t want to give anything away, but this just was the perfect conclusion to the duology! I loved Abriella, she is working on figuring out her identity, while also balancing a power she doesn’t fully understand. Her angst was wonderfully developed and she just felt so genuine in her insecurity and torment and in her search for self. And the love triangle too was so well continued without feeling drawn out or frustrating. I wasn’t Sebastian’s biggest fan in the first, and I didn’t love his behavior, but he had growth and I loved the insight into his emotions too as Abriella is forced to not only pick between him and Finn but also the fate of the realms. And I loved Finn’s intensity and the friendship he has with Abriella. There are a lot of ACOTAR vibes in this in a way that still felt original and fresh, but familiar. The found family element is great too, and I love the side characters. The chemistry of all of these characters is perfect and engaging. I couldn’t put this down and I was so excited to see how everything concluded. The magic is interesting and creative, the world is engaging and captivating, and the characters are so likable and genuine and the writing is beautiful. Really wonderful duology!

A satisfying close to the Hollow Bonds duology. The author does a wonderful job of building the tension throughout the book, particularly among the love interests. This was an enjoyable, quick read, though admittedly the end felt a bit rushed. Overall, a great read.

R rating for the kids. Sexual content, violence, and language.

I read this book AGGRESSIVELY! I hushed anyone who tried to talk to me because I just needed to know how everything planned out. I loved this series and was absolutely taken along for the ride.

I adored the inclusion and backstory of the Queen Mab storyline. I felt like a geeky fangirl over this plot point.

This episode was very heavy on the romance, and love triangle from the first book. While I am ultimately satisfied by the way everything wraps up in the end, this could have been toned down just a touch. I got increasingly irritated with the way the male characters treated the female protagonist and that she was basically either too injured or besotted to do anything about it. The amount of times this girl required/endured being held in the arms of this or that besotted male had me rolling my eyes and face palming at different points. If you're going to have a badass female lead (which she ultimately is), why can't she just ride her own horse by herself?

Also Lexi Ryan did Prince Ronan dirty. Did he deserve the consequences for his actions? Absolutely. Did he have to go from being a decent friend who actually cares for Brie and Jas to being a whiny diaper baby spoiled princeling? Ugh, so annoying. All to turn the tide of love interest. Especially since he is, in the end, rather noble.

Despite those points, it was a super easy and indulgent read. I honestly couldn't put either book down.

Thank you to Clarion Books for sending me this Arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I couldn't put this book down. It was absolutely amazing from start to finish. Brie got the ending she deserves with great character growth. She goes from hating all fae to accepting her new life and protecting the innocent.

A solid 3 star read!

I had really mixed feelings about this duology after reading the first book. It sort of felt like someone took popular fairytale retellings, combined them with the most popular YA tropes and threw them together in a book with a bit of spice. And... I enjoyed it. It may have been a tad cheesy at times, a little predictable, and warranted more than a few eye rolls, but I got SUCKED in. And then I read this book, and I was shocked! (And maybe a little disappointed) In my opinion, this book was less predictable than the first, and much more promising. The world building was still simple, but we did get a bit more to it in this book, and I felt like the character development went deeper here as well. It carried more elements of surprise, felt much more NA than YA (to me at least), and it felt more like the author found her voice within the story. Some great characters were introduced in this book as well, and the love triangle continued on in a way that I absolutely did not hate! (and I have very strong, hateful feelings about 99% of love triangles I read about) AND oh my gosh the ENDING! While there were some parts of it that I somewhat predicted, I was genuinely shocked (in the best way) by this ending! (And I am very picky about endings) That being said, there was one thing that really annoyed me about this book, and one thing that disappointed me.
First of all, the FMC took a bit of a turn into an emotional headspace that just felt very quick, out of character and repetitive by the end of the book. Ended up annoying me quite a bit, not necessarily because of the change but the WAY it was done.
Secondly, I think this book had a very common YA mistake where it is almost packed with to many life threatening plot points for the story. They end up feeling just a tad bit rushed and under developed and I found myself in this "okay and now apparently this is happening" headspace. I feel like if even just ONE big event was taken out of the story, everything else could have come together much better!
Overall, this was a pretty solid read, and a good conclusion to the duology. I believe this duology is the author's first time writing YA fantasy so I really applaud her for trying something new. I think once she finds her voice and her niche a tad better, she could really write some amazing stuff.

This book started out on a giant cliffhanger. I think we were all pretty angry at Sebastian and her reaction did not disappoint. We start right into action and it's pretty much a whirlwind from there. When I was 80% into the book I wasn't convinced this was a duology, because I was sure this book could not wrap it up in the last 20% but boy was I wrong! I did feel like it was a little fast paced towards the end, but the rest of the book made up for that.

