Bound to the Shadow Prince by Ruby Dixon is a romantic fantasy novel. I was very excited to read a book by Ruby Dixon because I heard delightful things about her stories. I picked this one because the title sounded good and boy am I glad I did!

The story line was original. I literally could not put this book down it was so intriguing. I really liked the characters. Well the two characters. The entire book was about two characters for the most part. So yes you get some strong character development

This pampered princess Candra is locked in a tower in the dark for several closed off from the outside world. There is only one other being with her and that is Nemeth. They have a long time to get to know each other and as readers we do too.

Trust me you are in for a slow burn ride reading this but it’s worth it! Great job. I can not wait to read another book by Ruby Dixon!

4.5 ⭐️/5
3.5 🌶️/5

Bound to the Shadow Prince from Ruby is available for the first time in print. Originally this was a 3x a week serial on the Yonder app that I read it in real time. It was the good kind of torture to read each chapter one at a time as it was released from October 2022 - March 2023. Ruby’s writing draws me in from start to finish for each book, and it is a delight to absorb this story in one continuous read.

We get:
▪️Single POV
▪️Knotting
▪️Mates
▪️Wings, tail, fangs
▪️Forced proximity
▪️Enemies to lovers
▪️Touch her and die
▪️Virgin MMC
▪️Effects of war and the aftermath

Although it is not in the same series of Aspect and Anchor, if you like that series or the fantasy romance vibe in general you will love Bound to the Shadow God.

Because of ✨reasons✨ Candra and Nemeth, Princess and Prince of their respective kingdoms, have to spend 7 years locked in a tower together to appease the Golden Moon Goddess as Royal Offerings. Candra is humorous and bold and playful, she’s full of personality, she’s pampered, has a chronic illness, and wasn’t initially expected to be the Royal Offering. Nemeth is used to the shadows, he’s scholarly and quiet and has wings and horns and a tail, and has trained his whole life for his role; although his appearance is fearsome he turns out to be quite the cinnamon roll whenever Candra is involved.

There is humorous banter between Candra and Nemeth. Some of the sweetest bits are the quiet moments between two Royal Offerings traveling on the path from enemies to friends. There are darker and serious times in this book and it is also hot & steamy with doors thrown wide open! We get to see what happens when two individuals who are taught to hate each other are locked in a tower and are forced to get to know each other. When does your enemy stop being the big bad monster and start being your friend and confidant?

Thank you to W by Wattpad Books and NetGalley for my ARC. My thoughts/opinions are my own and my review is voluntary.

I love Ruby Dixon (seriously, if you haven't read Ice Planet Barbarians, you are missing out). I was excited for Bound to the Shadow Prince. It has the whole forced proximity vibe! I loved that. Candra and Nemeth are suppose to spend 7 years locked together in the tower. What could go wrong? If you are currently in your Romantasy era, you might want to check this one out!

The plot and the world of this story were good! I was really interested in what was going on and what would happen. The entire story is told from Candra's POV, so we know her thoughts and feelings. The problem-I kind of hated her more than I liked her. We never get out of her head, so I never got a break. Maybe if it was told in 3rd person or dual 1st I wouldn't be so annoyed with her, but I just wanted to throw her out of the tower. I liked Nemeth, but since we never get his POV, he felt kind of flat. I wanted to like this book more than I did-it was kind of long which made the pacing off and that didn't help either. But, like I said, the premise and the plot were solid-there was some real potential there!

If you want mostly smut with a tentative storyline, this may be a solid book. It was a weird premise, with the only Rapunzel-esque thing happening was them being stuck in a tower. The two main characters quickly fall for each other and the main point of the story from then on is the smut. Didn't hate it, didn't love. Gave 3 stars.

It’s tough to summarize how I felt about this book because there were parts that I really liked and parts that I disliked. I never connected to either of the lead characters or identified with who they were and how they thought.

It is a bit of a polarizing book and that’s likely because the pacing was off in my opinion. I felt like the author spent half the book laying the foundation for the relationship and that very little plot happened. She left almost all the plot to the latter part of the story, and I appreciate a bit more balance. The later half of the book picked up though and I was satisfied with the ending and how everything was resolved as a standalone novel.

3.5 stars rounded up because while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t amazing either. Thanks NetGalley, and Wattpad for the arc to read and review. All thoughts are mine!

