I enjoy Lexi Ryan books. This was one a little bit different but no less enjoyable. I will definitely be looking for more of this in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of These Hollow Vows. These hollow vows starts with our girl Brie breaking into a despicable wealthy man that has a high tech security system. We discover early on how Brie can get into vaults and steal things most people can’t. When she is looking for money that won’t be missed she spots contracts that Gorst is involved in selling human slaves to fairy. Brie hates fae since her mother left her at 8 years old with her 6 year old sister to leave for fairy with a man she fell in love with. Her sister Jas finds out that a fairy prince is looking for a potential bride and hosting a ball in Fairy. Jas feels like this would be a great time to search for their mother. Just before the ball Jas is kidnapped by the Unseelie King. This book is full of romance, suspense, and twists. I am so excited for book 2. the only bad part is waiting for an entire year for it!

These Hollow Vows was an absolutely fantastic story with twists, turns, and uncertainty until the very end. I spent the entire duration of my time in this magical realm trying to discern the innocent from the guilty, the good from the bad, and the trustworthy from the deceitful. Abriella was a strong and courageous female lead whose story is far from finished. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book.

While the start of this book drew me in and made me interested in the world and the characters, it very quickly started to feel like every other YA fantasy with a love triangle. And I know that's what I signed up for with this one, but I just felt like there needed to be something unique, something that wasn't so completely obvious. I called nearly everything that occurred in this book from the first page, and that wasn't very fun. Brie wasn't a very original protagonist, with the cliche story of needing to save her little sister, being the chosen one for absolutely no reason, journeying to the land of fey. Sebastian and Fin were honestly both caricatures of the best friend and the dark prince who's actually the good one. There was just nothing about this story that made it stand out.

This book comforted by soul. I started it and finished it in one sitting, I could not put it down. It's an easy story to fall into, with human and faerie kingdoms, wars, courtly intrigue, and some romance. My only issue with this story is that the twists are quite predictable (at least at this point) and the protagonist makes a ton of stupid decisions that had me screaming. However, I'm definitely still on board and will seek out the next installment in this series for sure. If you enjoyed Kingdom of the Wicked, any Sarah J Maas book, or Holly Black's Cruel Prince, then this is probably worth a try. It likely won't blow your mind but it'll be a fun read, which is honestly all you can ask for sometimes.

Oooh, this was so so good--the only problem is now I need the next book asap! These Hollow Vows is a YA fantasy and while there isn't anything groundbreaking setup or plot wise, what Lexi Ryan excels at is writing romance (the options here feel real and with consequences--this is so beyond the usual faux triangle!) and she manages to create an extremely (and wonderfully done) OMG What's Next ending? I won't lie, there's no shortage of YA fantasy these days but These Hollow Vows definitely stands out from the pack and is a novel to watch and imo, will continue to enjoy success with the release of the next book. Which I definitely can't wait for!

**I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley.

Brie has always hated the Fae and the way that they treat humans. After her mother left her and her sister in the mortal world, Brie has always done what it takes to keep her sister safe. After her sister is sold to the king of the Unseelie, Brie knows she must do anything to get her back. When she meets with the king she agrees to find three relics in the Seelie court in exchange for her sisters life. In order to infiltrate the court, Brie poses as a hopeful bride for Prince Ronan of the Seelie court. The only issue might be falling for him instead of keeping herself hidden in the shadows.

I must say that I struggled getting into the book itself. The story instantly begins with a heist that Brie is a part of and I found myself struggling to keep up with what is going on. I will say that once the first 5oish pages pass, it's a much easier read. The pacing of the story felt pretty solid and kept me interested, but a lot of the story felt kind of predictable even as plot twists were occurring.

Brie is a character who takes a while to grow and even as she says she trusts the fae around her, she spies on them and tries to gain access to secrets. One of the things I struggled with about Brie is how quickly she forgets about her sister and finds herself kind of falling into traps and lies. However, I did enjoy reading Finn and some of the other characters outside of Brie and the Prince.

This might not have been my cup of tea, but I do know that my students will love this book. They have been reading everything Fae and Faery court recently, so it will make a great addition to the library. I would recommend this book to those who love love triangles and handsome Fae.

This was one of my most anticipated YA fantasies of the year and it definitely lived up to my own hype! I adore Lexi Ryan's adult romances so I was hoping for the same angst, drama, and romantic elements in this genre, and she definitely delivered!

If you love high angst romance and love triangles - you NEED to check this book out. Lexi Ryan crafts the most wonderful, balanced love triangle that could truly go any way. She does such a fantastic job and building tension between the characters and leaving you guessing (along with the heroine) who the "right" choice is.

