Until the Stars Fall by Vanessa Rasanen

Until the Stars Fall (Immortal Reveries, #1)

by Vanessa Rasanen

The last time a fae king took a human bride it started a war.

This time it could prevent one.

One of the few humans at the palace, Lieke has served the royal family her whole life, enjoying their protection from the fae who hate her kind. Unfortunately, nothing could protect her heart from falling in love with her best friend—the prince. Even if he returned her love, he could never marry a human, let alone a servant.

But holding onto her mother's words that love can conquer all, she refuses to give up, no matter the costs.

As the crown prince, Connor is preparing to be king and doing his best to rebuild the king's armies and neutralize a rebel threat. Tasked with also ensuring his younger brother ends his licentious ways and marries a neighboring princess, he thinks things can't get any worse. Until a human servant—a woman he saved years ago—catches his brother's eye and threatens to ruin everything.

When Lieke finds herself sentenced to death for murdering a fae noble, she's shocked to see it's the older brother—Connor—who steps in to save her. And not in the way she expected.

In a world jaded by war, where love is weakness, a fae prince finds himself torn between his desire to save his country and his growing love for a human. He can't save both, but how can he choose between his duty and his heart?

Until the Stars Fall is the first in a new fantasy romance collection of interconnected stand-alones, sweeping you to a magical war-torn world. This fated mates tale with a fake engagement brings you a noble fae prince who falls first-and hard. Loosely inspired by the movie, Sabrina, this slow-burn romance will have you swooning.

Reviewed by ladygrey on

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Until the Stars Fall starts out well with a bit of an intriguing opening and then jumps into character development straight away. I wasn't expecting the language or the spicier content so I was a bit offput by that. I hadn't read Rasanen before (or the synopsis of this book or anything) so I didn't know what to expect. After I figured out it was New Adult I kept reading because it was mildly interesting. I wouldn't have kept going if the characters weren’t so solid out of the gate or the story didn’t promise interesting things, even though I suspected it wouldn't live up to that promise.

And it didn't. The plot is meh. The worldbuilding is flat. There are several interesting concepts and political complications that are introduced but really don't go anywhere. There's a whole mystical poison that is never explored or explained. The fae abilities are never really solidified so any of them can kind of do anything as long as it's convenient for the story. And there's no explanation why some of them can't do anything. There's rules about where humans can and can't go but without any reason why, expect it's against some random rule. Also I found the stringent use of “male” and “female” annoying. Those are the most boring terms among dozens of other options. The fae are barely any different form humans except they have pointy ears and sometimes random magical powers. By the time the story circled around to the moment that was intriguing in the beginning everything exciting or mysterious about it had fallen flat.

But I kept reading, now knowing I was venturing into a straight up New Adult romance, so really the only thing that would be happening the rest of the book was the characters interacting and swaying between getting closer and falling apart. Though the third act turn seemed that it would be super annoying, it wasn't as blatant or disruptive as I suspected. So, overall, if you're into pseudo-fantasy romance with a handful of spicy scenes, this does it well. You just have to be looking for that…which I wasn't really.

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Reading updates

  • 12 May, 2024: Started reading
  • 12 May, 2024: on page 0 out of 510 0%
  • 18 May, 2024: Finished reading
  • 12 May, 2024: Reviewed