Reviews with content warning for Death - These Hollow Vows

Reviews tagging 'Death'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

35 reviews

katvou's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

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haley49's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This was the kind of book with all the twists and turns I wanted with enough setup to guess twists but still find them believable and satisfying. The romance(s) were well-done in that I went back and forth on who I was rooting for. The unreliable/fish out of water narrator helped build tension and suspense. Only real complaint was that some of the characters could have felt more 3-dimensional; there were some moments where some characters felt more like empty tropes without their own flair. Otherwise, an amazing, unputdownable read

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louisa_pennyfeather2021's review

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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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laura_rheads_too_much's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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bookishflower's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

This is a shameless a court of thorns and roses fan fiction, don’t believe me? You have the blond, spring prince and the dark, tattooed, dream wandering, shadow prince both fighting over the chosen one human girl who must free the lands from a curse. And surprise, surprise,

Sebastian/Tamlin is manipulative and evil.

Whatever team you’re on, I’m team single Brie! Give her a villain arc, let her

steal back her crown and get her revenge on everyone who manipulated her. Subvert the genre.

. The representation isn’t great, and the description of the goblins errs on problematic (while this is historic and not a new invention by Ryan, not researching the history of antisemitism in depictions of goblins-especially after the discussions around j.k. Row*ing-feels sloppy). (However, I should add I am not a Jewish reviewer and you should always listen to own voice reviewers. If I am wrong please correct me). That being acknowledged, this is a fun guilty pleasure book, perfect for fans of acotar and those looking to get out of a reading slump.

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animetee's review

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tense medium-paced

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

1.0

ACOTAR SPOILERS AHEAD

It felt like I reread a badly written fanfiction of ACOTAR with minor changes and a crossover of The Selection happening behind the curtains.

If this went through plagiarism, it would come out as 95% similarity with ACOTAR. It's not "Cruel Prince meets ACOTAR" it's a rip off of ACOTAR and I don't understand how this book has such a high rating.

There's nothing that would make me believe it's Cruel Prince because Jude wasn't dumb and annoying, she was smart, cunning and clever. Nothing remotely close to Cruel Prince. It was ACOTAR through and through.

Author tried very hard to make it ACOTAR and probably realised it herself so she tried to make differences except- she delivered a terribly written Rhys sorry, my bad I mean Fin. Like you want us to like him but bro, all I kept seeing was a jerk.

Remember Mor from ACOTAR? Well there's an equivalent to her in this book- Pretha. Do you remember Cassian and Azriel? They are here too. Meet Tynan and Jalek.

In this book we meet our protagonist - Brie (I don't remember her full name so let's skip that), she's this girl who is super hardworking, and she iSnT LiKe OtHeR gIrLs because she needs to wear pants to move okay. She can't do anything in anything remotely girly like because it totally gets in the way. Riggghhhhhtttt. Also, she believes there's nothing amazing about her okay but all the guys are heart eyes for her but oh no she is just average EXCEPT she has fire red hair. And did I forget to mention, she is NOT like other girls. She dOeSnT gIvE a Sh*T about how she looks ok. Ruffled hair or not, she will not run her fingers through it because she doesn't care because - you guessed it! ShE iSnT lIkE oThEr GiRls. You also need to know that she is annoying, not smart, stupid asf, doesn't connect the dots, a hypocrite, dense, IRRITATING, throws pity parties.

She is one girl I would never invite to a party because if she gets drunk she would be the type to sit on the pavement outside and tell people how nobody loves her and throws a freaking pity party for no reason. "Oh look at me, what's missing in me that no other boy looks at me and wants to bang me, boohoo. I caught two men kissing other women. Why can't they just kiss me instead." This woman is just fishing for some compliments. God just go and get therapy already, you're pissing me off.

Which brings me to our 2 love interests - Rhys and Tamlin, I mean Sebastian and Fin. Sebastian was very much like Tamlin from ACOTAR Book 1 and Fin was the worst version of Rhys. They were very bland characters and they both were dicks. Fin was a cardboard cut out used just to create another ✨love interest✨ in this book. He was barely mentioned and whenever he was he was either 1. Rude for no reason or 2. Looking like he wanted our Brie but couldn't because he knows her heart belongs to Bash. Urgh. I rooted for NO ONE. Both boys deserved death and Brie deserved shit because she didn't care about her sister much. Like woman, you're in their court TO SAVE SOMEONE HELLO? Ring any bells?

