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

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I was nothing but a road to Midas. A means to get to where he wanted to go, and I paved that path in gold."

No, Little One. I'm going to love you. Until you forget what it is to hurt and then long after that. Until the scars you wear like armor have faded from memory, and only we remain."

It’s not only the fae that hunt the Fae Marked, it’s also the humans who are not. The Fae want them to mate with, to give them power, to secure their bloodlines, but the humans…They are willing to turn against their own kind, to ensure the fae do NOT get the power that comes with finding their mate. Book Genre: Adult, Dark, Fae, Fairies, Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Magic, New Adult, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romance I touched my fingertips to one of the scars in the center of his spine, feeling his body still at my touch. “Who did this to you?” I asked, my voice sounding softer and more broken than I’d ever heard it.” i don’t know how to explain this in the right words, but it feels like recently i’ve read a million new adult fantasy books that follow what i personally like to call the “acotar formula” and this book did exactly that.

Caelum didn't hesitate to make his intentions clear to Estrella and I love when men do this — no beating around the bush and he never once pushed her. Caelum: “He will suffer for every mark on your skin, every moment he frightened you, every tear you shed, before I finally put him out of his misery.” Another element I loved about the world-building is the hierarchy of gods and fae and the Wild Hunt. The concept of the Mating Bond is interesting and it's marked by a unique tattoo on the human and their fae mate. I really hope the author takes advantage of the world she introduced and expands it for the reader, this is what I'm looking forward to the most in the sequel. This book has been on my TBR for so long because I wasn’t quite sure if it would live up to the hype surrounding it.I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to like this. Adelaide Forrest/Harper L. Woods is a new to me author, and I went into this ARC pretty blind—I saw a tiktok of the cover reveal and was like yesss, I need this 🤣 In the beginning I was so angry with what was happening and what this girl had to endure, but it only got more exciting after the Veil fell. I will note that there are definitely a lot of similarities between What Lies Beyond the Veil and FBAA and ACOTAR. However, I do not think this takes away from the very essence of the story that Woods' is telling us. 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.

The Veil that protects the human realm from the fae realm collapsed, the fae are now swarming the humans lands in search of their mates. The humans call them “Fae Marked” For nearly 400 years, the Veil has protected us from the Fae of Alfheimr. In their absence, our lives have shifted from decadence and sin to survival and virtue under the guidance of the New Gods. I've spent my entire life tending to the gardens next to the boundary between our worlds, drawn to the shimmering magic like a moth to the flame. 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

Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always – always – guard your heart. The King really was something else in this, also the whole "lost purity thing" and now won´t be able to get married is quite sexist, but hey, like I said, I feel like this is middle age times. Yes you read that right, we do have the Who hurt you trope in this, so that earns plus points as well. You know the one I’m talking about? That moment where you already know what the major plot twist is gonna be, but you still end up blown away because you weren’t expecting the plot twist to be revealed the way that it was? Yes? Well, I had guessed early on how this was going to play out but my heart still pooped it’s pants when the big reveal came and I was shooook 😱🤯 Especially I would say Estrella. She was so annoying. The point was to make her soft, but she’s tough, and how she is this “feminist” and whatever. But she was annoying, and gullible, naïve. She blindly believed in her brother, left her mother behind without too much thought, did all these spur of the moment actions, while continuing to believe the fae are bad. ALSO THE FACT SHE NEVER THOUGHT HE IS HER MATE?????????? HOW DENSE DO YOU HAVE TO BE? Shes just very dense. Very gullible. I don’t know how else to explain her. Just very annoying. And the narrative felt like, im not like other girls, from both mcs actually.

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!!! Then we have Caelum, who’s type I am usually down bad for, but something about him did not sit right with me. Like Estrella his character was very inconsistent, just not to the same extreme. For example - he would stress how Estrella always had a choice with him (how very Rhys), but in the same breath tell her what to do. The line between protective and misogynistic was a little too thin, and by the end, had me hoping a new love interest would be introduced. I read a good amount of dark romance.. so it really wasn’t the content that bothered me, but the way it was delivered. That being said, I think there is potential for him to be redeemed in the next book if done right. There are a lot of things we are left unsure about, leaving room for both characters to develop and grow as the story continues. I like how possessive and protective he is of Estrella, he'd literally burn the world down for her. He's loyal and won't let any harm come to her — "Touch her and you die" trope right here. My hands dropped to my thighs as my knees hit the dirt beneath me, my palms facing the sky as I tipped my head up to stare into the eyes of the High Priest. He stood just to the side of me, his body close enough that he could stop me from falling into the Veil itself when I died, but out of the way so that my blood would stain the soil and not him. Then, we died on their swords. All of that changes the day the Veil shatters, unleashing the fae upon our world once again. The magic of faerie marks those of us they mean to take, but the Mist Guard protecting Nothrek will kill us all before they let the fae have us. There's no choice but to flee everything I've ever known, not if I want to live to see my twenty-first birthday as a free woman.I did, letting them drift closed. Ringing filled my ears, drowning out my mother’s hoarse cries and the sound of Brann trying to console her. My body filled with warmth, like the press of a warm hearth on a cold winter’s night, the stars shimmering outside the window as I cuddled up with a book. For nearly 400 years, the Veil has protected human from the fae. All of that changes the day the Veil shatters, unleashing the fae and magic upon the world once again. The magic of faerie marks those they mean to take so Estrella has no choice but to flee. In an epic turn of events before she is captured, Caelum saves her from the Wild Hunt. He stopped the moment I uttered the command, his face lighting with amusement. “I’m not wearing any trousers.”