Monster romances are not typically my vibe but Ruby Dixon made this a really fun and enjoyable read. The FMC is hilarious, although I wish there were more sunshine/grumpy moments between them. I did think some parts moved way too fast and others too slow, but overall an undaunting romance read that was pretty steamy and unique.

Knot-hing is better than a lovely romance about a grey-winged monster. It is a forced proximity trope of two royals from enemy civilizations. While it was decent, there were times where you don’t really care what is happening in the story until you’re halfway through it. I still think it is a good read.

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

Locked away in a magic tower at the vengeful behest of a nameless goddess, Princess Candra hates isolated her life. She always envisioned herself spending the rest of her days flirting and flitting around her sister's court as the chronically ill and infinitely capricious sister to the queen. But when she is called to serve her kingdom and sacrifice herself to spend 7 lonely years locked in the tower with no one but the prince to their rival kingdom, her entire life changes in an instant. The tower is a far departure from her luxurious life. It has no food other what she is early gifted by her kingdom, no windows, no light, nor warm water. Despite technically having a companion in the tower, she and the prince remain at odds in their shared purgatory while the world beyond the tower is at war. She wonders what kingdom will be like after the seven years of isolation are through and if here will be anything left of the things and people she loved at all.

This book includes:
- a dark and moody tower filled with old books
- a mysterious and brooding rival
- meddlesome gods
- secrets and distrust
- vengeful royals, each with their own twisted agenda
- a scourge upon the land and a plague amongst its people
- royal heirs and precious bloodlines

Having been a fan of Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarian series, I was eager to read "Bound to the Shadow Prince" and dip into her version of romantasy. I was not disappointed. This book is a real page turner, full of twists, familial love, romantic love, peace, war, and even some betrayal and heartbreak. Candra is a brat, but I found her to be endlessly entertaining and even a bit relatable in her petulance (oops). The idea of two people being forced to sacrifice 7 years of their lives to live alone in a dark tower is so interesting and I loved getting to see it through the perspective of an unwilling participant. Nemeth's elusiveness also made him to be very interesting character.

I recommend this book to fans of the Awakened Fates series and lovers of Ice Planet Barbarians looking for a bit more of a fantasy twist. This book is a great addition for any TBR in need of a bit of romantasy. I am excited to see if this book will turn into a series of linked stand alones, i feel like there is still so much of this world to explore.

I received this ebook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Ruby Dixon, and Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group for the opportunity to review this book. This review has been posted to GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

Oh my God! Not what I was expecting at all. And the last 15% of the book i got the best whiplash of my life!
Candra is a princess who is born with a blood illness, if she goes without her medicine she dies but thankfully she has servants and a nurse to care for her. That is until one of her sisters dies as she is preparing to go to the tower, where she was meant to spend the next 7 years to appease the goddess. candra now has to take her place, 7 years stuck in the tower with the enemy, a Fellian named Nemeth. Quickly things dont go as planned. And Candra and Nemeth make a leap of faith for how they will learn to survive together.

SO SO good. About 70% through I was starting to question what was happening and as soon as it slowed down it spead right back up and I was not ready for what happened. I love guessing how books will end, and I can say that I was very much shocked by a lot of the ending. The characters are so well written and each is diverse. There are character archs and the story progresses at a great speed. I honestly wish that it were longer or it could have been 2 books, but Im glad I got to see such a great happy ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for this ARC!

Oh. My. God. Where do I begin?? This book had me in a chokehold and I loved every second of it. I signed up for what I thought was straight up monster smut (if you know Ruby's books, then you know) and instead I got an amazing romance filled with plot twists I never saw coming. I devoured this book and need more.

Our FMC, Candra, is a stubborn spoiled princess who gets locked in a tower with our monster prince, Nemeth. I am a sucker for the enemies to lover's trope and this did not disappoint. The relationship growth mixed with that SPICE, nothing but perfection. The sheer determination of our two characters to survive against all odds had me gripping the edge of my seat. I yelled, I cried, I laughed, and I might have needed a few cold showers.
I've already told everyone I know that this book is a must read and I will not stop until they've read it in July.

Ruby has truly done it again and never seizes to amaze me.

This was a book of two halves for me. I found the first half to be too slow and I struggled to get through it. It felt like certain points and conversations were repeated, sometimes within only a couple of pages of each other.

I thought the second half was really fun. The plot moved much quicker and this was where a lot of character development came through. And where it felt like the first half dragged on, the 2nd half and especially ending felt incredibly rushed. Would have loved for the politics, infighting and scheming to be more fleshed out.
I enjoyed having flawed main characters. And was so refreshing to have a FMC that was not a sassy assassin and an MMC that was broody with no character. Thought the spicy scenes were fun.