Thanks to NetGalley for access to a review copy.

3.5 stars rounded down.

I enjoyed Bound to Shadow Prince and would read more of Dixon's books in this world. I have read about half of Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians series so I amnot new to here work. Bound to the Shadow Prince has a lot of the elements I really liked about the first Ice Planet Barbarian book - new world, mmcs who know nothing of each other, and a lot of the mmcs interacting directly with each other.

Candromenda (Candra) and Nemethare sacrifices given by each of their civilizations to placate a goddess. They are locked into a tower (with no windows!) for seven years with resupply once per year. Nemeth's people are grey skinned, have wings, and can fly. Candra's are earth-like. Nemeth was trained to be his people's sacrifice whereas Candra was a last minut replacement due to the death of her younger sister.

I really enjoyed the time Candra and Nemeth spent in the tower getting to know each other and falling for each other. Leaving the tower kept things from feeling claustruphobic.

Starts are no higher as a I felt the pacing was inconsistent and a lot of the plot really telegraphed. The best elements of the plot remind me of Enemy Mine (but with more sex obviously).

At first I wasn’t sure I would like this book: It took me until about about 25% to really get hooked. The mixture of modern idioms and dated language (ie calling the bathroom “garderobe”) was jarring to me, and I found the exposition clunky. That being said this story really grew on me. I like Candra and her flaws and idiosyncrasies. It’s a refreshing change of pace from all of the self sacrificing “not like other girls” heroines we often get. And Nehemeth is a total simp for her, just earnestly waiting for her to understand her feelings and then feral to protect her and please her sexually. One of my fave kinds of hero’s if I’m being honest. There were some pacing issues, mainly because I think we could’ve gotten less exposition (I didn’t need Balon her frivolous suitor) and then more time for alllll of the plot that happens at the end. I also had a major issue with the prisoner of war sex slave thing, and I wanted that to be less on the back burner for Nehemeth than it was. Overall this was a quick and enjoyable read, sweet and filthy in a quintessential Ruby Dixon way.

I loved this enemies to lovers take on a fairytale romance. It was different from what I expected and while a little dark, it’s somehow still swoony romantic. Ruby Dixon is a must buy author and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Five shadowy stars to Ruby Dixon!
I loved this one and could not put it down, which is really saying something because this was a thicc read. Most of my books clock in around 5-7 hours but this one was approx. 11!

There was a ton of spice and intrigue to keep me going. Even though it was a slow burn you do get a lot of heat and chemistry off the top. I thought the story and world building was really unique and liked the author’s note explanation that she was heavily influenced by the Trojan war when writing.

Candra was such a fierce FMC and I really enjoyed reading her character growth journey. Ruby did a good job of showing that living with illness doesn’t need to mean that you aren’t seggsy or beautiful or capable of doing hard things.

Nemeth was so sweet and just a big grey golden retriever of an MMC. He gave all the touch her and d!e and you’re mine/my wife vibes I was hoping for.

I suggest reading any content warnings/tropes before diving in. There is a lot of knot 🪢 talk so if that’s not for you this may be a pass.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ruby Dixon and WEBTOON Book Group for an early copy. These are my honest thoughts.

Thank you to NetGalley, WattPad, and Ms. Dixon for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I am a longtime fan of Ms. Dixon and I have an especially soft spot for her Bound series, which are much longer and more plotted fantasy romances than most of her other series (Iceplanet Barbarians, Corsairs, Dragons, etc). It's clear that Ms. Dixon is fully capable of fleshing out the spice with some storyline (although some of her readers are probably taken by surprise by it, ha). Bound to the Shadow Prince was a great read. Candra is a wonderful, snarky, spoiled, sheltered (human) princess who has a sharp sense of humor and a warm heart. Nemeth is a brooding, grumpy (at least initially) Fellian - read Gargoyle-ish - Prince. The two of them are forced into a pitch-dark tower for seven years to appease an angry goddess, dependent on annual supply drop-offs to stay alive. There's no one else in the tower but the two of them so OF COURSE eventually they do begin to interact despite their deep distrust of one another.

