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.

Bound to the Shadow Prince by Ruby Dixon is a fantastic enemies-to-lovers story!
The spice, the characters and the writing were absolutely compelling.
I devoured it! I loved it! I ate it the heck up!

Thank You NetGalley and Wattpad Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Candra and Nemeth make for one heck of a good fantasy book but we warned-- it's a thick one. Candra is forced to be in a tower with Nemeth as a sacrifice to the gods. The book could be split into two parts-- their time in the tower with the slow burn romance and the more action/war when they get out. I enjoyed having them build the relationship and not having instalove with the two characters. If you are a fan of monster peen, being locked in a tower, and virgin MMC then this book is for you.

*Force Proximity
*Monster/Human looooove
*Chronic Illness Rep

I want to preface this review with I had never read a book by this author before and didn’t realize how spicy this book was going to be. Personally, it was just too much spice. However, I really enjoyed the story, and I liked Candra and Nemeth. I thought that their connection was a lovely one and even with them being locked in a tower the non-spicy scenes really did a lovely job of showing them growing as people and as a couple. I also liked the twists towards the end of the book. So, while this book’s spice level may have been too hot for this reader, I did enjoy the other aspects of this book.
Thank you to Wattpad Webtoon Book Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

🕯”𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰’𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.”🕯
Candra starts of the book as a fundamentally selfish character, and I actually really enjoyed that! Its not often that that a FMC is unashamed about being selfish but Candra had her reasons and they were very good. I also liked that it didn’t mean she was cruel or unthinking, its just that she was going to look after herself and she wasn’t willing to sacrifice her happiness or comfort for others. Obviously, she’s not a monster because she does end up going into a tower for 7 years to spare her sister that fate, but she tries HARD to get out of it. There were quite a few times that I actually laughed at loud when Candra was being selfish and sassy about it.
I also liked that Nemeth was such a cinnamon-roll. He was so sweet and I loved how he wanted to protect her. With that being said a few things didn’t make sense to me mostly surrounding why Candra got sent to the tower in the first place. It seemed like it was for an extra GOTCHA moment and not really to answer any outstanding questions.
Overall, I really enjoyed it! I would recommend it for fans of IPB, spicy fantasy, and enemies to lovers!

Ruby's books have been on my radar for a while now. She is known for writing spicey books within the Omegaverse (a sub-genre in romance). Her heroes are often not human, and the sex scenes are incredibly kinky and usually involve knotting/breeding. For those new to the Omegaverse universe, here is a brief overview of the subgenre. In most cases, romances that fall in the Omegaverse universe have this alpha/beta/omega feel to them. Think of the hierarchy system that exists in a wolf pack. Often, characters in these books fall into these roles, and how they interact with each other is determined by their role; these roles also extend to sexual interactions. Another characteristic within the Omegaverse is, shall we say, kinkier sex that often includes breeding, MCs going into heat, knotting, imprinting, mating, scent marking, etc. There is also always a fantasy/sci-fi element to the stories. Bound To The Shadow Prince falls on the lighter end of the Omegaverse spectrum, which makes it a great gateway book into the Omegaverse universe.

Now, let's talk about the book itself. I really enjoyed this book; it was a surprisingly addictive read. Now be warned, it's a beefy book, clocking in at just over 500 pages. The fantasy elements in this book are there, but they aren't the story's main focus. The world-building is on the lighter side, and events happening outside of Candra and Nemeth's relationship aren't necessarily given much time in the spotlight. Basically, this book focuses on the relationship between Candra and Nemeth... and, well, them banging it out in this tower that they are forced to stay in (and also a few other places). A little over 50% of this book takes place in this tower that Candra and Nemeth are forced to stay in to appease the goddess. I really enjoyed the time we spent in the tower. The sense of isolation leaped off the pages, as did this feeling of unknownness. We know this war is happening between these two kingdoms, but we have no idea what is happening. When Candra and Nemeth venture out of the tower, things drastically change in their world, but we don't know what caused that change. The last quarter of the book was a bit rushed with a lot of moving parts.

Candra is a brash, outspoken heroine who loves flirting. I really enjoyed her character. She is witty and loved stirring the pot. She knows everyone thinks she is useless and doesn't expect much from her. But she has this inner strength that is hidden underneath that carefree attitude. It was also great to see her take charge when it came to taking those first steps to an intimate relationship with Nemeth. Nemeth is not human; his people resemble gargoyles. His character surprised me. I was expecting this gruff, broody alpha male, but I was completely wrong. In his first couple of interactions with Candra, he sort of comes off as this stand-off-ish hero, but he quickly turns into this cinnamon roll of a hero. He was so caring and kind and the complete opposite of what I expected of him. I like the fact that he wasn't what I was expecting.

