When asked if I wanted to read Ruby's newest spicy romance about two beings that are locked in a tower for years I volunteered as tribute so quickly. I have read a few of her Ice Planet Novels and they are so much fun, I eagerly accepted the ARC. 

I felt like this could have been two books, as the first half of the book was easily a big bold 4.5 star of Ruby's signature spice and character development. It was wonderful. The last 30% of the book was a depressing exploration of a dystopian world that lacked the chemistry that the beginning of the book had. It felt so disjointed, which is why I ended up giving it a 3 out of 5 stars. I might not have finished it, if it wasn't an ARC.

TL;DR Bound to the Shadow Prince was so fun for the first 70% but the plot twist lost my attention. It was so very long. 
I really appreciate the ARC from Wattpad. I really wanted to love all of it.

YES YES YES! Ruby Dixon does it again. This was such a good, spicy read. Absolutely recommend to anyone a fan of hers, or even ready to step their toes into smutty waters

This was a THICK book, but honestly, what a delight! I did not realize this was going to be a knotting book, but goodness was it spicy! IF you're looking to tuck in with a very hot read, this is going to be it for you!

I received an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The world building in this book is truly amazing. Ruby describes things in a way that makes you feel like you are really truly there.

While I enjoyed reading this book the first part was lacking something. Candra and Nemeth’s relationship needed to build but I needed more storyline.

Once things started progressing in the plot I was HOOKED. Learning about both of their kingdoms was intriguing and I definitely didn’t see the plot twist coming.

I have always enjoyed Ruby Dixon's writing style and story telling and this one did not disappoint! It was everything I needed in the moment and more! Ruby keeps on giving with these strong female leads and the romance is absolutely to die for! I'm excited to see more of this! Thank you to Netgalley for the early access!

Bound to the Shadow Prince was a fun and spicy fantasy novel set in a world with humans and Fellians, a race of people who lived in the shadows. One Fellian and one human from the Royal bloodline had to spend 7 years in a tower together to ward off a curse. Candra was never supposed to be the sacrifice, but her sister was lost at sea, so she was thrown in to the role at the last minute and pretty unhappy about it.

Candra was sassy and flirty, being somewhat sickly and barren due to a blood curse made her bold and unconventional.

I really enjoyed the world building and obvious miscommunication between the legends for each race of people. Once Candra actually interacted with her mysterious tower inhabitant, she realized he was pretty interesting and friendly. This book was fantasy, enemies to lovers, and monster/paranormal romance.

I loved watching the two of them learn about each other and also fight off their interest because they were not supposed to even be friends, let alone lovers. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, but I loved their relationship and how it grew and then was intrigued by their adventure after the tower, which wasn’t anything like I expected.

I have enjoyed Ruby Dixon books outside of the IPB world, from sci-fi to fantasy, and this one was great. I do think IPB fans might find this to be a bit slower and longer and might not like it as much as a result, but if you also enjoy fantasy and want something spicy with a sassy heroine, I recommend it. There was a lot of spice, but the books are longer than the quick and easy to read IPB books and the author’s other sci-fi novellas. And much like I felt with Bound to the Battle God, this book could have probably been a little shorter, but I still enjoyed it at just over 500 pages and flew through it once I got started.

This was actually my first Ruby Dixon novel and I didn’t quite know what to expect.

Calda is a princess of an ancient line that suffers from a blood curse. There is no cure for it and it leaves her barren. Because of her family line one member or her family must serve in a tower for 7 years to keep the golden moon goddess happy and keep the lands prosperous. When her younger sister dies on the way to the tower, she is forced to take her place. Though not very willingly.

Alternatively a male heir from the first house of the Fellian line must also serve 7 years in the tower. The fellians however are not human and are giant winged people that move through the shadows. At first Calda is afraid for her life, but they form an uneasy alliance when she runs out of supplies.

An uneasy alliance turns into love and they form a lasting bond with one another. Unfortunately it seems the outside world has forgotten them and their supplies do not arrive during the second year. Forced to flee or starve to death they find their world very changed to the one they left and fear they are the cause. However there are forces at work that they never suspected…

There is a lot of spice and I really was not expecting this to be such an epic fantasy. Had a great time reading it and Nenmeth is the sweetest thing ever. I would love to be locked in a tower with him and take his knot.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Never in my wildest dreams!

