I’m not sure why I only now got around to reading These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan. It has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while, but somehow, it never got picked. I’m so glad I finally read it, though!
Attention: I will be reviewing both books of the series in this post (gradually), but everything apart from the first book will be hidden so that you will not see any spoilers for the rest of the series (unless you want to, of course).
These Hollow Vows
When Brie’s younger sister is sold to the king of the Unseelie court, she is desperate to do whatever is needed to get her back. Even if that means going to Faerie as a potential bride for the Seelie king, or making a dangerous deal with the Unseelie King. Tasked to search three magical items stolen by the Seelie court, Brie has to make a series of difficult decisions that will test her loyalty to her sister – and to the boy she’s loved for ages.
Faerie courts, bring them on!
The start of this novel gave me distinct Cinderella vibes: evil stepsisters, a girl being forced to do manual labour by a relative, a ball, magical gown, and the clock announcing midnight. After the ball, however, these parallels seem to have disappeared (or I don’t know the fairy tale well enough to spot them, that could also be the case).
I really like the duality of the Fae Courts (as I always do), and I was especially fascinated by the Unseelie Court (of course ;)). I also appreciated the way in which the Seelie Court was presented though. They might be “less evil” than the Unseelie Court is supposed to be, but they are still shown as dangerous tricksters, as befits a Faerie Court. I love authors who are well-versed in Faerie Mythology!
Make no bargains or ties with the silver eyes
This book uses several of my favourite tropes, including enemies-to-lovers and found-family. Furthermore, the romance is a love triangle in which the other leg has a friends-to-lovers trope. I admit I’m not usually the biggest friends-to-lovers fan, but it is so very hard not to root for Sebastian. Nevertheless, enemies-to-lovers is more my vibe, so I’m still hoping for a romance with Finn in book 2. I have to say though, that the “enemy” part remains very light in this book. This part of the love triangle is not nearly as dangerous as I would like it to be. I was (pleasantly) surprised that the spicy scene wasn’t fade-to-black. Although it wasn’t anything explicit, it was way spicier than I had expected for a Young Adult book.
A well-deserved four gemstones out of five:
Recap book 1
In the following section, you’ll find a recap that you can use to prepare for the next book. Of course, this is by definition full of spoilers, so it is hidden behind a spoiler tag. Enter at your own risk!
Want a recap before starting the next part? (click here, contains spoilers)
World: The story starts out in the human lands, called Elora, but most of it happens in Faerie. There, you have the Wild Fae lands, the Unseelie realm and the Seelie realm. The Seelie Court is also called the Court of the Sun or the Golden Court. The Unseelie Court is also called the Court of the Moon or the Shadow Court. Main characters: Abriella/Brie: 17-year-old human girl. She’s frequently called “Fire Girl”. Jasalyn/Jas: 14-year-old human girl and Brie’s sister. Sebastian/Ronan/Bash: Prince of the Seelie Court, son of Queen Arya Finnian/Finn: Prince of the Unseelie Court, son of King Oberon Misha & Amira : King and Queen of the Wild Fae. Oberon : Former king of the Unseelie. His throne was stolen by his brother, Mordeus. Mordeus : King of the Unseelie, brother of King Oberon. Arya: Queen of the Seelie Kane: Unseelie friend of Finn Pretha: Wild Fae friend of Finn. She was together with Finn’s late brother and has a daughter called Lark who has visions. King Misha is her brother, while Queen Amira is the love of her life. Jalek: Seelie friend of Finn Tynan: Wild Fae friend of Finn Bakken: Goblin who helps Brie in exchange for some of her hair Riaan: Best friend of Sebastian Plot: Brie and Jas are in ever-increasing debts, ever since their mother ran off to Faerie with her Fae lover, and they were left with their evil aunt. Brie has taken to stealing and seems to have a particular skill to blend into the shadows. Nevertheless, she’s unable to pay back her debts quickly enough, and her aunt decides to sell of Jas as a slave to the Unseelie King. Right around this time, it’s announced that human girls will be invited to the Seelie Court, to find a bride for Prince Ronan. Brie takes this chance to enter Faerie, but soon finds herself in front of the Unseelie King, who makes a deal with her: she gets her sister back, if she can find three Unseelie objects