Ruby Dixon is so good at these deeply intricate and sexy tales. Bound to the Shadow Prince is a master class in romantic tension and rich plot development. I love that the romance is focal but the plot stands on its own. Brilliant!

I got to 10% of this before I DNF. Nothing happened and I was so tired. Sorry… Nothing happened so far.

Side note, this makes me very sad. I love Ruby Dixon. Maybe if I kept reading it would get better but I’m done.

#NetGalley #BoundtotheShadowPrince

I think it's easier to start with the things I liked about the book. I liked the slow burn enemies to lovers trope that this novel started with and the general idea that the author wanted to write in this book. The things I don't like is quite longer. The story tended to drag on at times, the plot hole with the all knowing knife that the main character has, it feels like this was an erotica with very little to no plot. I've read erotic novels and fanfiction that had more of a plot than this book. I was expecting more than what I've gotten in this 500+ paged book. Just a warning for people who may be sensitive to topics like infertility and rape of side characters/ almost rape of main character, this novel does have some triggering subjects.

I am a reader of the ice planet barbarian series, they’re always easy to read and the writing is good. I jumped into this book hoping for the same good writing but a different storyline but in all honesty was too similar to those books to really enjoy it. The writing is still great and the premise is good, just too similar to all of her other books I’ve read to really really love it.

☆☆☆.5

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒎𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓.”

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

This book revolves around the story of Princess Candra, of Lios and Prince Nemeth of Darkfell. In order to not anger the gods, two sacrifices must be made from their people to please the gods. The sacrifice? Living in a tower, in complete darkness with only the other person for seven years. If they don’t, they chance angering the gods and dooming their people. Bound to the Shadow Prince is a story filled with tension, lust, love and betrayals.

This book was enchanting and was easy to become immersed in. The author had great world building. Not only that, but the way the author described everything from the characters to the setting made it so easy to picture them in my head. I absolutely loved after After being edged by other romantasy books, it was amazing to finally read a mating ceremony with actual details. It actually made one of my reading dreams come true.

The things I didn’t enjoy were that I felt like I was only really invested in the book for the last 30% or so. Some parts of the book did feel like they dragged a bit and could have been made shorter while others could have been emphasized more.

While I did enjoy Candra and Nemeths love story, something felt like it was missing to me. Maybe that Candras characters feels so.. one dimensional and has no interests outside of lounging around and sex? I’m not sure. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I did however, love how their relationship ended up at the end of the story, and how protective Nemeth was over Candra. The rescue scene in the dungeon? 🤌🏻

𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒔
➝ Enemies to lovers
➝ Forced proximity
➝ Pregnancy

I thoroughly enjoyed this entry into the monster romance genre. My only complaint, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this….is it wasn’t long enough. I loved it but the denouement was so fast that I didn’t have time to savor it!

This book was okay, I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I did feel like the beginning dragged and Candra was a bit much. I do understand her selfishness due to her upbringing in the book. I did like the idea of her and Nemeth being locked in a tower for 7 years to appease the gods.
This is a very slow burn, enemies to lovers.
There a few plot twist and turns!

This book does have a lot of triggers!

Ruby Dixon is one of those authors that I gravitate toward because her books are just so fun. The plots are outlandish and the characters are other-worldly, but I immediately run to read those stories.

This one has a really interesting premise: in order to appease the gods, one person from each warring kingdom must spend seven years together in a remote castle. Our enemies-to-lovers trope is outlined from the outset!

I really enjoyed the character development in this book between the two main characters, but for me, it felt like the ending fell apart a little. I understand that Dixon is working to set up the plot for the next book in the series, but it felt like revelation after revelation in way too little time.

Despite this, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had no clue this was a wattpad book. The formatting is that of a high school fan fiction. This book does not live up to the standards of other Ruby Dixon books. I’m so confused by this. I’ve read many Ruby Dixon books and this is not her best work.

Bound to the shadow prince kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat and will definitely be reading more of this authors work!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy.

This story follows Candra, a princess with a blood sickness, and Nemeth, a prince to the shadow monsters.

Candra doesn’t have much character growth. She is flirtatious and entitled. Her character does go through a lot of events but doesn’t seem to change from it.

Nemeth on the other hand does have character growth. He is a little secretive and shy. He loves his war poems and reading. By the end of the book he adapts to the situation and becomes a better version of himself.

The story is intriguing and easy to follow. I did enjoy the time in the tower. It was very slow however. This book is just over 500 pages and feels like it’s more. The slow burn just added on to the slow paced feeling.

The language and prose is inconsistent. The first part of the book seems to follow a prose that is set in their medieval style world, but around the 50% mark it all gets thrown away and modern language comes in which breaks the atmospheric feelings.