This book is also a classic Fae story. It has a familiar magic system and setting, with a slight twist. Which allowed for the world building to be simple. Which was great since there was so much political and character maneuvering happening, it kept the story from feeling too bogged down.

But that ENDING! I knew this would have a cliffhanger but the way Lexi Ryan left me hanging will leave me scarred and empty until book 2 finally drops. I need it...

Overall, I'm totally in love with this new genre from an author I already loved. And I can't wait to see how this story wraps up in the sequel! And I really hope Lexi Ryan continues to write fantasy romance in the future - I never wanted to put this addicting story down!

I am a sucker for fairy romances and was very excited for this book. Sadly the writing is pretty bad and even the fairy swoon worthy characters can’t change that. I probably won’t buy this for the library.

These Hollow Vows, by author Lexi Ryan, is part one of a two part duology. Abriella's (Brie) mother abandoned her and her younger sister Jas 9 years ago. To make matters worse, their uncle passed away shortly thereafter forcing them to live with their horrible aunt and cousins. Brie is bound by a magical contract with no end in sight. By night, Brie is a thief who steals from those who have more than they need in order to pay her bills. By day she cleans and picks up after her ungrateful cousins; kind of like Cinderella and her step sisters.

9 years of living by the rules; don't steal from those who who are honest, don't work for those who try to blackmail you into prostitution, and don't steal from anyone powerful enough to track you down. In this world, Fae pay a premium for young women. Women are bound to the Fae to be exploited and tossed away. People once believed the Fae were guardian angels before the sky split and a portal opened. Only a group known as the Magical Seven of Eldra were capable of stopping the Fae. Brie believes that Fae are demons who exploit, steal babies, and use humans as slaves.

Brie's only bright spot in her life is her neighbor Sebastian who showed up 2 years ago. But things quickly spiral out of control. Brie's last job comes calling and he wants blood which forces her to run. Because of Brie's debts, Jas is sold to into the world of Faerie. Chancing an open invitation by the Seelie Queen to come to Fae where the Prince is trying to find a human bride, Brie gathers all her strength, puts aside her hatred for the fae, and braves this very different world in order to save her sister.

While there, Brie learns that Jas ended up in the hands of the sadistic king of the Unseelie court. When Brie arrives in the Unseelie Court, she finds that in order to get her sister back, Mordeus wants Brie to find and bring back three powerful artifacts that he claims were stolen by the Seelie Queen. To make matters even worse, Brie ends up facing a truth about herself, she has magic, that fae are manipulative bastards who can't be trusted, and the boy she though as Sebastian is not who he claims to be.

I tried to like Ronan/Sebastian, and I did for a while, but somehow I always remained suspicious of him. Something in the back of my mind kept buzzing not to trust him fully. I felt as though he was playing a dangerous game that would end up with Brie in a bad situation. Brie also meets Prince Finnian who seems awfully curious about Brie's magic which leads to all sorts of questions about her own mother and father and what fate they may have met.

❝I am not a pretty thing to be manipulated. I am darkness, and the power rushing through my veins is stronger than ever… with the darkness swirling about the room and my shadows becoming one with it, I feel more alive than I ever have.❞

There are lots of secrets in this book. With the story being told by Brie in the first person, readers learn everything that Brie knows and does and will be there when she's had enough and is ready to bring hell down those who betrayed her. The finale will release in the Spring of 2022.

Ohhh boy, here we go! Another fae fantasy to fall in love with. This book was addicting as hell. I found myself sneaking moments to read when I really shouldn’t have been – just because I had to know what was going to happen next!

Our protagonist, Brie (Abriella), is stuck working off the accumulated debt of her and her sister to their evil aunt when her aunt decides to sell her sister to the Unseelie King. In an attempt to get her sister back, Brie makes a (foolish) deal with King Mordeus, where she must infiltrate the Seelie court and earn the prince’s trust to recover Unseelie artifacts. While she’s there, she meets Finn and (you guessed it) a love triangle forms.

I am *not* a fan of the love triangle trope, but I was feeling this one a little bit. It wasn’t as obnoxious as, say, Bella-Edward-Jacob. Of course, both of these guys seem way too good to be true. It was too difficult to pick who I was rooting for and honestly, my loyalties changed based on the chapter. Ronan is all sunshine and comfort while Finn is moonlight and mystery. I think you can guess which one I ended up loving more…

Everything surrounding Brie and her powers/mission is shrouded in mystery and it’s impossible to know what to expect. These Hollow Vows has a bunch of twists – some more obvious than others – but no less exciting. I did find myself becoming a bit frustrated that it seemed like we weren’t getting any answers about Brie’s powers. Even after finishing the book, it seems there is still so much more to learn.