I never expected that I would be into creature smut, but ladies and gentlemen, Nemeth changed all of that!

Welcome to Lios, where the sun only shines if you lock a Vestalin heir in a tower for seven years to appease the Goddess. But wait—Darkfell must also lock an heir in the tower.

Cue Candra and Nemeth!

This book doesn’t have much of a plot; however, what you do get is fun and enjoyable to read. It is packed full of naughty times between the heirs while in the tower.

I recommend this book if you are in a reading slump, as it’s fairly easy reading and offers exciting moments throughout the narrative.

My review is based on an ARC that I received for free from NetGalley. This is my personal opinions on this book.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and Ruby Dixon for allowing me to read. I truly enjoyed it.

I love some of Ruby Dixon's books. Ice Planet Barbarians is my favorite series of her, honestly, if she's writing about big blue aliens I'm reading it... but I've found myself really struggling with her other works and I can't put my finger on the difference. I think this book may have enlightened me on why I'm not a fan of her pieces of work - her main female characters have a tendency to be very one dimensional. Princess Candra basically had no personality. She enjoyed lounging and sex. I mean, if that's all a girl wants I'm not judging her, but I want more from my books that go over 200 pages. I am fine reading a paper person when it is a short read and the whole point is the sexual relations, but when you write over 500 pages you need to flesh out both of your characters and not just the world they inhabit.
What I did enjoy - enemies to lovers is always a weakness of mine. Reading about two characters who just hate each other and still find themselves drawn together is a wonderful read, but in this one I was missing the WHY these two hated each other. The personalities didn't seem to rub each other the wrong way and they didn't fully know each other before being stuck together in the tower. Did I miss something? I also enjoyed our male lead, but who wouldn't. Prince Nemeth is hot, protective, and good at what he does (if you know what I mean), so there wasn't much to hate. He had a bit more to him than Candra and I appreciated that I felt I knew more about him and I could care what happened to him. I also loved the world building in this book. I felt like I could really see what these characters were experiencing and the world they were living in before being locked away. Dixon did a great job giving us the full world view of the two characters and had she spent just as much time on giving the characters emotions, thoughts, and dreams this would have been an incredible read.
I am not saying this book was BAD by any means. 3 stars for me is just an okay read. It isn't great, nothing really stands out enough for me to read it a second time, but I also didn't feel like reading it was a waste of my time. I enjoyed the book. It felt like junk food for my brain and while I think I'll go back to keeping my book junk food to under 300 pages... I still don't regret reading this and I appreciate getting an advanced copy from NetGalley for my opinion. I will forever be an IPB fan, but I think I'll pass on the rest of the Dixon library. My opinion is only my own, so please give this book a read if you'd like to get a fun mix of Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast with some seriously sexy scenes.

Thank you to Ruby Dixon and Wattpad books for the ARC for Bound To The Shadow Prince. While the premise of this book seemed like a really great and new idea, I do feel that the romance fell pretty flat, compared to some of Dixon’s other books. Shes known for her banter, romance, and fun world-building but I feel like those were missed a little in this book. As a larger novel, I felt there was room to expand on the world, lore and political intrigue but they spent most of the book in the tower, and the romance felt a little forced, with only the main character having any real personality. While this was an interesting read, and fun at times, I do think some of the ideas and characters could have been a little more flushed out.

Bound to the Shadow Prince is a stand alone novel outside of any of the worlds that we have previously read about by Ruby Dixon. I was excited to read something outside of the Ice Planet Barbarians series by Ruby Dixon, but big blue alien men with horns and a tail are still my kink. The story is single PoV and follows two characters Princess Candra, of Lios and Prince Nemeth of Darkfell. Candra, the narrator of our story, is the throw away princess. She has a blood illness and is barren so her entire life is being pampered, taking lovers and play around with court intrigues. That is until she is told her sister, the one slotted to be the sacrifice to the tower has died in a shipwreck and she has three days before she will take her place in the Tower with a Prince of their enemy.

