Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

21 reviews

niatella's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The cover of this book motivated me to start reading it, but because I went in with such a high anticipation and expectation, I felt slightly let down when it wasn't the case.

Regardless, the book does get exciting towards the end and it is then that you start to get addicted to the story.

It is moderately-paced and some of the plots twists are pretty predictable.

THOUGH I GOTTA SAY, the betrayals tho. Can't trust nobody fr.

Gave it an overall 4/5 bc the plot is still interesting and not so slowly-paced that I become totally bored of it so it's fine. Writing style is good too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Confinement and Abandonment

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Personally I didn't enjoy this book. The premise was promising but the execution fell flat. The whole first half felt very much like ACOTAR fanfiction. 

And the ending was not satisfying for me. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen by chapter 10 and almost everything else by chapter 19. 

This felt like the miscommunication trope to the extreme which has never been a favorite. There were so many places where honesty could have made a better story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Deportation

Minor: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

kirstenf's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexism, Terminal illness, and Abandonment

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

These Hollow Vows 🗡 

“I can't even tell someone to have a good day without sounding like I secretly wish they'd die” - Lexi Ryan ☠️ 

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 Stars 

This was a tricky one to rate. It took me over a month to finish, but I’m not sure how much of it was the book or me/me having covid. I wouldn’t say this book is anything new - but if you’re into ACOTAR, it’s worth picking up. 👍🏻 

Abriella was your classic ‘not like other girls’, red headed thief of a woman. She did get a bit of development throughout the book which is always good. Which leads us to Seb and Finn. You guessed it, one long term friend with sunshine hair and one dark, mysterious fellow. Both essential to the story progression, but they were very predictable. I wanted more depth, I think they could’ve been used WAY more to drive the story. 📖 

The first half of this book felt easy enough to read with the short chapters but it didn’t grasp me, I didn’t feel the urge to pick it up. The second half however, I read in a day. I LOVED where the story went, there were a couple of things I didn’t expect and the magic finally made sense. ✨ 

The ending made me really want to read the next book, I just wish we’d had a bit of that sparkle earlier on. 💕

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

louisa_pennyfeather2021's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Moral of the story, it's spelled "Man"ipulation for a reason. Brie deserves an Anti-hero arc. I support women's rights, but more importantly I support women's wrongs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. Just wow. Amazing characters and amazing storyline. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and War

rinjamin's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Enjoyed reading this, sort of slow in the beginning but picks up half way through. Love the characters, Brie’s situation is tough with no clear right answer so I was able to sympathize with her and understanding her pain, Sebastian and Finn are both heart throbs and I was going back and forth between the two until the very end. Great world building, if not a bit confusing (had to re read a lot to grasp some lore but it clicks) and am excited to read more in this series. Read it too soon, gotta wait for book 2 now! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Abandonment

politewriter's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

World building and immersion are amazingly well done. There’s lots of factions, characters, and lands. But despite this, I never felt confused or overloaded with information. But the Female Lead is so irritating. She’s not only naive, but denser than lead. She never asks the right questions, so much so that any foreshadowing becomes blatant and frustrating. It’s one thing to have an author guide the readers to future plot twists, and another to spoon feed them it with their nose pinched shut. I hope the supporting characters are treated better in the next book, and that the FL wises up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Trafficking, and War

kenziewol's review

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very much ACOTAR vibes but not necessarily in a bad way. The story was interesting and kept my attention, especially the second half of the book. I did think the first bit was a little on the slower side but once it picks up it’s hard to want to put it down. There are quite a few twists that I didn’t see coming, especially the ending, that had me zooming through this book and are the main reason I enjoyed it so much. I also unexpectedly didn’t mind the love triangle vibes as much as I thought I would.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment

soundlysmitten's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I didn’t catch big feelings for this book. It’s been compared to both The Cruel Prince and ACOTAR, and while I can see some similarities in the story line, this one fell a bit flat for me. Not to say it’ll put you to sleep—I actually found it relatively entertaining, but I felt like I could easily put it down after two or three chapters at a time.

For one thing, the world building isn’t very impressive. But I suppose readers are given as much as possible, considering the main character is new to the world herself, confined to few places, and kept in the dark about much. The real let down for me was that I struggled to connect with Brie and I wasn’t into any of her love interests either. I found one of them sappy (but sus) and the other arrogantly sus. As for the plot, I saw the big revelation coming early on and I’m usually wrong about those things... but I did like the way the book ends because it sets the stage for a more compelling installment to follow.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend These Hollow Vows, but if you‘re into YA fantasy and love triangles, it might be worth the read. Your experience could be the opposite of mine!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Slavery, Trafficking, Abandonment, and Alcohol