This is a good beginner fantasy book and perfect for the intended audience which is young adult. I think it gives the bones and a taste of what fae fantasy is and allows readers to enter that world without feeling overwhelmed by it. The story telling is slow, the characters are a little stale in that they don't have direct motives, and I didn't really care for the story overall. I do, however, think that has more to do with me as a reader and what books I usually gravitate to which are adult fantasy. I would recommend this book to younger readers who want to read fantasy without being overwhelmed with a complex world.

This book was a bit of a mess. It was super confusing and the main plot made absolutely no sense. Like someone else acts as the main character while she goes off on another adventure? The beginning was great and adventurous but then it just took a tumble and I really just couldn’t follow. I wasn’t excited about the plot sadly, and was not able to finish this after about 20%.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Romantasy, High Fantasy
Spice Level: Foreplay on page and thoughts of sex
Language: Some profanity, including an f-fomb
Representation: Side characters are gay
Format: Multi-POV
Content warning: Torture referenced frequently, murder

*BENEATH THESE CURSED STARS* is perfect for fans of YA fantasy. You've got angst, lots of attraction, and a diverse fantasy character cast.

I thought it was an interesting choice to show Jasalyn and Felicity's point of views. This breaks the story into two plots that intertwine. Jasalyn is recovering from being a prisoner. Felicity has been running from who she is. BUT there are so many secrets that come out and surprise revelations, that I really can't say much.

The world building is rich and nuanced—something I love to see in fantasy. We get some politics, social structure, a bit of history (spiritualism), and interesting foliage and terrain. The fae world is unique but draws from traditions in Europe.

This book ends on a cliffhanger (that's the one thing I don't love about fantasy books). I can see it might wrap up in book two. I think fantasy lovers are going to want to read this. The ending twists are *chef's kiss*.

Happy reading!

After falling in love with These Hollow Vows and These Twisted Bonds, Lexi Ryan has become an author I am incredibly excited to read. This fantasy romance delivered. As a dual-POV slowburn, forced proximity romance, I felt like I knew what to expect but it was still a fun ride. I tire of insta-lust a bit, so I was hoping for more there, that being said I still really enjoyed it and am excited to continue this new series. Lexi is a great writer and I'm excited to have all her books on my shelf together!

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

"And what if you find yourself living beneath nothing but cursed stars?"

I ate this book up! It was so addicting, one minute I was at 10% and then before I knew it, I was halfway through the book! This is definitely a third-ish book, you should not read this book without reading the previous duology. If you read this without reading the other two books you will one hundred percent be confused and probably not like it. This book is also a dual POV between Jas and Felicity.

This story picked up three years from the ending of These Twisted Bonds and you follow Jas & Felicity on a journey to attempt to overthrow Elora's overlords with Kendrick (Hale), Skylar, Remme, and Natan. While Jas is trying to help Kendrick and his friends, Felicity, Kendricks little sister, is in Jas's place at the Wild Fae Court. Felicity's mission is to make Misha fall for her so that he will spill his secrets to her for the Elorian benefit. Felicity and Jas assume everything is going to plan and they are more than a pawn in this mission, until everything begins to fall apart. This book is filled to the brim with the best tropes:

-force proximity
-trauma bonded
-found family
-fated mates
-secret identities
-slow burn
-betrayal

There was tension galore in this book and it was killlllling me!!! But the betrayals in the end make me nervous for the next book. The only thing I warn over is this book ends on a cliff hanger and if you do not like that or like waiting, I would suggest waiting for the second book, but this book is definitely worth the wait. The stories of Jas and Felicity and their trauma is so heart wrenching, we also get a lot more world building and information about Elora that we were not aware of nor given in the duology prior. Ryan really laid out the puzzle pieces that finally came together at the end and made the whole journey make complete sense. I cannot wait to see how this story ends in the next book.

I want to thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great spin off from These Hollow Vows. I loved that duology so much and I was thrilled when I saw she wrote another book. When I realized it was Jas's story after the fact I was even more excited. I love getting more of the characters we saw in the background before.