Unprepared to live on her own, Candra ends up as the sacrifice to a Goddess, to go live in the Tower for seven years with the enemy of her people. She has no skills, has never cooked for herself and has to take a medicine by syringe daily for her blood illness, one she now has to make for herself. She was not prepared to live on her own in a dark tower. Nemeth, on the other hand, has been living with scholars and monks for years preparing to be the sacrifice. They are enemies but if Candra is going to survive, she is going to need some help from Nemeth or she will need to kill him to take all of his supplies.

It took a little while to warm to Candra. She is spoiled and a little whiny about her situation and doesn’t like to read *gasp*. But as she struggles alone in the tower, she becomes a better person in general. She learns some lessons, becomes more kind and appreciative of those who served her previously (although she treated her favorites well) and becomes a character you can root for. I like Nemeth from the beginning though. We don’t get real interaction with him for quite awhile but when we do you can tell he is a good and kind man. I was extremely interested in his culture and people and the differences between the lore of his people compared to Candra’s. They turn from friends to lovers in their tower isolation but when they yearly supplies don’t show up after a few years they must decide. Stay in the tower and starve, or leave and feel the wrath of the goddess on their people.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit overall. The sex scenes were spicy and the overall story line was really interesting. The pacing struggled in a few spots, especially once Candra and Nemeth left the Tower in search of what happened to all the people. I would have liked a little better flow in the beginning 15% and final 30%. I did like the reveal at the end and while sad, how the Goddess took her revenge out on the people of Lios and Darkfell while they were in the tower and the twist to the story. The lore and history of both cultures was really interesting to me as well. So the only reason I took a few stars off is for pacing since I think it will really affect others’ enjoyment of the story.

If you are new to Ruby Dixon, I highly recommend one of her books in the Ice Planet Barbarians series. But this could give you a decent understanding of her writing ability.

Instead of alien smut, how about some Monster Smut?
😈
Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/🌶️🌶️🌶️🪢
This book is much longer than her Ice Planet books at over 536 pages.

To appease a scornful goddess, someone from the royal lines of both the humans and the Fellians must sacrifice themselves to be imprisoned in a tower for 7 years. Once they are inside the tower, they cannot leave before their time is up without causing famine and wrath from the goddess.

The Fellians are a bat/gargoyle-like species who are much larger than humans with a hard skin and knees that bend backwards, and fangs.

Oh and there is a knot and lots of knotting. In fact, the knot is mentioned 136 times. 🪢
“I want your knot”. “You want my knot?” “You take my knot so well”, etc
😈
The story reminds me a little of a mix between Rapunzel (with the tower) and Beauty and the Beast if both the Belle and the Beast were trapped together and have to work together, but the Beast was the one who liked to read.

They have to learn how to trust each other (the enemy) in order to make it through their time in the tower. All while their species are going to war against each other outside of the tower.

The author’s note at the end mentioned it was based a little on the Trojan wars.

Anyway, the writing was ok, I mean it’s a monster smut with the mention of a knot 136 times, but it was a fun and spicy book with political intrigue, war, and betrayal.
😈
The story wrapped up at the end, but I could see her continuing the series with side character stories like with her Ice Planet Barbarians series. However, it’s not listed as #1, so it might be a standalone.

Lmao Candra is my spirit animal and these characters in this reel definitely feel right in their demeanors to Candromeda and Nemeth.
Candra is from the sought after royal legendary bloodline but she had tainted blood and can not bear children so she has been off doing whatever she wants in court. She’s been told she is basically worthless but her name still protects her. They need her since every 30 years they have to send one of her blood line to a tower with one of her enemies bloodline. Her sister had been trained her whole life but a freak accident sent her with no notice instead.
This girl is chronically ill and a princess. And they threw her in a dark tower with no windows with a monster. Well for all the stories she thought he was a monster but after their first year he turned out to be more caring then her human caregivers. And omg this girl was thirsting after him. And his wing shiver when she flirted with him was adorable. Yes he had wings, horns and different anatomy, but he was a bookish introvert. She was a saucy extrovert and omg I need fan art and pictures of these two. I can’t tell the size difference but I want to see it lol.
I have already told too much but just now this is a very fun adventure. And definitely not all folk tales are built on fact.
Why am I not seeing this book more on here? Please we all need to read or try this one. Just fyi he wouldn’t go farther than 1st base with her until she put a ring on it.
This is a cozy romance until around 50-60% then it goes off the rail. But there’s an hea. Phew finally. I really hope there’s more of this world. I love her worlds.

