A swoony, second-chance romance with just the right amount of angst. Lexi Ryan balances heartache and healing in a story that feels honest, tender, and full of raw emotion.

If you have read book one of this duology then just know that this is the perfect ending to the story that began in Beneath These Cursed Stars. If you ended up here randomly then go look at book one pick it up and then read this book.

This book picks up with our fearless ladies Jas and Felicity continuing to fight for their futures, their family and as is usual in any good fantasy the world. Reading their struggles was heartbreaking at time and inspirationally at others. Lexi writes their struggles so well that even if you have never struggled with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome; you will be able to almost physically feel what they must have been dealing with.

This book is a recommend from me; and while you don’t necessarily have to have read the original duology (These Hollow Vows) that this one is a spin off from I would recommend it.

I don’t really have much to say about this one. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but nothing about it really kept my interest. The pacing wasn’t the best, the plot was sort of lacking, I didn’t feel much towards any of the characters. I fear I just am outside the target audience, which is fine, and that’s why I didn’t mesh well with it.

Between These Broken Hearts delivers everything I’ve come to expect from Lexi Ryan: messy emotions, sizzling chemistry, and a love story that hurts in all the right ways. This book is full of heartbreak and healing, with characters who feel raw, real, and deeply flawed in a way that makes you root for them even when they make mistakes.

The second-chance romance is packed with tension and longing, and the emotional weight of their past makes every stolen glance feel loaded. Lexi Ryan is great at writing pain that feels earned and passion that burns slowly, then all at once.

My only reason for holding back that fifth star is that a few plot beats felt a little familiar or rushed. But honestly, the emotional payoff more than made up for it. If you love romances that aren’t afraid to get messy, this one will absolutely pull you in and keep you flipping pages late into the night.

3.5* Rounded up

This was a pretty good ending to this duology, it was action packed and a satisfying conclusion to the overall series. I found myself more interested in the Felicity chapters as I did in the last book as well, but I will say the Jasalyn chapters were more interesting and action packed this time. I think where I was a bit let down is that it all seemed to wrap up too quickly after all the build up of most of the book. I also felt a tad uncomfortable with one of the couples as Jasalyn is only 17 and it made me feel a a bit gross to read some of the chapters for this reason. Overall this a fun overall series, it was action packed and featured an interesting world and magic system.

I received an eARC thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins. All opinions are my own.

I really loved the These Hollow Vows series up until Between These Broken Hearts and am super bummed I didn't enjoy this one as much as the rest of the series.

I am going to start off by saying that I never read These Hollow Vows, and I recommend you should before reading this to fill in the rest of the details, BUT it's not actually necessary. Lexi gives you enough of the story for the duology to make sense without the other two books. Don't judge me, I had gotten an arc of Beaneath These Cursed Stars and did NOT research that it was a spin-off, but I was still cheering everyone on all the same! Plus, if you've seen my library hold times, you'd get it.

Anyways, now that I have that out of the way, let's get on to the important things, like discussing this book, shall we? I think I might be overly emotional right now because of the heat, because I cannot be getting absolutely gutted by my July reads like this. The emotional depth and connection I have been feeling with each book this month is insane. I had to make sure I stayed hydrated to offset all the damn tears spilling from my eyeballs.

My favorite characters in this series have to be Misha and Felicity, their dynamic and connection is chef's kiss. In Beneath these cursed stars, I was devastated for Felicity because of the situation she was put into. Like so many characters had to make sacrifices in order to make the world a better place, and it was relieving to see how Felicity overcame those.

Jas and Kendrick, I loved them in Beneath These Cursed Stars, but not as much in this one, until the end. The end I was a blubbering mess. It felt like everyone was going through it this book.

As for the big reveal of this book and the route they needed to take, I called it as soon as we discovered the nature of Jas in Beneath These Cursed Stars. I was like well if she's this she can just-- and yeah.

The ending to this duology follows a few characters, but the main two are going to be Jas and Felicity. This book starts off with us learning that eight months have been lost. Both Jas and Felicity seem to have lost a lot of time. In book one, Jas traded her life for a ring to take back her power by murdering those who did her wrong, but learns that she severely messed up and is almost out of time to fix what she started. Except it's hard because the ring has the ability to make people forget they saw you and well it's stuck. Felicity finds herself taken by her brother, but rescue shows up almost as soon as she wakes from her slumber. Now Felicity has to decide whether she's ready to face her fate and whether she can reconcile with Misha.