I loved the dual POV between Jas and Felicity. I also loved the romances going on in both. I love a good slow burn. I enjoyed the adventure that Jas and Kendrick went on as well as the mystery behind all of the things happening. I can't wait for more!

I really wanted to love this one because I am a huge fan of the original duology, but this one just fell flat for me. It took me a really long time to get into it, but nothing was really driving me to finish it. I am sure others really loved this boo, but it just wasn't for me.

No public review given as I do not want to hurt someone else's chance of reading the book based only off my review.

Probably a 4.25 rounded up.

this is a spin-off of an existing series, which I didn’t realize before I picked it up. I actually think it can be read as a standalone as long as you are okay not knowing every detail of the backstory of some of the characters, as there is a bit of a catch up infodump in the first few chapters.

as a spin-off, I found this to be fairly enjoyable YA fantasy. you have one FMC suffering from PTSD who experiences some predictable but genuine character growth throughout the book, a second FMC who knows she is doing awful things but does them for the sake of the greater good (and I am absolutely rooting for her), and lots of twists, turns, & betrayals. the romances follow familiar romantasy beats without a ton of new or unique elements, but they fit the overall story well & add more to the story than their predictability takes away. I do think there are a number of unanswered questions about the world & magic system but honestly I can’t judge that without having read the other series.

is this a perfect book? no. am I absolutely going to read book 2 when it comes out? yup. I actually want to go back and read the first two books now to get a better understanding of the world.

I really loved the concept of this book! The voice of both POV characters were distinct and I found myself truly caring about the characters. I did not know there was another series before this, so that most certainly affected my enjoyment of this book as I felt there was a lot of information that was lacking--but now I've found out that it's connected to a previous series, it's less a fault of the book and more a fault of I didn't know there was a companion series! It will definitely have a sequel which I think is very good to know going into it. This book wasn't necessarily for me--I wanted more fae trickery and mischief, more revenge arc, more chemistry between one of the sets of love interests (the other was great though! so much tension!), and less calling people "the male" and "the female." However, I could 100% see this easily being someone's favorite book, and a lot of care and love went into this book. I loved the disability rep with Jas's struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD! It was so authentic, and I'd love if that's given more screen time in the future! We desperately need more disability in fantasy, and with how much others love fae romantasy, I'm SO excited for this book to find its readers! I'd definitely recommend this for someone looking for books with fae, revenge, and romantasy, and for someone who loves the replaced identities trope--especially when the person being impersonated has given their consent for it!

I'll give it 3.5 stars!

I soft DNF'ed this book. - I will be coming back to the book eventually.

I got 10ish pages in before I realized that I needed to have read two other books before this one despite the advertising. This is a new series by the author and they should have kept it in the same series just following different people/couples.

I will eventually come back to this book which is why I soft DNF'ed it. I just don't have time to read another book just to get to this one and trust me you NEED to read the book to understand things.

From the short pages that I did read I enjoyed seeing that description and the trauma. I can't wait to come back to this series just not right now.

While it took me a minute to get onto this book, by the end, I couldn't put it down.
There are definitely some triggers in this book for abuse, but it is well written.
The book focuses on two fmc and switches between their pov. Both have very different journeys but are building towards the same climax. The end of the book leaves on a big cliffhanger for both characters, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.
If you have read these hollow vows, or just enjoy ya fantasy, this is a great read!

The YA and Cruel Prince girlies will love this one. It has a familiar faerie setting, but with some interesting twists.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall I think this story has a lot of potential. I loved the world and the idea of this storyline. However the plot line was a little rocky at times and I thought that it needed some world refreshing. The beginning was a bit slow but the last hundred pages had me hooked. It was an easy read and I finished it in a day so for that I’ll give it 3.5 stars

BENEATH THESE CURSED STARS is a book with a lot of potential. Building off the These Hollow Vows Duology, I felt that the book could dive more into the world, while offering new perspectives through the multiple POVs. However, I feel that Ryan fails to utilize any of the opportunities in the plot to do MORE with the story, leading to slow pacing, confusion, and underdeveloped characters.

I will say that for some YA readers, this could be a great book. It has magic, faeries, instalove, an enemies to lovers vibes, mistaken identity, and revenge. These are some really great tropes and ideas! But for me, this potential fell very flat in a way that was disappointing.