Ryan’s writing is absolutely enchanting. The descriptions of the courts and gowns and characters was spot on and transported me into the story. The pacing never slows and the characters are engaging as heck. The way Ryan slowly reveals the big surprise at the end was fantastic. There was enough there throughout the story that it didn’t feel completely out of the blue. What more can you ask for?

While there are things with this story that could be nit-picked, I just don’t want to. I really enjoyed it. It gave me feelings I haven’t had in a while. I’ve been on a reading spree lately and this one was an absolute standout that reminded me how FUN reading can be.

AND THAT ENDING – HOLY HECK. YES. Freaking epic. I am on pins and needles waiting for the next book.

I got good news, and I got some bad news.

The good news is, if you are looking for your next ACOTAR like fix, look no further. This is basically it.

The bad news is that if you were looking for originality, something different, something exciting... well move right along cause These Hollow Vows is basically ACOTAR on steroids.

I found the beginning really compelling. It almost felt like a Cinderella retelling--ACOTAR *sirens* since ACOTAR was a Beauty and the Beast retelling--this girl who is indebted to her aunt ever since her uncle died and left her and her little sister in that damn house. They have to serve their aunt, and their two SPOILED cousins. Every full moon Brie has to pay her aunt what I guess is a contract fee, which gets extended and fees get added unto it since Brie gets paid very little. So Brie has to resort to thieving to survive. Until the time that what she steals isn't enough to save them all, and so her sister gets sold unto the Unseelie fae king. Brie quickly comes up with whatever scraps of a plan to save her sister... not realizing the quest the unseelie king would put her through might just mean the end of her.

Like, all that sounds GREAT. And at the beginning I was all team Brie, her resilience and powers made her out to be a pretty interesting character. She also cared about the girls around her being sold unto the Fae, and wanted to break all the contracts. WHICH NEAT! I'm all for that! But I also realized something... Brie doesn't ask a lot of questions. Or if she does, she quickly drops them and just... goes with the flow. She also becomes pretty forgetful about the less than legit stuff the Seelie court does, conveniently giving the seelie prince a pass every time he does something sketch *eyes roll unto the back of my HEAD*

Of course, the story would have unraveled if even the simplest question was answered, but that was kind of annoying. Specially since the real reason of the book comes to light...

This book is smut bait. I felt like every other scene was just a set up for Brie to get into a compromising position with the seelie prince, or the unseelie prince (cause of course, there is an unseelie prince, of course he has a smirk, of course he is from the dark court who Brie thinks are all evil). The middle section went by so slowly; it was a whole lot of "maybe I could see myself with the seelie prince" or "what is this attraction I feel for the unseelie prince?" which quite frankly felt forced. The unseelie prince and Brie just didn't click for me. It wasn't like Rhy and Feyre where you could feel like this was destined, Brie and Finn felt like the universe wanted to put them together but the pieces didn't quite fit.

There are other characters as well--Finn's band of misfits who are not quite as memorable as Cass, Mor, and Az; the little girl who is a seer; the goblins who nobody really talks to unless they need a favor; the sister who is barely there... If you wanted LGBTQ rep, well the character who stands for Mor is bisexual and she kind of has this tragic love story that was actually something I'd read more of.

All in all, it is a quick read that will get your blood pumping, just not very imaginative. Maybe the second book will deviate more, but I'll be sure to get it my copy from the library no matter how pretty the cover.

If you are a fan of Fae-oriented stories like ACOTAR or Cruel Prince, then this book will be perfect for you. I’d even recommend it if you love the sister storyline in Caravale.
However, I will say that the first two-thirds of this book feels exactly like those books combined. It doesn’t offer up any unique elements. We have courts like ACOTAR, reluctant courtship, mysterious dark-haired fae helping the main female character, and her “true” friends versus the false court. It made the beginning a little hard to find interesting. It felt very predictable.
The ending is where this book finally feels like a book separate from the others it is similar to. It went from being fan fiction to having a deliciously unexpected twist. I can’t wait to learn more about the main character and where the plot is going because of how the main character acted. All other plot twists were highly predictable. It is perfect if you need another Fae-oriented read like the previously mentioned books.