that were stolen by the Seelie Court. Brie agrees, even though she knows that this will mean betraying Prince Ronan, who turns out to be the boy she loves (who she thought to be a human). She makes him believe that she’s considering becoming his bride. Then, Brie is kidnapped by Prince Finnian, the son of the former Unseelie King who’s trying to win back his throne. It’s then revealed that Brie’s skill to blend into the shadows is actually a magical power. Finn and his group of friends start to train her to use her powers. Brie learns that the Seelie Queen has prisons (“camps”) for Unseelie Fae captured on Seelie land. The adults are forced to work, while children are separated from their parents and taught that they are “inferior” to Seelie Fae. Finn and his friends are rescuing children and sending them to the Wild Fae Lands. In the Seelie Court, Brie is selected as one of the potential candidates to marry the prince. She decide to use her bond with Sebastian to ask him the first of the three items she has to retrieve: a mirror that shows you what you desire. He complies, and she returns a fake to him instead (which he knows, she’ll later learn). The second item that Brie has to return to the Unseelie Court is a book. She figures out that it’s kept in a library in one of the other palaces of the Seelie Court, so she gets Sebastian to take her there (pretending that she wants some alone time with him). This leads to a difficult decision for Brie though, as removing the book will kill Sebastian’s mother, but she steals it anyway. Sebastian discovers that Brie has been working with Finn. He tells her to find Finn’s catacomb. Brie learns that Queen Arya has cursed the Unseelie because King Oberon fell in love with a human woman instead of with her. Because of the curse, all Unseelie fae age and heal like mortals (which explains why they are using their powers less). Their lives are extended by killing humans (“tributes”, Finn’s are kept in a catacomb). The Seelie Court paid a price for the curse though, as Seelie Fae cannot harm Unseelie Fae anymore. Furthermore, a Seelie Fae needs to be sacrificed each year to keep the curse active. None of the Fae can speak about the curse. In order to regain power over the Unseelie Throne, Finn needs to find Oberon’s crown. The third item that Brie has to steal is Oberon’s crown. Both princess know that Brie has it (even though she doesn’t know it herself). It turns out that Oberon was the one who saved Jas and Brie after a house fire that nearly killed them as kids. He was able to heal Jas’s wounds, but Brie’s were too severe, so he exchanged his life for hers by passing his power (= the crown) to her. The crown cannot be stolen, however, only given willingly (via bonding). Bonding with an Unseelie would kill a human, however. Sebastian pleads with Brie to bond with him instead. Brie, realising that the bargain said that she had to return the three items “to the court” and not “to the king”, sits down on the Unseelie throne (wearing the invisible crown). Brie then proceeds to kill the Unseelie King, after which she visits Finn’s catacombs and realises that he has been killing humans. She also learns that her mother disappeared because she sold herself in order to hide her daughters for 7 years (as she knew the Fae would come after the crown). Jas is returned safely to the human world, and Brie returns to Sebastian, agreeing to bond with him, as this would protect her from those who would want the crown. The bond kills Brie, however, so Sebastian gives her a potion that will turn her into a Fae and save her life. Sebastian becomes the King of the Unseelie (as he had not revealed that he was both Seelie and Unseelie, being the son of King Oberon and Queen Arya and thus Finn’s half-brother). Sebastian now has the crown, which lifted the curse, but Brie keeps her power. She runs before the coronation.Book 2: These Twisted Bonds
Summary & Evaluation. (click here, contains spoilers)
I feel I won’t be able to word just how much I loved this book from start to finish. It’s so so good. First of all, I love Misha. While he was briefly introduced in book one as King of the Wild Fae, we only get to know him well in book two and he is simply amazing. He’s funny, flirty, charming. I want an entire spin-off about him! He has a talent for mind-reading and him answering Brie’s unasked questions all the time just cracked me up. I was fairly surprised when I realised he would play a large part in this story. Somehow, I had never considered a third royal to make his entrance in this story (although, as he pointed out, he’s not a prince, thank you very much, he’s a king). I was also fascinated by the way he communicates with his