Overall, I think this book would really benefit with some changes to the pacing issues; but is an enjoyable spicy romantasy!

Princess Chandra is locked into a tower as a spoilt, soft and curvy femme with a backbone of steel. Warrior Prince Nemeth, locked in with her, is not human and outwardly not soft in the slightest. When they are forced to make a huge choice, one that could end with both of them dead either way, they face a world outside the tower that they no longer understand or recognize.

I picked up this book having missed the smut warnings, and was pleasantly surprised that it was written so well. I typically avoid pure smut novels because they become repetitive and predictable. Candra and Nemeth's story is not predictable, other than the enemies-to-lovers trope. The overarching weaves a web of court intrigue, misguided assumptions about other countries/races, and two-but-really-one religions. I wanted to know what would happen between the pair, and what was going on in the outside world too! Ruby Dixon writes a beautiful, gritty story and I could hardly put the book down.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy through NetGally. It does not affect my review in any way.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a shameless, knows-what-she-wants MC and a storyline that is actually more interesting than the smutty parts!

This was my first book by this author. The description was initially what drew me in. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the words inside this book!

I love Ruby Dixon, the only books I’ve read of hers before this is Ice Planet Barbarians, but this one was just as fun, but definitely different.
This is enemies to lovers, a sci-fi/fantasy/monster romance combination. I love Ruby’s writing because it’s so easy to digest and SO entertaining. This is more slow burn than I have come to expect from her, but I enjoyed it all the same.

If you love smutty romantasy this is the book for you. The main characters, Candra and Nemeth, were lovable and also infuriating at times. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend this to anyone wanting an accessible romance. The only thing I would complain is that there was maybe a few too many twists and turns. But otherwise I enjoyed this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an E-ARC to review.

I wasn’t entirely sold right away but holy crap, this was SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I was enthralled, couldn’t put it down until I was literally falling asleep reading.

20/10

This was top tier smut in all the best ways and a pretty engaging plot. I wish this would have been a duology just so I could have a bit more details and things flushed out. I think the ending was my favorite though, like that’s pretty wholesome. I do wish Erynne had a happier ending, I’m very sensitive about things happening to children and I wish this part was just left out- she deserved both her babies.

This book was not for me. I have read many Ruby Dixon books, but this one just didn't hit for me. I think it may have been the forced proximity but I just didn't find the romance compelling.
But You'll like it if you like:
- Monster Romance
- Spicy Romance
- Opposites Attract
- Forced Proximity

2.5 ⭐️ Interesting concept, but the book did not feel complete in pacing and editing.


WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ Tower setting (for half the book)
✨ magic
✨ Forbidden romance
✨ Rival houses
✨ Forced proximity
✨ Tension
✨ Naive/spoiled fmc at times
✨ Family trauma

My Thoughts:

I thought going in that this book would be more in depth pining and tension with forced proximity. Instead with the editing style and pacing, the book felt more insta-love and then “waiting.” The second half of the book felt like it was meant to be a different book, the editing of the tower versus when back outside felt very off. I think the concept of this book is fantastic, I just think the execution felt very strange.

I loved:

Concept
I loved the concept of having to be stuck in a tower for 7 years with a family rival. The set up for complete tension, pining and forbidden love was a great concept. I enjoyed the idea of having to be in the tower due to the gods, and the possibilities of famine. It was a very extreme reason to have to be in a tower for so long.


The things I disliked
Insta love/lust
Due to how the editing of the tower was done, even though time was passing slowly the romance felt very fast. I was highly unsure of the reason either felt a spark, and it was not explained. The book went from horror of being stuck in a tower with a monster to wanting to have relations with him pretty fast.

Editing
I think this is what ended up making me dislike many pieces of the book. The chapters felt very long, with many of the pages having absolutely nothing happening, then the last bit had action to “push” the reader into the next chapter. This would be fine a few times, yet every chapter felt this way. The book is set up basically in 3 parts; before the tower, during the tower, after the tower. Before the tower and during the tower make up the majority of the book, and blend together decently. After the tower felt rushed, incomplete and did not feel like it was meant to be together with the previous pieces of the book. This book was too long with too many things not happening for the first 60% of the book that it should have to feel rushed at the end.



Overall, Bound to the Shadow Prince was not for me. I think it was an interesting concept, but not fully executed.


