katvou's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: War, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol and Fire/Fire injury
haley49's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
Compared to the last book this one was super slow. I took week’s getting through that first third of it. It was a lot of build up; however, when it got going it was amazing. The world building, the character relationships, the plot was all so good and worked as an excellent sequel. The twists were even better than the last book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, War, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Minor: Slavery, Injury/injury detail, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, and Genocide
louisa_pennyfeather2021's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I only read this book because Book 1's ending had me thinking there would be an epic female lead with an antivillain arc. I couldn't have been more wrong. To me, this felt like a Wattpad Y/N crossover fanfic of Mortal Instruments, ACOTAR, and The Vampire Diaries. This book almost mad me dislike reading again. I didn't enjoy the undertones perpetuated through the elements of goblins and slave camps. I couldn't figure out how Brie is supposed to be, but I'm hoping she was 18 because if she wasn't, certain scenes of this book shouldn't exist.
I hated both love interests, but the main character made me unreasonably angry. The entire time, it felt like watching The Vampire Diaries. Both Brie and Elena Gilbert had the constant narrative of "I don't want this power, but I want these two brothers and I don't want to choose." Maybe I just prefer sound decisions, but her constant back and forth and emotional manipulation of both love interests was infuriating.
The book was definitely romance heavy because certain aspects of violence and war weren't as detailed as the other Fantasy books I've read since first reading These Hollow Vows.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book. Both books made me so angry. I had high hopes for it as this duology was my first time reading Fantasy ever. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
I hated both love interests, but the main character made me unreasonably angry. The entire time, it felt like watching The Vampire Diaries. Both Brie and Elena Gilbert had the constant narrative of "I don't want this power, but I want these two brothers and I don't want to choose." Maybe I just prefer sound decisions, but her constant back and forth and emotional manipulation of both love interests was infuriating.
The book was definitely romance heavy because certain aspects of violence and war weren't as detailed as the other Fantasy books I've read since first reading These Hollow Vows.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book. Both books made me so angry. I had high hopes for it as this duology was my first time reading Fantasy ever. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Blood
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Classism, Death of parent, and Deportation
clairew97's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, War, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
jmacminn's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
First and foremost thank you to Clarion Books and Netgalley for providing me with the arc in exchange for my honest review.
These Twisted Bonds is the sequel to These Hollow Vows, the debut fantasty novel by Lexi Ryan and one of my favorite books of last year.
As Abriella comes to terms with her transition into Fae, her magic, and the bond, she is also dealing with the conflicts between the Seelie and Unseelie courts and her role in the war to come. We lose absolutely no time between THV and TTB as we join Abriella post bond with Bash, she struggles to understand the full implications of what that bond means. Very quickly in the book we meet one of my new favorite characters, Misha, who is a breath of fresh air between all the longing and suffering in the main love triangle (He actually reminds me a lot of Ash from the Shadowlands books by Stacey Marie Brown). Misha provides both a sense of humor as well as some just plain fun flirtation, as opposed to all of the heavy implications and emotions tied to Finn and Bash.
Now I loved both of these books, but there were definitely some points where I felt like Brie was being purposefully oblivious, which took me out of the story a bit. It makes sense with everything she's been through that she is hesitant to trust people, but for me it was definitely frustrating watching her try to push away her feelings and everyone else's to stick with the "they're just using me" narrative. I also found that the ending of the book was a bit rushed as there were still a lot of loose ends when I was 90% done the book. I had a moment where I thought maybe this had been turned into a trilogy and I had missed the memo.
Overall I loved these books, the love interests were fantastic foils of each other, light and dark, old and young, devotion and possession. The obstacles they faced kept the pace moving quickly while allowing the characters to develop. Just a delightful read and a fantastic final installment of this duology (although I certainly wouldn't mind visiting this world again if the author decides to come back to it!)
These Twisted Bonds is the sequel to These Hollow Vows, the debut fantasty novel by Lexi Ryan and one of my favorite books of last year.
As Abriella comes to terms with her transition into Fae, her magic, and the bond, she is also dealing with the conflicts between the Seelie and Unseelie courts and her role in the war to come. We lose absolutely no time between THV and TTB as we join Abriella post bond with Bash, she struggles to understand the full implications of what that bond means. Very quickly in the book we meet one of my new favorite characters, Misha, who is a breath of fresh air between all the longing and suffering in the main love triangle (He actually reminds me a lot of Ash from the Shadowlands books by Stacey Marie Brown). Misha provides both a sense of humor as well as some just plain fun flirtation, as opposed to all of the heavy implications and emotions tied to Finn and Bash.
Now I loved both of these books, but there were definitely some points where I felt like Brie was being purposefully oblivious, which took me out of the story a bit. It makes sense with everything she's been through that she is hesitant to trust people, but for me it was definitely frustrating watching her try to push away her feelings and everyone else's to stick with the "they're just using me" narrative. I also found that the ending of the book was a bit rushed as there were still a lot of loose ends when I was 90% done the book. I had a moment where I thought maybe this had been turned into a trilogy and I had missed the memo.
Overall I loved these books, the love interests were fantastic foils of each other, light and dark, old and young, devotion and possession. The obstacles they faced kept the pace moving quickly while allowing the characters to develop. Just a delightful read and a fantastic final installment of this duology (although I certainly wouldn't mind visiting this world again if the author decides to come back to it!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Sexual content
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