What You Can Expect:
📖Found Family
📖Two Different Couples
📖Conclusion to Duology
📖Forbidden Romance
📖GOBLINS
📖Might be a bit of Murder

4.5 stars

Obsessed. No notes. Literally at the end of each chapter you have to go on. I made a huge dent everyday because I needed to know what was going to happen next. This has quickly become one of my favorite YA series as a whole (including the original duology). For me this was pretty fast paced. I love how everything came together and how the story unfolded. Felicity is definitely my favorite. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. There were so many twists I didn’t see coming. And the ending was utterly perfect. I really wish this series wasn’t over.

This was a pretty good conclusion to this story.

I really enjoyed the character development for Jasalyn. I wasn't crazy over her character in the last book but i was able to enjoy her growth. I came to like her at the end.

One thing I loved about this duology was that the two main female characters were not the stereotypical female character in fantasy. Both characters were softer but still strong without having to physically fight. In this genre, it's so common to see these female characters who end up feeling the same as the next. These two did not and I appreciated that.

The time jump was done pretty well. I'm glad we were able to jump right to crunch time so there wasn't a lot of filler in the story. The only bad part was that I think we missed a bit of the tension from Felicity and Misha's conflict. That was resolved and accepted a little too easily for my tastes.

I felt the resolution was a little bit too easy and the big bads were easy to defeated. One bad guy's downfall was so easy, I literally thought that it must be a dream sequence or a hallucination. Since this is a YA series, I was able to put that aside and chalk it up to the fact this was meant for an audience much younger than me.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the ARC.

It's fascinating to me how Blake continues to include 2 parallel love stories so successfully in each of her duets, when some authors can't even execute one! 🤣 Each couple had their own trials to endure, but they had distinct "voices" and missions. The supporting characters were a delight, and I adore that we have gotten so much additional time in this world that Lexi has created. As an upper YA, there was plenty of swoon and romance, and it ended on the perfect note. I highly recommend all of the books in this series!💖
4.5🌟

ARC review
Release date: 22 July

"Between These Broken Hearts" by Lexi Ryan is the last book in the "These Hollow Vows" series.
Even if book 3 and 4 are considered spin-off of the initial duology, I recommend starting with the 1st book (These Hollow Vows).

Thank you HarperCollins Children's Books for the advance reader copy via Netgalley.
Opinions from this review are completely my own.

I loved "These Hollow Vows" and "These Twisted Bonds", so I was looking forward to reading more about this world.
"Between These Broken Hearts" continues the story after the end of "Beneath These Cursed Stars", but in the beginning there is an 8 months time jump.
We have the same two alternative perspectives - Jasalyn and Felicity.

In Felicity's story we have a plus size representation and we see her struggling with insecurities because of her appearance.
Jaslyn went through a lot of trauma and she suffers from depression, but was willing to sacrifice a lot for the people she loves.
We also see how her depression impacts the people close to her that want to help her.

Even if I liked the story overall and the magical world, this was my least favorite book in the series.
My main issue is that Jasalyn is almost 18 (and this is a main part of the plot), Hale is 4 years older and they are intimate.
Also, Misha is an old fae and even if Felicity is about 20 years, he thought that she is 17 in the beginning.
There was a bit of spice between the couples in the previous book and it is a bit more in this one.
Even if the scenes are not very explicit, it still made me fell uncomfortable while reading.

The book has more action that the previous one, but the pace is not constant and some parts felt repetitive.
Unfortunately I was not as invested in Jasalyn's story and wanted to read more about Felicity.
Also, the ending felt a bit rushed and the relationship between Felicity and Mischa was not developed enough.

On a positive side, I loved the appearance of Brie and Finn, the goblins and all the types of magic.

This is book 2 in the Cursed Stars series, Book one is Beneath These Cursed Stars. (this saga begun with Abriella in the These Hollow Vows duology

Taglines: "Princess Jasalyn has eleven days to live. Shape-shifter Felicity has vanished."

Who doesn't love forbidden romance, mysterious prophecies, and the battle to save the fae realm?! I mean isn't that what we are all searching for? The rest of the series is amazing, so why wouldn't this would be as well! I loved this series and hope you do too!

Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review!

I did enjoy this as a conclusion to the series!

It probably would have been at least 4-5 stars, but my tastes are changing and I struggled to get through this and founding myself wanting to read other books. That's entirely ON ME THOUGH and NOT this book at all!

I loved how it finished everything up and brought in old characters from the first duology. There is lots of romance as it follows both Jasalyn and Felicity. I did find the spice scenes that Jasalyn had a little odd as she is 17. They were only lightly descriptive and fade to black, but left me feeling a little weird.

I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who loves Upper YA/NA books! The first duology was amazing when I read it a few years ago and this one was very good too! Very similar to ACOTAR, but more comfortable for a younger crowd!