The romance is, of course, very spicy. If you like forced proximity, enemies to lovers, mating, touch her and die, breeding, virgin heroes, and lots of dirty talk, then you are going to love this book. A large chunk of this book is sex in some form. It is the main focus of the story. I liked Candra and Nemeth together. Ruby perfectly created that lusty tension that makes your heart beat faster and hooks you in. I know Ruby was trying for an enemies-to-lovers trope feel to their relationship, but it fell flat for me. That sharp, witty banter that often exists in enemies-to-lovers relationships wasn't really in this book. But besides that, the journey that Candra and Nemeth went on in this book was addictive. There are some unexpected bumps and twists in their relationship that I wasn't expecting. It really was an entertaining read.

Bound to the Shadow Prince is a satisfying romp that is sure to get your heart beating faster.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad Webtoon Book Group for providing the ARC.

This was the first book that I have read by Ruby Dixon. I am fully aware of her Ice Planet Barbarians series, but I do not find myself enjoying any of those books. However, I still wanted to see what the hype was surrounding her books and see if it was something that I could potentially enjoy.

The story was...not bad. It wasn't good either. There were a lot of plot points that I felt were very loosely tied up or not tied up at all. There felt like a big disconnect between Candra and Rementh in the first half of the book. They went from begrudgingly enjoying each other's company to falling in love with each other with little to no build up in between. I can understand that her MO is very much writing to provide a vehicle for monster romances, but I would have liked more than what I received.

Overall though, I felt that the story was kind of bland. I couldn't care enough about the characters, and while there was some plot, it was mostly glossed over and solved with relative ease. I wish I could have had something to connect to and empathize with, but I really just felt like a 3rd party observing things happening as opposed to getting drawn into the story.

I'm glad that there are people out there that enjoy her books and her writing, but I think that I have satisfied my curiosity enough to move on.

Bound to the Shadow Prince by Ruby Dixon is a captivating fantasy romance that follows Princess Candra and Prince Nemeth, royals from enemy kingdoms who find themselves unexpectedly bound together by an ancient curse. The story takes place over several years when Candra and Nemeth are both bricked up in a tower to appease a Goddess so that they may escape her wrath.

As Candra and Nemeth grow closer, unexpectedly falling in love, all is not well in their kingdoms beyond the wall of the tower. They must navigate their feelings as they navigate the changes and horrors of the world they return to, while trying to protect one another from their warring families.

Dixon's writing shines with her trademark wit and humor, creating a compelling narrative that keeps readers engaged throughout. The chemistry between Candra and Nemeth is palpable, with Nemeth described as terrifying, cruel, yet disturbingly magnetic. This dynamic creates an intriguing tension that drives the story forward.

While the novel deviates from Dixon's usual science fiction settings, it retains her signature style and delivers a satisfying romance. The author skillfully weaves elements of fantasy, enemies-to-lovers trope, and curse-driven plot to create a unique and entertaining read.
Readers have praised the book for its engaging characters, well-developed world-building, and the author's ability to balance humor with more serious themes. The novel offers a fresh take on fantasy romance, making it an appealing choice for both longtime fans of Ruby Dixon and newcomers to her work.

No one does it quite like Ruby Dixon. Somehow this book is filthy hot without compromising that it’s actually got a solid plot and a lot of heart. To appease an angry goddess, Candra and Nemeth, who are from two countries starting a war, are bricked up in a tower to serve seven years. There are no windows, food delivery is only once a year and the only people to talk to are each other. They are mortal enemies. I love that Candra is a representative for people with chronic illnesses. This kind of representation matters–showing that an MC can be sick and still be the MC. She has a blood sickness and she's dependent on medicine to survive, which complicates living in a tower for seven years with limited supplies. Up until now, her illness and her shameless flirty behavior made her overlooked as a frivolous and useless princess. She was never meant to do something like this, unlike Nehmeth who was raised to do this. It’s forced proximity at it’s finest

Her people consider his people monstrous. But she realizes that underneath that grumpy exterior Nemeth is a big marshmallow.

A couple of warnings though, there is knotting (iykyk) and just in general lots of smut. It does take place in a time of war, so there are character deaths. The world outside the tower is not the one they left behind to go in. Your partner will reap the benefits after you read this and be VERY grateful.

I really liked the proposition of this book, with the primary notion being forced proximity by obligating the two main characters, who are enemies, to live in a tower together for 7 years. The spicy scenes in this book were definitely spicing. The relationship between these two characters kept me engaged and glued to the pages of the whole book.

However, I did feel that the pacing was off a bit. And I would have liked more dilemmas to ensue to bring more tension to the storyline giving a different layer to the pages.
While I enjoyed Candra and Nemeths love story, I did feel like something was missing. It might have been that Candras character felt incredibly one dimensional to me. I would have liked more depth and contrast to her.

Overall, this book was charming and effortless to become immersed in. The author did an amazing job at building the world so vividly that you could picture it handily. And the character descriptions and details were top notch.

I really enjoyed it. I liked the premise and it kept me wanting more! The story dragged on at certain points but I kept pushing myself to finish it. I feel like there could have been more chemistry with the love interests but that's just me nitpicking because I did enjoy it overall.