This was so good. I loved the slow, natural growth of trust and friendship, and then affection, and then attraction between Candra and Nemeth. And then, when they inevitably leave the tower (this should not be a huge surprise) I really enjoyed the way the two of them clung to each other for support on their depressing journey through devastation. I thought the portion in Darkfell was possibly the weakest. I didn't understand WHY Nemeth felt he had to lie and hide so much from Candra. He asked her to trust him, which was all very well, but why? It didn't seem like he was DOING anything that he needed to hide! Just standing around waiting for his brother to see him. That was the only part I was confused about. Other than that, I really enjoyed this and would definitely recommend it. I do encourage readers to read the author notes at the end, in which Ms. Dixon discusses her inspiration for Candra's blood sickness. Very creative.

I loved the characters and the enemies-to-lovers trope.

SPICY🌶️🌶️🌶️

I flew through the first half of the book. Loved the banter and the build-up between the two characters. However, the last half of the book slowed down quite a bit for me. Still really enjoyed the read

I am WRECKED!

This was such an amazing ride!

Thank you Ruby Dixon for yest another amazing romantasy.

If you love enemies to lovers, slow burn, forced proximity and Fated Mates than you will devour Bound to the Shadow Prince just as quickly as I did.

Definitely rate this a 5 out of 5 for plot and character development.

Hours I stayed up past my bedtime reading: 7

Spice level: 4 chilies

I'm struggling.

I'm honestly shelving this one to come back later.
It's...... Long.

I'm all for some world building but so far I'm reading the same annoyingly selfish personality traits of the MFC over and over. I will come back to this because I'm the end I find the story very interesting and the MMC is a super hot fantasy cinnamon roll.

I'll probably grab the audiobook to go from here.

My advice for any Ruby Dixon Reader is to pick up Bound to the Shadow Prince expecting to read something very different from Ice Planet Barbarians. Ruby does offer us a fantasy world, a giant alien male protagonist who bears some underlying and unexpected spicy surprises, as well as a humanesque female protagonist who is all kinds of sassy. That is where the similarities end.

Bound to the Shadow Prince is a romantasy, but it has a dark Gothic fariy-tale vibe. There is an epic war between two kingdoms, an isolated island tower, and sacrifices that must be made to appease powerful gods. Light and Dark kingdoms compete for world dominance amid devious machinations and high court intrigue.

The absolute best part of this novel is the enemies-to-lover, forced-proximity, grumpy-sunshine romance that evolves between the two main characters. Princess Candromeda and Prince Nemeth are seemingly as oppsite as can be. For her, this is a lesson in survival; for him a duty he has prepared for most of his life. Their growth as individuals and as an unlikely yet efficient team make this a swoon-worthy read.

I applaud Ruby Dixon for exercising her imagination and combining it with her unique writing skills to always give readers something new and interesting to read. I found Bound to the Shadow King to be the fun attention-holding read I needed to spice up my summer reading.

If I hear the phrase "dragon shite" ever again, it will be all too soon. GOOD LORD! Compared to other books I've read by Ruby Dixon, I thought this one kind of fell a little flat for me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything memorable, I'm just going to be honest. The premise was this Rapunzel/Beauty & the Beast kind of retelling, which I was definitely here for, and it delivered in some aspects (spice was pretty decent, knotting involved is always fun). But the ending felt a little weird and rushed. Not to mention the FMC was really getting on my nerves there toward the end. I thought the MMC was sweet and kind, yet also tamely primal; ticked off all the broody monster checkboxes for me. I felt like there was a lot of backstory and world-building left out (weird, because a lot of was given, but I still wanted more), the magic system/method was kind of ill-defined, didn't really know what magic Fellians had or what was really going on there (well we started getting a little at the very end but by that time, my mind had peaced out and the book was almost over).

Can't say I would recommend this one, especially when Ruby's other works are so much better. Again, it wasn't bad, but it was just ok for me. If the blurb appeals to you, give it a go. You might like it more than I did!

Happy reading friends! 🤙🏼💕

Thank you to Wattpad Books and NetGalley for an early copy of this book. This review is my honest feedback and given voluntarily.

This could honestly end up being my all time favorite Ruby Dixon book. Couldn’t put it down! If you like forced proximity, care taking, shadow daddies that are a bit monstrous, fantasy romance, and knots this is a book for you! The tension between the couple was so delicious!