I adored this book! That’s not surprising considering I’m a huge fan of Ruby Dixon but this was different from her usual spicy sci-fi style and leaned more into fantasy by far. I wasn’t a huge fan of Candra (the FMC) in the beginning as she was arrogant and selfish to a fault… but she went through a lot of character development and became a character I thoroughly connected with. Nemeth (MMC) is a dream OMG! Spicy, sweet, scholarly, and a knot to tie the package together? Sign me UP!
I did get a little bored towards the middle because I worried nothing was going to happen (as much of the story occurs within the confines of a tower) but oh boy did things happen shortly after! Everything comes together and the action packed last half had me on the edge of my seat! I’m absolutely obsessed with this book and I so hope there’s more to come someday!

A princess is locked away in a tower for 7 years and her only company is a Monstrous prince from an enemy race. I’m a fan of fantasy so hey this sounded good.
THE BIG PROBLEM: in my humble opinion this book should have been edited down. This book is terribly long. The ebook is 55 chapters. The audiobook is 21 hours. And you’re initially talking about a book that has two characters locked in a tower together who don’t even really speak for the first 9 chapters. So it's pretty slow. . I don't need to read whole chapters about cooking stew and candles and medicine. It gets repetitive in the Princess’ head.
the logistics of being locked in a tower designed like this one don't make sense to me at all. The tower has no door and *no windows* - not even slits to let in light or air. She spends the first few months just sitting in the dark. She has nothing but work to do - no books, no sewing, nothing. How did they expect her to pass her 7 years like that. In the first year there are periods of many weeks where doesn’t speak to anyone. Not to mention the food situation - they get a year's worth of food delivered. No fresh fruit and veggies so they're probably both going to die from malnourishment.
Basically they then turn it into a free for all alien/human forced proximity sex thing. This almost became a DNF for me. I know there will be people who like it just for the spice. I am apparently not that person.

Ruby Dixon does it again with another knockout fantasy book! I love the forced proximity, enemies to lovers tropes in this book. It was steamy and everything I expected from Ruby..

What a rollercoaster ride of a story!

Overall a 4.5 stars for me, rounded up to a 5 star read & my first novel by Ruby Dixon 🙂
I enjoyed her writing style, it was direct but descriptive enough to immerse me into the story, characters and world. I will definitely read more from her!

The spice level in this one is *high*, so be warned!

The way the premise was set for this book, I thought we were in for a 7year romance ride in a tower for our characters, but I’m here to tell you that the world definitely opens up more! The plot itself is such a roller coaster and I never really knew what was going to happen (after the romance of course). I really enjoy that element of surprise in the plot, and it was fun to be taken on this rollercoaster.

I enjoyed both of our characters, they were both very distinct. We have our FMC who is seductive, sassy and rebellious and we have our MMC who is dutiful, family bound and reserved. Their interactions were intense, fun and spicy and I really enjoyed their dynamic throughout the whole book.

The worldbuilding and the lore are tied in as one. We get one side of the lore between the two warring regions from our FMC who we are introduced to first and then we learn about the other side of the lore later on in the book. I enjoyed that the book went beyond the world it had been set on and that we got to see more of the world through our MCs eyes. I do feel as though we could’ve gotten more of the world and more explanation as certain stories and lore were more hollow than expected but it was just enough for this standalone.

Overall I certainly enjoyed my time reading this one, it was spicy with romance and tons of political intrigue included with fantasy, magic and warring peoples. There was a lot going on but would recommend it for any reader who wants a fun and intense fantasy romance standalone!

The repetition of the storyline in the beginning bothered me, but I really liked the female character her quirky positive attitude. The enemies to lovers story drew me in, and the plot was unexpected enough to keep me reading the end.