familiars, and even more so with how they report speech (as they do not understand Fae/Human languages, the animals report the “sounds” as they hear it, so the listener has to listen very carefully to turn the speech sounds into words). As a linguist, I thought that was very interesting. This also allowed the reader (and Brie) to be privy to conversations where Brie wasn’t present, without having to introduce a new POV or having to narrate everything. Very clever indeed! Secondly: Finn. I love him so, so much. He’s absolutely one of my new favourite book-boyfriends. I have to admit, he’s clearly inspired by Rhysand (as the story is clearly inspired by ACOTAR). But that didn’t bother me at all. I also loved getting to know more about his traumatic past and to understand his connections with his found family more. And the spice scenes were HOT. Still cannot get over the fact that she writes such spicy scenes in a YA novel. Bold! (and very much welcome). But it was the romance, not the spice itself, that took my breath away. I literally wrote “SWOOOOOON” in my reading journal. If only this had been a why-choose novel. That would have made it even more interesting. I am happy about the ending though, although I hope there’ll be a happy ending for the one not ending up with Brie as well. His heartbreak throughout the book really touched me, and almost made me cry at one point (which is rare). While I like Brie quite a lot as a FMC (and especially her “dark” side), and I totally understand her anger at being betrayed by both princes in book 2, I feel she forgot her own betrayal of Sebastian rather easily, as she was using him the entire time in book 1). Without a doubt: 5 gemstones out of 5!
Notes on the These Hollow Vows Duology
Age Category: Young Adult
Representation: LGBTQ+ supporting characters, mental health
Do you want to discover more?
If my review inspired you to pick up the first book, don’t hesitate to check it out at Goodreads or at the below online stores:
Amazon.nl: Hardcover Edition
Furthermore, these books are popular enough to have their own fandom wiki. Definitely worth checking out!
Special editions
Fairyloot featured These Hollow Vows in their Young Adult Fantasy subscription of August 2021. Their edition has an exclusive cover, a reversible dustjacket, foiling on the hard cover, stencilled edges, and is signed by the author. The box also included an author letter. In 2022, they also published These Twisted Bonds, with the same customisations (but it did not come with a letter from the author). I have to say I’m not that impressed with these editions. The sprayed edges are very basic, there’s no character art, and there’s something off with the margins.
Similar to this
Fans of this duology are in luck: the author has published a second duology set of in the same world. This series starts of with Beneath These Cursed Stars and follows Brie’s sister, Jasalyn. I personally cannot wait to read and review this series as well!
If you loved These Hollow Vows as much as I did, you might want to check out the following books that feature our beloved Faerie courts. First of all, I assume you have already read THE faerie series of our time? I’m talking about the Folk of the Air Series by the amazing Holly Black of course. If you haven’t yet, or if you simply want to know what I thought, check out my spoiler-free series review here. Secondly, and remaining on the same level of fame, there’s the A Court of Thorns of Roses Series by Sarah J. Maas, which I also assume you’ve read (if not: my review can be found here).
Thirdly, if you want something a bit less known, I would definitely recommend Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves. It tells the tale of a human man desperately trying to remain in the Fairy world. My review can be found here.
Fourthly, have you already read the Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr? If not, you definitely should. This is early 2000s supernatural romance at its best. The interconnected books follow several humans as they get intertwined with the different fae courts. Simply delicious! My review of the first few books will follow soon!
Next, certain themes in this duology also reminded me of other books. The girls being trained to marry a noble, for example, reminded me of The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead, in which poor girls get elected to go to some sort of finishing school to marry up in the world (no Fae though). The theme of slavery reminded me of one of my favourite series of all time: The Plated Prisoner by Raven Kennedy. This Fae Romantasy, loosely based on the tale of Midas, has stolen my heart as of the very start. My spoiler-free series review can be found here.