Thank you Netgalley and W by Wattpad Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this read, but I felt like the enemies to lovers was too fast. One page they were enemies and the next page they were already lovers. It was still an entertaining and well-written book. The characters grew and developed very well. I really enjoyed the angst throughout the story, and I don’t think that is something I have ever said before. I enjoyed getting to learn a new world outside of IPB.

A special thank you to Ruby Dixon, Wattled Webtoon Book Group, and Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Solid 3.5/5!

Let me start with saying I am a huge Ruby Dixon fan. I have read almost all of her books at least once, and think of her Ice Planet Barbatian series constantly. This book was centered in a completely different setting than I was used to from her other series which was refreshing because I got to experience a new world!

I really liked how her male character was written. This book was much like her others in that the MMC was a total sweetheart, and waited on the FMC hand and foot. This one is an enemy to lovers romance so if you like that, definitely pick this one up. Overall, Dixon writes in a way that’s so easy to digest. I was able to get through this one quickly and I really enjoyed it.

I love Ruby Dixon's IPB series so I was really excited to give this a try. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I went into this expecting a forced proximity, enemies to lovers relationship. The forced proximity was there but it felt like the enemies became lovers too fast. In addition, it had one of my last favorite tropes later in the book then it seemed to really hyper focus on it. I'm being vague to avoid spoilers. The story was still entertaining overall but just not my favorite Ruby Dixon book.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

As an avid reader of Ruby Nixon, this was nothing short of what was expected. Glorious. You have possessive men, loving their females. The MFC is curvy, and she is not from a strong female background, loved, she is spoiled, foolish, and has to learn how to survive not thrive. But this time as gargoyles. I love the added features of the men, close quarters, and mysterious that lay together. I loved the environment, and main storyline of this book. The location was something completely different than most of her books. It was more pages then her usual but it was so well done throughout. Many twists and turns, Both sides of the species to make it so much more thrilling, keeping you engaged throughout the whole story! Best part is there is a happy ending. 4.5 Stars for me and Spice to me was a 4.

Wow! This book was so much - in a good way! Fantasy, mystery, angst, intrigue, and SPICY! Imagine being locked inside a windowless and lightless tower for seven years with the mortal enemy of your people... and being drawn to him in ways you know you shouldn't be...

5 stars all around!

Pros:
- Growth / character arc of FMC
- Enemies to Friends to Lovers done very well
- The spice is piping hot and so good!
- The mystery and angst kept me on my seat throughout the whole book. It definitely ranks as "un-put-down-able"

Cons:
- Inconsistencies in the story - not large but small things such as how she marks days and specifics she knows about her ancestors changes from time to time in the story.
- Lots of issues between Candra and Nemeth could have been resolved if he would stop keeping secrets - and it's never really clear why he kept those secrets.
- I'm a little iffy on the pregnancy trope but it wasn't too bad in this one.

Overall - a really good fantasy romance read!

You'll like it if you like:
- Fantasy Romance
- Monster Romance
- Spicy Romance
- Enemies to Friends to Lovers
- Opposites Attract
- Dystopian World
- Forced Proximity

This book kept me interested, wanting to know more, and thinking about the story line when I wasn't reading. The author does a wonderful job of only letting us see the world through the princess's eyes and tickling our suspicions as we don’t know what’s going on with her enemy within the tower or the world outside it. I loved Candra and Nemeth's relationship. This was a 5 star read for me until about the last 6% of the book. I wondered to myself "Will this end on a cliffhanger? There's no way to wrap up so many open items!" The ending felt implausible and like an afterthought.

I am so happy to have read something by Ruby Dixon that was different than Ice Planet Barbarians. This book was such a fun read, and definitely longer in page count than the IPB books, so it was also great to read a longer, in-depth novel by Dixon as well.

I really liked the concept of this book, with the main concept being forced proximity by forcing the two main characters, who are enemies, to live in a tower together for 7 years. The spice scenes in this book were, in true Ruby Dixon fashion, very well done. The relationship between these two characters kept me interested and reading through the whole book.

The reason why this is not 5 stars is because I did feel the pacing was a bit off. I wish there were more tension points in this book to keep the stakes higher. Also, the personalities of these two are not ones I generally I enjoy reading about, but if you like the spoiled overly sexual princess mixed with sweet innocent good boy, this book will definitely be for you.

Overall, this was a solid book and kept me entertained most of the time. The last 25% was a slog. I will definitely be reading more of Ruby Dixon in the future, though. My one question is, why did the main character not use the magical knife more?! This would have solved so many problems.

Provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.