📚Bound by the Shadow Prince by Ruby Dixon📚

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

✨Tropes✨
💉Forced proximity
💉One bed
💉He takes care of her when she’s ill
💉Enemies to friends to lovers
💉Touch her and ☠️


✨Summary✨
Candra is a princess who is living a relatively good life, except her incurable illness, which requires daily medical injections. There’s also the fact that she hates her oldest sister’s husband, and king of their kingdom. But she’s a princess, so life isn’t wholly terrible. That is until she learns of her youngest sister’s death. This would be a tragedy in and of itself, but this also means that her youngest sister’s duty falls on Candra.

Candra finds herself duty bound to enter and stay in a completely sealed tower for the next seven years of her life. Not only must she be in the dark, but she must share the space with the other duty bound person from the neighboring, and enemy, kingdom. Once locked in the tower, Candra realizes she resides with a man, not a woman as previously assumed.

Nemeth and Candra do not have promising beginnings. How could they when they are both royalty from feuding kingdoms? After Candra runs dangerously low on her supplies, which sents her illness off, Nemeth comes to her rescue. They make a friendly truce between them seeing as they have six and a half more years to coexist together. As time goes by, the two grow closer. Will they get through the seven years of banishment unscathed? Or will their time in the tower change more than they could ever imagine?

📚A Deeper Read📚
Candra has a tough and teasing exterior. But underneath it all, she is insecure. She questions Nemeth’s motives a lot, and this could be considered irksome to some readers. I wasn’t too bothered by this. It’s natural for Candra to be weary of a prince from an enemy kingdom. On top of that, it shows how much Candra truly is insecure deep down. We see her character development and grow into a more confident and content person throughout the book.

✨Critiques✨
Pregnancy trope. It wasn’t awful in this book and it was used divisively to discredit what Candra was told her whole life. However, it’s still my most hated trope. I enjoyed this book too much to let it get in the way of my rating, but just know that it’s there.

✨Elements I Loved✨
The super specific sub-trope of the MMC taking care of the FMC when she’s sick and collapses. I don’t know why I love this trope, but I do. It’s genuinely one of my all time favorites that’s not seen too often. I love it and it’s utilized so well in this book. I believe Candra says it best, “There’s just something so delightful about seeing a big, tough man fretting over someone like me.”

🪄Standout magic features🪄
Knotting. Enough said. Also, a magic, question-answering knife.

👩🏻My Recommendation👩🏻
Listen, this book won’t be for everyone. However, it was for me and I LOVED it. It was the book that exceeded my expectations for the year and it’s only June. I loved Candra and Nemeth’s journey so much and I enjoyed the twists and turns of this story.


Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing the ARC.

This was my first Ruby Dixon book. Despite being aware of her Ice Planet Barbarians series, I haven't read them because alien romance just doesn't trip my trigger. When I saw this book pop up on Netgalley, I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, much like the alien romances she writes, this one just isn't for me. The story ended with so many unresolved plot points. The relationship between Candra and Rementh lacked development, transitioning from reluctant companionship to love too abruptly. I just couldn't get into it.

I wanted to like this because I love Ruby's writing, but this is a miss for me. This has the spice that is for sure but that is about it. The princess was kinda annoying. This book just seems to go on forever when I think it shouldn't have. This is just my opinion but read it for yourself.

I wanted to like this story but it just didn't vibe with me. The FMC was annoying and this book was incredibly long and could have been broken into 2 books. This was a spicy, enemies to lovers story about a princess who was doomed to remain locked in a tower for 7 years without any companionship as penance to protect her kingdom from the wrath of a vengeful goddess.

Unfortunately, Princess Candra is left in the tower with a Fellian Prince who is an enemy of her people. Prince Nemeth is a terrifying warrior equipped with Wings, Claws and Fangs. Both Princess Candra and Prince Nemeth are stuck together in close proximity for 7 years. Although Candra has been instructed to kill Nemeth she realized that she preferred his company instead.

This was a super spicy story. Princess Candra was a woman of pure unabashed wattoness of epic proportions. She enjoyed sex and her desire for Nemeth was no exception.
The more time Candra and Nemeth spent near one another the more they grew to desire, depend and need one another. As the years move forward they both realize that something has changed and makes the dangerous decision to leave the tower in search of food and supplies only to find that the world they remember is a different world that is a result of the devastating after effects of war.