Reviews tagging 'Blood'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

27 reviews

cady_sass's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Violence, War, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Classism, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

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

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

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexism, and Abandonment

clairew97's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Violence, War, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

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

katvou's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: War

haley49's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Abandonment

Moderate: War, Sexual content, Infidelity, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Death

Minor: Gore, Slavery, Child abuse, and Sexism

Manipulation,

honeyvee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Drug use

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

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

bookishflower's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Slavery, Homophobia, and Trafficking

p_gonza2's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: War, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Kidnapping