These Hollow Vows

A Bargain in the Faerie Courts

Lexi Ryan’s These Hollow Vows, published in 2021, is a fast, addictive faerie romantasy that rode the BookTok wave to wide popularity — a book pitched explicitly to fans of Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, and delivering, with cheerful efficiency, exactly the blend of court intrigue, dangerous romance, and swoony tension those readers crave. It makes no pretense of reinventing the genre; instead, it offers a polished, propulsive, escapist example of one of the most popular forms in contemporary young adult and crossover fantasy, and on those terms it succeeds as a thoroughly enjoyable crowd-pleaser.

The story follows Brie, a young woman who despises the fae for the harm they have done her family and her world. When her beloved sister is sold to the sadistic Unseelie king to settle a debt, Brie strikes a desperate bargain: in exchange for her sister’s freedom, she agrees to steal three powerful magical relics from the rival Seelie court. To do so, she must infiltrate that court by posing as one of the maidens competing to become the bride of its golden prince, Ronan. But as she navigates the glittering, treacherous world of the Seelie, Brie finds herself drawn to Ronan — and also to Finn, a charming, dangerous fae with his own agenda — and caught between two seductive princes, two scheming courts, and her own conflicting loyalties and desires. As the deadline for her theft approaches and the stakes rise, Brie must decide whom to trust, whom she loves, and what she is willing to sacrifice.

Fast, Addictive, and Escapist

The strength of These Hollow Vows is its sheer readability and its sure delivery of the romantasy pleasures its audience wants. Lexi Ryan, an established author of contemporary romance, knows how to keep pages turning, and the novel is fast, propulsive, and addictive, built around the genre’s most beloved elements: a deadly faerie court full of beauty and danger, a heist-and-intrigue plot, and above all a charged love triangle between a fierce heroine and two gorgeous, dangerous fae princes. The romantic tension is the engine of the book, and Ryan delivers it with practiced skill — the banter, the slow burn, the swoony moments, the will-she-won’t-she of the triangle. For readers who come to romantasy for escape, atmosphere, and romantic tension, the novel is exactly the kind of immersive, indulgent reading experience they are looking for.

The faerie-court setting, while familiar, is rendered with enough glamour and menace to satisfy, and Brie is a serviceable, likable heroine — determined, prickly, driven by love for her sister and torn by her growing feelings. The heist premise, too, gives the romance a frame of forward motion, so the swoony scenes are punctuated by stakes, deadlines, and the constant risk of discovery that keeps the tension taut. The plot moves briskly through intrigue, danger, and romance toward a cliffhanger setup for the duology’s second half, and the whole is paced to keep readers hooked. As pure, escapist, trope-satisfying entertainment, it does its job well, and its popularity among fans of the genre is easy to understand.

The Familiar Formula

Honesty requires acknowledging that These Hollow Vows is heavily derivative and trope-reliant, and makes little attempt to be otherwise. The book wears its influences openly — it was marketed as “Cruel Prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses,” and it delivers precisely the elements those titles established: the human girl in the deadly faerie court, the enemies-to-lovers dynamic, the dangerous fae princes, the bargains and betrayals, the love triangle. Readers well-versed in the genre will find very little here that is new; the world-building, characters, and plot beats are familiar, and the novel offers comfort-food predictability rather than originality or surprise. Those seeking fresh ideas, deep world-building, or literary ambition will find it thin and formulaic.

This is, of course, largely the point. These Hollow Vows is unapologetic genre fiction, designed to satisfy a specific appetite, and it does so efficiently. Its reliance on familiar tropes is a feature for its target audience — the pleasure of the form lies precisely in the skillful deployment of beloved conventions — even as it limits the book’s appeal for readers looking for something more ambitious. Come to it for what it is: a polished, escapist, trope-faithful romantasy, not a genre-redefining work.

Escapist Romantasy Done Well

These Hollow Vows is a fast, addictive, escapist faerie romantasy that delivers exactly what its genre and its audience demand — court intrigue, a swoony love triangle, danger, and romance — with polish and propulsive energy. Heavily derivative of its more famous predecessors and reliant on familiar tropes, it offers little new, but it executes the formula skillfully and satisfyingly, making for an enjoyable, indulgent read for fans of the form. It is comfort reading for the romantasy crowd, and on those terms it succeeds.

For fans of faerie romantasy in the vein of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black, These Hollow Vows is a fun, fast, escapist read — trope-faithful catnip that delivers exactly what it promises.

Final Verdict

Our rating: 3.8/5 — A fast, addictive faerie romantasy built for fans of the genre: love triangles, court intrigue, and swoony tension. Heavily derivative of A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Cruel Prince and reliant on familiar tropes, but a propulsive, escapist crowd-pleaser that delivers exactly what it promises.

For more faerie romantasy, see A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Cruel Prince, and Fourth Wing.