Aghhhhhh okay so here’s the deal. This is the 23rd book I have read by Ruby Dixon (yes, I counted). Suffice it to say, I was one of the girlies who got through the pandemic by the grace of the Barbarians series, which I still love and will always return to read more of, because I still have another 15-20 to get through (bless!).

I knew this was a brand new book set in a brand new world, but for some reason I thought the formula would remain the same, in terms of a rather bite-size novel, helmed by incredibly strong FMC and lovable and selfless MMCs, with some very good plot sprinkled amongst some equally good, if not better, smut and romance. While this book did definitely have the latter, the former things were suspiciously absent. Let me elaborate.

For starters, this book was over 500 pages long. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it was this long, given that the actual PLOT beyond the two leads getting hot and heavy didn’t really kick in until the last 50-100 pages. I found myself bored at some of the repetition of the first 300 pages, and the actual interesting plot stuff that occurred at the end felt rushed and in some ways nonsensical. I would have loved the pacing to be adjusted so that we could actually get a bit more plot and character development in some of the folks who were tossed in at the end.

I also really struggled with the main characters. Candra is so selfish for the first 50% of the story, to the point of nauseating. And she has her motivations; I’m not saying it is unrealistic, but I just could barely bring myself to root for her when all I could do for chapters and chapters was roll my eyes and yell “get over yourself” at my phone. As for Nemeth, there were elements of him that felt a bit too “old world man”, insofar as he consistently seemed hell bent on dictating what Candra could and couldn’t do, all in the name of protecting her, and I wish the man would get a grip and shut up so the woman could decide for herself. The last 100 pages were particularly infuriating for his character arc, and I personally wished for more groveling. If you read it, you’ll get where I’m coming from.

On the whole, I still love Ruby Dixon and she will always be an auto-read author for me. It is entirely possible that this book fell a bit flat for me due to my insanely high expectations of her novels, and in that case, this was sooooo on me. If, generally speaking, you’re just looking for some fun human/monster smut (let’s be realP like in all of Ruby’s books, we are getting into non-human parts here, so time for some very innovative monster content) with some very very light political intrigue, and a FMC who does indeed have a great growth arc, this is the book for you. I give it a hearty 3⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Princess Candra of the Kingdom of Lios has always known that she is the royal daughter who is useless. She was born with a blood disease that makes her infertile so she is of no value to the noble men in the palace court. She has spent her entire life learning how to navigate the world of palace politics but she doesn’t know much about anything else. When she is suddenly told that she will be sent away to be dedicated to the gods, she is angry and scared. She will have to spend 7 years locked in a tower with a representative from Darkfell. Lios and Darkfell are enemies so will Candra be able to live with a representative from Darkfell for 7 years?
Candra has a huge growth curve. She faces struggles surviving from the minute she enters the tower. The author did a good job showing how she started out feeling useless at the beginning and how that led to her acting like a spoiled princess after getting to the tower and then how she slowly became capable and strong. I have avoided introducing Candra’s roommate in the tower until this point because the book is from Candra’s perspective. So from her perspective, Nemeth is a scary monster at the beginning of the story. She has good reasons to believe he is a monster. The author does a good job showing how Candra works through a lifetime of believing something that simply does not apply to Nemeth. She remains unsure if her beliefs apply to other Fellians. I thought that was very believable. It showed how smart and thoughtful Candra was. The author chose to make Nemeth “perfect”. I thought his perfection was a weak part of the story since I wanted him to have some kind of imperfection to make him feel more realistic. The backdrop for this story is a looming war between Candra’s people and Nemeth’s people. The author shows the negative consequences of war. There is a twist in the story but I’m not going to give any hints.
This is a sweeping story set in a mythical world with humans and Fellians living in tenuous peace. The gods are real and rain down destruction when they are made unhappy. There is a love story that is integral to the overall story. I read this story without any idea what I was about to read but I was pleasantly surprised in the end. This story is set in a time where women still wear complex gowns during the day, farmers live in small cottages outside the walls of the castle and travel is slow going. This story takes place over a period of years. I am interested to read more from this author in the future.