This book was so stinking good! It follows a strong female character who sets off in a Fae kingdom in order to save her sister. There she encounters two Fae princes, and she falls for both (I genuinely didn't know who I liked more the entire book!). This story had a sprinkling of fairytale retellings, plot twists, and an ending that left my jaw on the floor! I highly recommend it!!

This book was a refreshing take on fae and fae deals. The characters were all unique and distinct and stood out from others in the genre. The main character Bree was a bit annoying at parts, but throughout the story, so much was revealed and unraveled that her whiny ness and her almost stupidity is easily attributed to that.

This book was slightly predictable, though I couldn’t tell you if that’s because I read too many fae books, or if because I could see it coming.

I think this was a great start to the series, and will definitely be picking up the sequel. I really loved all of the tropes: the love triangle, the hidden royalty, all of it. It all blended so well that my other issues were minor flaws compared to the story as a whole

These Hollow Vows gave me major Cruel Prince vibes! I really loved the world building and the plot of this book. We follow Brie who has snuck into the land of the fae in hopes of getting her sister back. This plot has hidden identity, secrets and so much more. I'm not always a fan of love triangle but I was surprisingly invested and felt it worked well with the plot! I honestly don't know which character I want the MC to end up with, I love them both! I am impatiently waiting for the next book in this series!

I received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Better to pray to deft fingers, to shadows and camouflage, than to old gods. Better to steal than to starve."

So These Hollow Vows is a delicious mix of Cruel Prince (human among cruel fae), Invisible Life of Addie Larue (deals upon deals), and maybe a sprinkling of ANY young adult book featuring love triangles (Delirium, Hunger Games, The Selection, Matched, etc etc) but even with all its similarities to previous books THV still stands on its own two feet.

This book foreshadows like a boss and even with the wild guesses you'll come up with you still won't know if you're right until it's revealed. I really loved never quite knowing who had the best intentions for Brie.

"I don't believe in fate, Bakkan. All I care about is my sister." "Ah yes, and the king knows that."

Brie is naïve but resilient and she never stops searching for the truth and with every answer she has a choice to forgive or to seek revenge to choose light or dark. I also flip-flopped between her two love interest like a psycho. I couldn't decide who I liked more at any given time. I won't say who I'm rooting for now that I've finished the book either because I like problematic love interests all day every day.

"Then perhaps we should dance while we have the chance."

Read this book and find some new fae to Love/Hate.

This was a good YA Fantasy that I would definitely recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I haven’t read many of the Fae books that are popular so this was newer to me. I really enjoyed and devoured the story. I kept thinking towards the end “oh wow it’s over? That tied up nicely” and then it was like “ha ha nope, you think it’s over?” So, I’m really hoping there’s a sequel coming because I need to know what’s happening next!

3.5/5

First off, I want to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for sending me this book through NetGalley for review!

These Hollow Vows is a YA Fantasy following our main character Brie whose sister is sold to the Unseelie court to pay back debts. To get her back she makes a deal with the king to retrieve and steal back 3 magical relics. However, she gets caught between two courts and two men. Prince Ronan and Finn, the leader of a band of Unseelie misfits. Honestly, I can't really write good summaries about books so if you really want to know what this is about just read the Goodreads description because mine is pretty bad...sorry.

If you liked ACOTAR you might like this one. There are a lot of similar aspects like fae, and magic, a light haired dude, and a dark haired dude (drama ensues). This was a pretty good read although it took me like 60% of the book to actually get into it (a little concerning). I think it had an interesting premise and I liked the political aspects of this book. The romance was okay. I'm not a big fan of love triangles so I might be biased. If you like them you might like this book. I think the last 40% of this book was the strongest and definitely where I was most interested. We finally got to see more behind these characters and started to understand some of their motives. I think figuring out the manipulation and betrayal was my favorite part. And with that ending I'm really excited to read the sequel.

Now, this book could have be REALLY good but it wasn't. I liked Brie well enough as a main character but she wasn't anything special and fell pretty flat to me. She didn't have much substance in my opinion (especially in the beginning) but I guess she got better eventually. I was frustrated for the majority of this book if I'm being honest. It felt like there wasn't much happening and the world building was pretty weak. And you would think with weak world building you might have strong characters? Nope. They were all pretty one dimensional to me. I also couldn't see how Brie could even consider anything past a crush for the one guy. She also ignored so many red flags...like girl open your eyes. It was also rather predictable (I think there was only one "twist" I didn't really predict).

Overall, I was a little disappointed in this book because I had pretty high hopes but I did still enjoy this book eventually. I also think there is a lot of potential in the future. I can't wait to see where we pick up and how Brie grows into her powers.