Read if you love:
-Fae
-Mysterious bargains and curses
-Shadow Powers
-Portals

Thank you HarperCollins & Netgalley for the eARC of this book. My thoughts are entirely my own.
Finish date: 7/7/25, Release date: 7/22/25

I had loved the other books of this series, so I knew I'd enjoy this book as well. I was not disappointed. It was fun reading Jasalyn's story, especially after the chaos she went through at the beginning of the series. Felicity is also an amazing character who I was happy to see get the ending she deserved. The world Lexi created in this series is definitely one of my favorites, I love how the magic and creatures all mesh together, and the goblins are the best! The plot was well written and quite the adventure, each book was hard to put down and this one was no exception.

Between These Broken Hearts was a satisfying conclusion to both the Beneath These Cursed Stars duology and the extended These Hollow Vows series. When this begins it is (intentionally) unclear how much time has taken place since book 1, and I was a little lost and ended up going back to reread the last 10% of book 1, but it quickly picks up and gets into the main story line. There are some info dump recaps, as explained to the MCs by their friends, which would have been helpful if I hadn't reread the ending, but it was too much in paragraph form. We get a continuation of the dual POVs, between the princess Jasalyn and her body-double Felicity.

Jas is focused on getting free of her bargain that will end up resurrecting the usurper king into her own body. She is learning to overcome dark anxiety, and I appreciated reading about how she works through that. She is still self-sacrificing but learning to accept others help, and that she is worthy of their help and love. Through this she finally allows herself to be hopeful for a relationship with Kendrick, and fights for a future with him and her sister. I did foresee her solution about half way through, so was a little frustrated with how long it too her to figure it out too.

Felicity is also needing to accept her destiny, and through working with her found family and birth family, she becomes a good bridge for the kingdoms. She has to work through her betrayal with Misha and learn to accept herself in her own body. Since she has taken other's forms for years she has not had a chance to live as herself and learn to love herself. I appreciated the body-positivity messages.

While this was a solid ending, I could see another spin off starting and wouldn't mind reading a cozy storyline about how the kingdoms rebuild after all this fighting.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing an eARC for my honest review.

This was exactly what I wanted from this conclusion. I VERY much enjoyed both these couples and hope to see them again in the future 👀

I think what I enjoy so much about this authors writing is how she handles heavy topics. Both FMCs struggled heavily with insecurity, depression, and not understanding the difference between surviving and living. Their development throughout the story was beautiful and I wish we could’ve seen them happy for longer at the tail end of their stories (once again holding out hope for them to appear in other books).

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the eARC!

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the eARC. A great continuation of the first book. The story is told from Jasalyn and Felicity’s point of view and both kept me drawn in. Both are trying to protect those they love and also battling insecurities they have. I enjoyed watching them both grow. Also a continuation of love stories from the first. An amazing conclusion to this magical series.

Between These Broken Hearts is a heartfelt, emotional read that really hits the feels. We all love Lexi Ryan’s stories because she knows how to create characters you genuinely care about and write romance that feels real. The characters here are super relatable, and their journey through love and healing is honest and raw. It’s the kind of story that’s easy to get lost in, with just the right mix of romance and personal growth. If you’re looking for a sweet but real love story, this one’s a solid choice!

I really enjoy Lexi Ryan's writing. It always super easy to get into and I always binge read it. The romance and the near-death plots always have me in a chokehold, and I LOVE it. I love this little spin off duology and the new focus on mental health - depression and anxiety. While reading this book I was a bit annoyed by Felicity's anxiety and insecurities and always assuming the worst about herself and asking for reassurance through saying terrible things about herself but after reading the acknowledgement I see the reasoning now. I really enjoyed the love story through this duology, and I was very invested in the outcome. I would say that this story is incredibly predictable, but it was a very fun ride. I do not mind if stories are predictable if they are entertaining. I enjoyed Jas and Felicity more than I enjoyed Brie in the first series; I felt that their mental health issues were much easier to swallow than Brie's stubbornness. This was not a five-star read for me just cause at some points it felt super rushed and that there could have been a little bit more world building on the new powers and so on. This should have been a trilogy in my opinion so that way the last 20% made more sense in the plot. But nonetheless, I did enjoy the read and I will read everything Lexi writes.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books - Storytide for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this!

I loved Jaslyn's journey throughout this duology and how it all culminates in the finale. She became such a bad ass.

Felicity also has an incredible journey of learning to become comfortable in her own skin (literally).

This had absolutely everything I want in a YA Romantasy - angsty, swoony love, high stakes and lots of magic!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the eARC!