The love triangle was a little bit of push and pull throughout the book, but I am happy to say that my favorite won in the end. Both relationships had a lot of betrayal, so she had to work through those. But, the chemistry was fantastic between the characters and I loved the relationship building.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I wish the ending would have been a bit more detailed, but it still ended in a happily ever after so I was satisfied.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own and I was not obligated to review.

Once I picked this book up I couldn’t put it down! I give it 4 stars because there were too many similarities between this book and A Court of Mist and Fury which made it predictable. But still very enjoyable Finn and Abriella’s relationship kept me engaged in this book through and through. I love the way Lexi Ryan wrote Sebastian I despised him in the beginning of this book believing he never truly loved her to getting me to feel bad for him/love him as a character. I wish we had more fighting scenes/ especially in a fae world but if it would’ve cut out in the romance just give me all the romance! This book did have 2 seggsy scenes so I personally wouldn’t categorize this in YA. I love the way she ended this duology through and through, it has the perfect ending.

Absolutely loved it and had me nonstop wanting to read! The story and the characters are so good and I will 100% miss them!

While this was certainly a great read, I do feel it’s necessary to point out that Ryan is clearly writing for a more mature audience. I feel like the wise decision would have been to make this series new adult as opposed to YA.

After reading These Hollow Vows, I was feeling pretty desperate to dig into this book. I had found the first book in the duology to be propulsive, despite its predictability of plot and characters. I had a feeling going into These Twisted Bonds that I knew what was going to happen (I was right) but that didn't keep me from wanting to read it or enjoying it.

When it comes down to it, both of the books in this duology are enjoyable. They're fast paced, full of fun characters, and emotional -all things I love and look for in a fantasy series. And honestly, maybe if I had never read the ACOTAR series, I would have given both of these books 5 stars instead of 4. I understand similarities between books, characters, concepts is inevitable. This was just a little too close for me. Sebastian isn't as bad as Tamlin, but the similarities are there. Finn is very much like Rhys. And the story that plays out with them and Abriella and the courts, while written well and very engaging, was just really similar, which is part of why it was so predictable.

What really saved These Twisted Bonds for me was the romance between Abriella and Finn. I don't think it's too spoilery to say that, I know there was a lot of tension with the love triangle, but I found the path that Lexi Ryan was laying down for the outcome to be pretty easy to follow. The thing is, Finn is a lot like Rhys from ACOTAR, but I LOVE Rhys deeply so of course I love Finn. And I love romance -I read more romance novels than probably anything else. And the romantic parts of this book really deliver,, I found myself highlighting so many lines and moments between Brie and Finn. That's what really drove me forward with my reading and why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 3.

I'm looking forward to more fantasy from Lexi Ryan, I think she has the skill to be a really standout author in the genre, and hey, people love ACOTAR, so if you want more of that, this duology delivers. I just hope next time she can deliver on something that feels a little less like I've already read it.

I really enjoyed this book. I think that Lexi Ryan really built out the world of the first book in its sequel. The cast of characters is lovable and the challenges they face are complex enough to keep the book interesting. The book has a lot in common with other books of this genre and in some ways isn’t the most original thing I’ve ever read. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it, though. I think Ryan added her own spin on a Seelie/Unseelie love triangle, enemies to lovers, faerie fantasy romance and she did so successfully. I really liked the first book in this series and the second blows the first out of the water. I absolutely loved Finn—which made the ending to book one devastating! In this follow up book I got everything I wanted from Finn’s storyline, while also getting a satisfying arc for Sebastian. Brie is a great lead character who I found it easy to root for. I didn’t just want her to succeed because she had “chosen one” energy. I wanted her to succeed because she deserved it and proved herself to be a good person over and over again. I also appreciate that “good” was not her only attribute and the ways that played into the message and conclusion of the book overall.

I definitely recommend this book and will probably add the series to my collection as a new comfort read.

Holy moly! This captivating finale to Ryan’s These Hollow Vows was *chef kiss*. I could not put this book down. Romance and adventure what more can you want, 10 out of 10 recommend for anyone who loves stories of the fae.

Although the first half of this sequel to Lexi Ryan's "These Hollow Vows" felt slow and dragging, the second half picked up with a powerful momentum that pushed through to the end! The mature sexual themes were well-written and tasteful enough for older teenage readers who want romance but not 'smut.' The plot had felt predictable at the start, letting the reader believe one thing while throwing in other options at the end that fell outside of the bounds of expectations; in the end, I was wholly taken by the beautifully twisted and perfectly tied-up ending to Ryan's duology.

Overall, this was a fantastic ending to a well-rounded fantasy/romance duology with many of my all-time favorite tropes. It's sure to enrapture readers who devoured Black's "The Cruel Prince" and Clare's "Clockwork Angel" trilogies.

This book was absolutely wonderful!!!!!!!!! The story was riveting and had wonderful development. What I love about this series the most is that its next to impossible to predict what will happen next. It keeps you on the edge of your set!