To me, this story had a ton of potential with little to no follow through. I just read the author’s previous duology to make sure I knew what was going on. However, for the first half of this book, I was confused and frustrated as a reader. Terms and relationships were just thrown in here and not fleshed out or developed. Or they would be thrown in there and then explained much later. I actually checked multiple times to see if I missed something while I read. It was frustrating because I felt that I didn’t understand what was happening as I read. I appreciated that the author wants to expand upon the world she created, but she did so in a way that was unclear. It then impacted the pacing because then information dumps happened and the plot stagnated for the first half.

It is like us as readers are supposed to know these character’s full backstories when we do not, as the author just plops us into the world. This means that the characters are underdeveloped. I think splitting the POVs did little for either Jas or Felicity, to two FMCs. I think a focus on one character would be much better than the narration approach taken.

This book is being marketed as a stand alone, but relies HEAVILY on understanding the previous duology. And while this would be a great book for YA readers, to an older age group, I think that they would be disappointed and underwhelmed.

Thank you to Harper Teen and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Book Name: Beneath These Cursed Stars
Author: Lexi Ryan

ARC
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperTeen

Stars: 5

Book 3 in ***These Hollow Vows… marketed as a spin-off book but it isn’t its book 3 with new FMC focus***
Cliffhanger!
Fast Paced
Dual FMC POVs (Felicity and Jas)
High Fantasy

- Thoughts.
- hard to differentiate between FMC’s in the first 30%
- Not what I expected
- Original Series is must read
- Angry FMC (feels DONE)
- Hidden Identities
- Prophecies
- Secrets
- Miscommunication
- OVerocming Trauma
- Misha
- great chemistry between characters

Lexi Ryan puts some sort of addictive additive on her writing cause my intent at 35% was to DNF. Why?… Well….The book was mis-marketed as a spin-off… it's actually a continuation of the series. There was no world-building and the rage-filled Jas felt kinda boring with the rest of the characters leaning heavily into miscommunication and secrecy. Even with those negatives I had to finish the book. And… it's a solid 5 cause Misha OMG and the aforementioned addiction! I am in love!

3.5/5
It took me a bit to get into the story as I was trying to recall all that happened in the prior two books. I think even though this is kinda marketed as a new story it has many of the previews characters in it and the story relies a lot on that plot too so I think to would be better to read These Hollow Vows first. With that being said after I got into it I read it pretty fast. The story is told from the POV of princess Jasalyn who is trying to avenge what was done to her and Felicity a shifter pretending to be the princess. I was more invested in Felicity's story with Misha and their connection. Jasalyn sometimes came across as immature and judgmental. She went through a lot and that's understandable, I'm sure there will be more of a character development in the second book. Is is a slow burn romance and more character driven than anything else. It felt fast paced but also felt like not a lot was accomplished at the same time. Overall I did enjoyed it and will be reading the sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book!

Great characters, great story and just an overall easy read. It was such a treat remembering some of the characters from the main series.

This book was fantastic. My big issue with this book was the lack of refreshing on the world and characters after the these hollow vows series- I LOVED that duology but read them over a year ago and I had a hard time getting into this book and remembering the world details.
If this book is supposed to follow the other series, I think it is understandable, but usually separate duologies can be read as a stand alone, and I think it would be hard to dive into this world without the previous two.
To expand the audience, I think more world building would be necessary.

Otherwise this book was fantastic, I loved the slow burn, I loved the star crossed lovers trope, and especially love the dual POV. I love all of Lexi’s books and can’t wait for more!

I saw the Cover and fell in love. Then I saw the authors name and knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. Then I read the paragraph and was drawn into the story, unable to put it down until I finished the last page.

This was the book I wanted without knowing I wanted it until I read it.

It’s not often a spin off can meet or exceed the charm of the original, but Lexi managed to pull it off. I loved seeing Jas and following her story. Her her part in the original series was small, so I enjoyed seeing her character fleshed out.

I really hope the author continues to write in this world.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting concept! I liked the plot and the characters, though I felt it got a bit convoluted at times.