The spicy scenes are definitely worth waiting for

I did enjoy reading this

⭐ 3

Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I was really torn with this one.

What I liked:
-Plus-sized and chronically ill FMC
-The shy, bookish MMC
-The curse itself was an interesting concept within the world. I enjoyed the idea of the tower and the different bloodlines needing to sacrifice a member within for 7 years. It made for an entertaining dynamic between the two.
-The romance was definitely the highlight!

What I didn't like (Some spoilers here):
-This book was way too long and slow at parts.
- It took a major tone shift around the middle-ish. The tower is not the setting the entire book, which is both good and bad because it hardly makes any sense (Why don't they get supply shipments more than once a year? The fact they just forgot to give her enough firewood is ridiculous) but also the setting outside the tower is quite depressing and dull without enough fleshing out to be meaningful.
-There is way too much mentioned SA or attempted SA in this book for me. The use of it throughout the story feels like surface level suffering or just there for a swoop-in save by the MMC. The MMC also makes too many excuses for sexual slavery. That definitely did not endear him to me.
-Dragon Shite. Too much.


Overall, I'd say this is an easy read but I would take the TWs mentioned in other reviews seriously if you're sensitive to the topics. Otherwise, I think you'll find yourself at least entertained by the strange twists and addictingly cliche romance.

I’ve never read any of Ruby Dixon’s books but I’ve heard great things about her other series so I decided to give this a try. I knew what I was getting into once I read the background, some light magic/fantasy romance with enemies to lover and close proximity tropes. There was a good level of spice but some of the scenes felt repetitive and didn’t really add to story progression or character development. thought the twists and plot throughout were pretty good and kept me reading but the end was what I felt could have been done better. The characters were interesting and but Act 3 felt rushed and the characters seemed to fall flat. I felt this twist which put a wrench in the relationship was great but the way in which the characters reacted to it was never really addressed. It seemed somewhat glazed over which was a missed opportunity to add depth to the relationship. The ending also lacked those confrontational scenes where the reader could feel true triumph over the challenge at hand. It was told to you that things were wrapped up and resolved rather than letting the reader experience it. Overall I feel I wanted to rate it better but the decisions the author made at the end were all pretty disappointing and brought the rating down to a 3 or 2.5.

I really don’t know what to say about this except it didn’t hit for me. It felt.. odd. This was my first time reading a book by this author and I just felt like there were so many strange choices made. It felt rushed but somehow slow at the same time.

I really enjoyed this book it was a crazy ride although it did start off slow, I’m glad I kept reading. The MMC is someone you can root for. This book is full of steamy, thrilling, and unpredictable chapters. I am thoroughly pleased with this read and can’t wait to read another book by this author.

I've kind of been hit or miss on Ruby Dixon books in the past - the IPB ones were good horny fun, the one about the dragon shifter in the post apocalyptic world that I can't remember the title to wasn't great.

Is it fair to say this one is both hit AND miss?
Candromeda and Nemeth are sent by their respective kingdoms to spend seven years locked up together in a windowless tower so the goddess will give her blessing. Weird, but okay. I guess it's technically a slow burn in that a year-ish passes in book time before the main characters are in love, which is nice. There are, however, some absolutely unhinged revelations that occur when their food supplies aren't delivered year two and they begin to run out of medication, fuel, and food. This is where the book dips, for me. It seems like every single plot twist and trope that *could* be included in the latter half of the book, was.

This includes barren FMC magically getting pregnant with her mate from the enemy kingdom, discovering that actually, injecting his blood into her works better than the medication she's taken her whole life, MMC letting her get kidnapped because ??? the kidnappers could get her to the city faster than he could, revelations that the MMC's brother has kidnapped FMC's sister and is using her as a slave (and has stolen her baby), more revelations that actually FMC's sister who was supposed to go to the tower and "died" on the way is not actually dead, purposely made the goddess mad, there was no reason to be in the tower in the first place, the MMC was sent there specifically to seduce her...

I could go on. It just seemed like too many "aha, but ACTUALLY" plot points for one book. 3/5 because I finished it and didn't hate it. Thanks to netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review.

I am in my monster smut era!! I really enjoyed this! There was lots of twists and turns that kept me engaged. The writing was occasionally repetitive but I was having too much fun to care all that much. Would recommend to a friend who loves a man who isn’t human ;)

Coming from the author’s previous blue period (lol), I was delightfully surprised to see her newest project in a medieval sort of setting. The beginnings of Nemeth and Candra’s interactions felt a bit like a sweet nod to Beauty and the Beast, which made it even better when he ended up not just being your typical hottie. I really loved their growth and what developed between the two, even when the situations changed for the worse. The side characters were great for the most part even for the short times they were featured in the story. I may have guessed a good bit of what happened at the end, but that didn’t take away from the intrigue of it all! The ending felt a bit more rushed, so I wish the progression had been a bit more even. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed all the scenes, steamy or not!

