These Hollow Vows

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan follows Brie bargaining with fae princes to save her sister. This YA fantasy romance duology blends morally grey fae, political intrigue, forbidden romance, and the dangerous world of faerie courts where promises bind absolutely.

These Hollow Vows is Lexi Ryan's YA fantasy romance duology that takes readers into the dangerous, alluring world of the fae, where promises become magically binding contracts, beauty masks cruelty, and a human girl must navigate court politics to save her sister. Following Brie as she makes desperate bargains with powerful fae princes, the series blends classic faerie mythology with contemporary romantasy sensibilities - morally grey love interests, political intrigue spanning courts, forbidden romance across species, and a heroine discovering her own power whilst caught between conflicting loyalties and dangerous attractions.

Books in the These Hollow Vows series

These Hollow Vows (2021) introduces Brie, a human girl living in poverty whose beloved younger sister Jasalyn is taken by the fae - kidnapped into their realm where humans serve as servants, playthings, or worse. Desperate to rescue Jas, Brie makes a bargain with Prince Ronan of the Seelie Court: serve him for a time, and he'll help her find her sister. But nothing in the fae realm is as it seems. The beautiful Seelie Court hides darkness beneath its golden splendor, and Ronan's help comes with strings Brie doesn't fully understand.

Complicating matters is Finn, a member of the Unseelie Court - the darker, supposedly more dangerous fae faction at war with the Seelie. Finn offers Brie a different bargain, claiming the Seelie aren't the noble saviors they pretend to be. Caught between two courts, two princes, and two very different versions of truth, Brie must navigate faerie politics whilst searching for Jas and confronting the reality that she's drawn to both Ronan and Finn in ways that threaten her mission and her heart.

Ryan employs classic fae mythology - iron burns them, names have power, promises magically bind, glamour disguises truth - whilst creating her own court politics and magical systems. The Seelie/Unseelie divide isn't simple good versus evil but rather competing political factions with different approaches to power, each capable of both beauty and cruelty. This moral ambiguity extends to the love interests: Ronan appears noble but has his own agenda; Finn seems dangerous but might be more honest than he appears.

These Twisted Bonds (2022) continues as Brie navigates the fallout from book one's revelations. The war between Seelie and Unseelie escalates, her relationship with both Ronan and Finn grows more complicated, and truths about Brie's own connection to the fae realm emerge. The sequel deepens world-building, expands the magical systems, and forces Brie to choose not just between princes but between different visions for what the fae realm should become. Ryan delivers on mysteries established in book one whilst providing the romantic and political resolutions readers invested in the duology to reach.

The duology is characterized by fae realm with Seelie/Unseelie courts, human heroine bargaining with fae, dual love interests (Ronan and Finn), morally grey princes with competing agendas, sister rescue mission driving plot, YA fantasy romance, magic and glamour, political intrigue between courts, and promises with binding magical consequences.

Common themes include the cost of bargains and promises, truth versus illusion (glamour), choosing between loyalties, sister bonds and sacrifice, morally grey characters and courts, power and its corruption, forbidden romance across species, and discovering hidden heritage or connections.

Ryan's prose balances accessibility with atmospheric world-building, creating a fae realm that feels both fantastical and grounded in mythology. The romance develops through interactions with both princes, creating genuine tension about which relationship Brie will ultimately choose whilst ensuring both options feel compelling rather than one being obvious endgame.

What distinguishes These Hollow Vows is Ryan's refusal to make the choice between courts or princes simple. Neither Seelie nor Unseelie is purely good; neither Ronan nor Finn is without flaws or secrets. The political intrigue matters as much as the romance, with Brie's choices affecting not just her love life but the fate of both courts.

The sister relationship grounds the fantasy - Brie's determination to save Jas provides emotional anchor and motivation beyond romantic considerations, ensuring the plot doesn't reduce to simply choosing between love interests.