What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone Series)

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Solid fantasy read with fae/human mates, inter-species war, witches, gods, and a violent FMC threatening to stab the love interest several times per chapter. The dynamic between Estrella (AMAZING NAME) and Caelum gave me Poppy/Cas vibes from From Blood and Ash. I really liked their chemistry and how the romance was handled in this book. Also, expect some spicy 🔥 scenes. Okay so this was good. The beginning, to me, felt a little slow and took me a little to get invested. By 50%, not a whole lot had happened, but the last 25% got me super invested.

The plot? Literally what was it?? Why was he pretending to be human? Literally no motivation? Why didn’t he bust up and cut some people like the amazing men he has attempted to emulate? At least make it worth my time! The two main characters Estrella and Caelum where easy to fall in love with. But I definitely expected Caelum not to be telling the complete truth. And although some parts of this book ended up being a bit predictable, there was still so much going on I didn’t expect at all. And I loved every moment of this read. When she isn’t writing, she can be found spending time with her two young children, dog, and cat. She enjoys traveling, chocolate, chai tea, and most importantly, being with her family. Estrella: “And that is the problem. I like my intestines in my stomach and not shoved into my lungs. You just keep that thing away from me,”

Trigger Warnings: grooming, verbal and physical abuse (not the male lead), blood, assault of a minor, ritualistic sacrifice, suicidal thoughts, graphic violence & sexual content, cliffhanger

The relationship was all over the place due to shoving other peoples works on them. I hated it. It wasn’t natural, it was messy and forced. Man, this is a poor man's From Blood And Ash with a little ACOTAR and a Shadow In The Ember thrown in there for good measure. It's like the author took the good and compelling plot points from these books, smashed them all together and created this...very mediocre - actually mediocre is a complement, so I'm going to with bad, super bad book. I really enjoyed Woods' writing style. The perfect amount of world building without being overly informative or flowery about certain things. I was captivated and invested in Estrella's story from the beginning and loved watching her overcome the hardships she is faced with. My heart broke for her so many times throughout this story - she really does go through so much. Not the best writing either, but the tension between the two of them was enough to make me want to read more. I feel like the part of the book when they were on the run, and just chatting and falling for each other, was the highlight for me. Although Caelum became more and more possessive and dominant as time went on and that was a little creepy. Makes sense, now that we know who he is. The romance between Estrella and Caelum was definitely impotent. In the end, their romance was too much for my liking, but it fit the story. I just don’t like those rude and sexist things Caelum says sometimes. And it definitely didn’t match the Caelum we first met either.Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever. Estrella is one of the Fae Marked, and is being hunted. She needs to survive, so has to, she’s been through too much to die like this. But then she meets Caelum, another Fae Marked. She can’t trust anyone, but without him she might not survive the winter. And with him, she might not survive her own heart or whatever it is that she sees lurking behind his eyes. Caelum: “You’re perfect just as you are, Little One, stumbling on awkward legs and horrible sense of direction included. I could spend the rest of the night telling you about all the parts of you that I would never allow anyone to change,” Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always – always – guard your heart.

My fate is bonded to two princes– one born of blood, the other of power— but my trust lies in neither. The characters were not lovable. I wouldn’t say at all, because I did finish the book, but they were quite annoying.The love interest, Caelum is charming and radiates alpha male energy. The two together make a pretty good couple. The characters are the reason why I give it two stars. As much as I wanted to like "What Lies Beyond the Veil" by Harper L. Woods, I have to give it a 2-star review. While the book's concept was intriguing, the world's layout and magical system were fantastic. But, in my opinion, the execution fell short. We have the fated mates trope, which is a common concept we encounter in fae books and I've grown to expect it in these books, and here the mates are marked.

MOST OF THE BOOK was sooo boring. Like most of it was just them walking around, hiding, getting into a skirmish, walking around again. The ‘point’ of the story and overall goal wasn’t super clear and wasn’t developed enough to keep me interested. Book Genre: Adult, Dark, Fae, Fairies, Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Magic, New Adult, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romance You and the basilisk in your trousers stay right there, thank you very much,” I said, snapping to attention the moment he came closer. Again, the romance was the front runner for me, rather than the plot as I feel like I knew what was going to happen. But I am definitely going to be reading book two! I need to see how this unfolds!!!Only when it comes to pushy men who seem to think they have the right to touch me," I snapped, leaning further into the knife against his throat.