Thanks to Netgalley and Wattpad Books for an e-arc of Bound to the Shadow Prince.

Nemeth is a Prince of Fellian -gray skinned, winged- enemies to the humans. Princess Candra is human and has been taught her whole life that Fellians are the enemy. What will happen when the two are locked in a tower for 7 years to appease a god and their homelands?

I’m not a fan of some of the tropes (not going to spoil any here) however even with that I still wanted to pick the book up because of Nemeth/Candra’s relationship and the political intrigue. I think if you enjoyed Ice Planet Barbarians and are looking for a fantasy based story from Ruby Dixon then this might be a good option.

I was able to guess a number of plot points along the way, but I’m a sucker for political intrigue and still managed to enjoy the story as a whole.

However something to note: this book is LONG! I was reading and felt like I had barely read since the percentage didn’t move quickly. It’s over 500 pages. That’s not a bad thing, but I could definitely see some people feeling like it’s too much. To be fair this was a serial series from what I understand, before being put together for this physical release.

Be sure to also check trigger warnings as well for this one.

“𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨?” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby! You've done it (again!). I THOROUGHLY enjoyed Bound to the Shadow Prince. This was an easy 5-star read for me. To me, this book is a "medley" of genres. The world / world building / names / plot / romance all gave me very fantasy or romantasy vibes. The sub-genre of this book was - to put it plainly- monster smut... and THAT is a genre I do not have previous experience with (smut? yes. monster peen? no..). What a wild ride.. no pun intended.

I honestly love this book so much that I am probably going to go way too in depth with my feedback/review because I want this book to be a success! So, I (kind of) apologize to whoever is reading this. The plot of this story was so unlike any other romantasy I have read, while also having so many of my favorite tropes.

First things first: THIS COVER IS DOING THE BOOK A MAJOR DISSERVICE. As a marketing professional myself, please trust me when I say, if I saw this book on the shelf I would not pick it up. I think its is the font that is used, and then the burning candle is honestly so generic and looks a little like "AI" art. I think if you incorporated a cover with wings of some sort, or creepy green eyes, a tower, landscape, "gothic" looking font... it would help so much. Honestly, even a better candle image and new font would do wonders. I posted about the cover on my Instagram (@thehazelbookshelf) while I was reading the book and had multiple people chime in & agree with me. NOW, that being said, I am kind of wondering if I am not the target audience for this book? (29 yr old Female). If I was 60, I might love this cover. So keep that in mind.

Now onto the meat and bones of this review.

This story is so different from any of the super popular books I have read lately, while still being a very well thought out & binge-worthy story line, I was SO INVESTED. In the beginning Candra was "hard to love" so to speak, but her character development was absolute perfection. And of course I love Nemeth, nothing says romantasy like a grumpy shadow daddy.. am I right? This book has the potential to be majorly popular, just based off the originality and "suck-you-in" nature of the story.

Bound to the Shadow Prince was a steamy Rapunzel-meets-Beauty and the Beast-meets-Greek Gods-eque tale. I really enjoyed how the basis of the plot tracks back to centuries-old issues and disagreements. Disagreements and arrangements that then affect Candra & Nemeth first hand. This tale is beautiful, and I feel as though I have lived 3 years through the pages of this book.. in only 3 days. A-maz-ing.

Things I loved about this book:
- chronic-illness relatable
- strong & feisty but disabled FMC
- "touch her and die" vibes
- enemies to lovers!!!! DUH
- "plus size" friendly FMC
- forced proximity x1000
- shadow daddy
- warring kingdoms
- quest / journey of sorts
- captivity
- magic
- wonderful world building
- plot twist!

Some things that need work:
- There were a couple "messy" plot holes & issues
- Typos
- I honestly despise the fact that Nemeth had backward knees and I refused to picture him that way.. I would suggest changing that if you have the heart to haha (I am sure you love Nemeth as he is)

I will be writing a review (a bit more digestible than this one) on my goodreads & instagram. I will link them here when complete!

Ruby, my friend and I talk about how fantastic we think your writing is all the time. We have both read Ice Planet Barbarians - and while we love the smut (duh) we also go on and on about how great your writing style & story lines are. We also chat about your phallic mushroom instagram posts and giggle. ;)

Thanks Wattpad WEBTOON & Netagalley for giving me the chance to read this amazing book. Bound to the Shadow Prince is not a book I will be forgetting!