Also, if someone who was Fae, who knew what you were and stayed close to you for 2 years and didn't help you get out of a hell hole and later claimed they loved you but had every tool in their possession to save you from that kind of life but didn't ISNT YOUR FRIEND LET ALONE SOMEONE TO MARRY. Girl HE IS A 🚩 he is a walking, talking, breathing, living 🚩. The fact that he knew you were the crown and manipulated you for 2 years to love him is a 🚩 and when he was so insistent that she not bond with Fin, he was SO PUSHY at one point. Like girl, don't you have brains? Didn't you question why is he SO PUSHY? Because when I read it, I was like geddit Brie, I know your clockworks must be turning BECAUSE MINE IS!!!!! Reading as she made her choices made me want to cut my hair and give it to a goblin so they could personally go to her and slap the shit out of her. I know that's not how the hair trade system works in this world but whatever, I still want to slap her.

Another thing which is similar to ACOTAR, replace Goblin with the Suriel in this book. Suriel needs to be captured to get answers and the Goblin wants a locke of your hair. Turnitin is RED at this point. It's legit yelling PLAGIARIZED. I don't know how the editors and publishing house didn't catch on it.

Every other character in this book has an equivalent to 5 minutes screentime in a movie 😂 they're that iMpOrTaNt. They're all cardboard cuts out just there to fill in the gaps and help the story further. They also are there to be replicas of characters from ACOTAR. Rolls eyes.

A lot of things are not explained in this book, how come Sebastian had a tracking amulet but never found her before, idk if I had to have someone a prisoner in my mansion because they were the key to my throne, I WOULD BE STARING AT THE TRACKING APP (or whatever equivalent he was using) and I would be noting every time she magically disappears somewhere. Everyone is using magic, you are bound to be fooled so I'm sure he would've been on his tippy toes 24/7 no? Idk, doesn't make sense.

How can she ignore the fact that Sebastian was probably kissing people left right centre while he was away. Like this man legit said "I have a meeting" and went to canoodle with some other girl in another room. Girl bye, you gotta draw the line somewhere. Your motive was to save your sister but him? Like I get it, he has to choose a bride but this man has been wanting you to be his wife. Idk, it was downplayed so hard and it seemed like she forgave him so easily. HE LIED TO YOU AND WENT TO KISS SOMEONE ELSE AND TO PROBABLY DO MORE. Like ok far reach but I understand him kissing the other chicks cause yea we have the Bachelor going on BUT HE LIED SAYING THERE WAS A MEETING. If he loved you and you were wanting to kiss him and do more and he leaves you to do that with some other girl, I don't call that love. I don't even know what that's called 😂

How can you have THE BACHELOR happening and NOT DESCRIBE A SINGLE THING. I mean, there must have been some shit going down where the women tried to bring her down so they could have a chance. Like let's face it, if 12 girls are given a chance to become PRINCESS and later A QUEEN, you really think that they wouldn't back down just cause the Prince has a favourite? Get outta here. They probably would've watched her like a hawk to track down the shit she was doing so they could report on her and get her thrown out. I don't buy it for a second. You can't have things happen in your book and not describe stuff. It's hopeless.

This book was overall, a great big plagiarised disappointed. Feel free to take a shot whenever you read 'like' in my review 😂

If you want to read a better version of this book, I would say, go read ACOTAR. First book is ok ok but second book is good. Third book I had to DNF, so the choice is yours but please don't bother with this one.

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kinsportch's review

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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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juliette_95's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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abigailbooksaddiction's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Spoiler Alerts
I get the hype now. I truly get the hype about These Hollow Vows. It totally blew my expectations away, and now, I want the second book in the series. Like how can I recover from the cliffhanger? What the heck!
I won't give any more details because I truly do not want to spoil anything. But I have to say that I am very disappointed with the two male characters. I need to get better. I don't like how they are playing with the main character. And they are going to wonder why she goes off, but if she does in the second book. We don't know yet, but I am kinda expecting it. I actually need it. I want the full darkness from her.

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politewriter's review against another edition

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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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