Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

16 reviews

smuttymcbookface's review

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adventurous dark slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There's so much to unpack in this!

First of all, I the fantasy and plot are easy to understand and get into, though I found some information was a little too glossed over or given at convenient times.

The characters were interesting, and flawed, but a little one-dimensional. Sometimes I wondered why the FMC was allowed to get away with things, and why everyone was willing to uproot their principles for her.

However, it was easy to read, and the plot kept me enthralled.

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toastedoats42's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.0

An interesting story and I'm excited to read the sequel. The author uses male and female instead of man and woman in most instances which, despite understanding the reasoning behind it given the story, still gives me an ick. 

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urmm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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gigi99's review

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

3.0


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viselik's review against another edition

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

2.0

At first, I just thought this book was boring and predictable but then it just started to get worse and worse. The book only gets good in the last 30-ish %, but I still had numerous issues with this book.

Please look up content warnings for this book, it deals with some pretty dark topics and the version I had did not have any content warnings in it.

1) There is no content warning and this NEEDED to have one.
  •  There is a fucking
    concentration camp
    in it and there was no warning about it before we find out about it. We find out about it in Chapter 15.
  • Emotional manipulation is a super big thing in this book, there is no warning about that.
    •  
      Like the entire character of Ronan/Sebastian should have had a content warning
       

2) 
The whole plot twist about Sebastian actually being the prince is just so bloody predictable if you have read romances before. He's written like a love interest for crying out loud.
 
  •  
    Once we learned that Prince Ronan was missing I instantly knew that Sebastian was Ronan. It was too obvious to me after we had it stated that Sebastian was going away the night after the first day of the ball.
     

3) The naming system of this world. Characters and the land.
  • We had the Seelie lands, the Unseelie lands and the Wild Fae lands... This just felt too basic for me.
  • Then there are the characters. 
  • Let's start with the main character's nickname, Brie. That is a cheese, a rather smelly cheese. I may or may not have just started calling her cheese girl.
  • The two love interests! We have Ronan/Sebastian and... Finnian. I was left slightly disappointed by these.
    • Finnian's uncle is called Mordred or something like that and his father was called Oberon. I expected more considering the name of the people around them.

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theespressoedition's review

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

3.0


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cady_sass's review

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adventurous challenging 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay hear me out: I know, objectively, this is not very good. The writing is very lackluster and repetitive and the book as a whole lacked editing. BUT if you have a fairy world fantasy itch that can’t seem to get scratched, this will do it. I really enjoyed this, despite the predicability and eye-roll worthy protagonist. It’s fun! So sue me. You get exactly what you expect, in my humble opinion. 
Side note: there are a lot ( a LOT ) of reviews calling this an ACOTAR rip off and, while there are some minor similarities, I don’t feel that way at all. Sorry not sorry. 

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kristakp's review

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

3.5

The book was enjoyable but also annoying. An easy read and derivative from other similar books in this genre, but sometimes that hits the spot. I do hate the author's persistence of referring to men and women as "male" and "female," it's pretty terfy.

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siglerbooknook's review against another edition

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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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clairew97's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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


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