2nd Five Star Read of the Year

 These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan 

Spoiler Version 

Oh. My. Gosh. This book had everything. Fantasy. Romance. Vengeance. Lies. Deception. Everything! I am obsessed. Brie only wants to protect her sister, so when Jas is sold to the Unseelie King she goes to the fairy world to try to get her back, and she is pretending to be interested in marrying the Seelie Prince. But, turns out the guy she has been crushing on for the past two years is really the Prince! So, it's not hard to pretend to want him, except for the fact that he lied to her about who he was. Then she meets Finn, the rightful heir to the Unseelie throne (his uncle is the current king, but he doesn't have the crown so he can't sit in the throne). He and Brie become friends and his people help her learn to control her powers, becoming shadow and controlling darkness. She has to find and retrieve three objects for the Unseelie King, and they are in the possession of the Seelie so she is lying to Sebastian to try to get back her sister. Sebastian, meanwhile, has to play bachelor and date the other candidates to be his bride which makes Brie jealous. But he only wants her. They sleep together (fade to black). And she finds out that she already has the crown, so she sits on the throne and kills the Unseelie King. She finds out that original king, Finn's dad, loved her mom and when she was in the fire as a child he gave his life to save her. She also finds out that Finn was only using her, trying to make her fall in love with him so she would bond with him thereby giving him her crown. But instead she bonds with Sebastian, who she has been in love with for two years. But, she has lots of pain during the bond. Whelp, she's dying. Again. He gives her the elixir of life and she lives and wakes up to find out that he is being crowned king. She assumes that his mother died. Nope. The man that raised him wasn't actually his father. He and Finn are half-brothers. The man that loved her mother and gave his life to save her, that Unseelie King was Sebastian's father. With their bonding he now has her crown. But, she still has her powers and is immortal. She blankets everything in darkness and leaves. She can feel Sebastian, his fear and anxiety, and see him but he can't see her. The book ends with him telling her "we need to talk" and her leaving. I cannot. DECEPTION!!! Deception all around. And this is a duology, which is great because I can't handle a really long series if I'm not going to get answers, immediately.