What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ | Plot: 📚📚📚📚| Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Length: 📱13:01:16 | Genre: Adult Fantasy | POV: First
Dates Read: 02.27.24-02.27.24


🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

🧞‍♀️🧚💕Romantasy 💕🧚🧞‍♀️
🧝🏼‍♂️🧝🏻‍♀️Fae 🧝🏻‍♀️🧝🏼‍♂️
⚔️💀 Touch Her, You Die 💀⚔️
☠️ Morally Grey MMC ☠️
❤️🚫 Forbidden Romance 🚫❤️
😍He Falls First 😍
😒👫Forced Proximity👫😒
⚔️❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers❤️‍🔥⚔️
📜Prophecy📜
🧿Chosen One 🧿
🗡️💃🏻Deadly FMC💃🏻🗡️
👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 Mates 👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻
🧙🧝🏼‍♂High Fantasy 🧝🏼‍♂️🧙🏻‍♀️
🛏️Only One Bed 🛏️


✴✴✴ TW: Discussion of Child Abuse; Mentions of Torture; Depiction of Grooming, S3xual Abuse✴✴✴



🕊️ ➞ Plot Breakdown & Commentary:

The fictitious town of Mistfell bordered the veil that separated the human, Nothrek, and Fae realms of Alfheimer. Divided into territories and led as a religious monarchy, Nothrek was protected by the Mist Guard and the Royal Guard. The mist guards were a specific army meant to monitor the perimeter of the veil in the case of an invasion. The Royal Guard were the enforcers of the King’s law and were ruthless.

Our heroine, Estrella Barlowe, lived with her mother and brother, Brann, in Mistfell as peasants. She was known for her beauty and caught the eye of the vicious lord Byron when she was of a very, very young age. The Lord groomed her and forced her into etiquette classes where the teacher would lash her when she wasn’t their definition of perfection and obedience. Lord Byron indulged Estrella’s pain as well and was responsible for years of her s3xual abuse.

With Estrella now of age and years of invested grooming, Lord Byron felt entitled to Estrella’s hand in marriage and planned to do so. His plan was foiled when the high priest named her as the annual sacrifice to the veil; just like her father was. Which was horrible. Can you imagine being Estrella’s mother? They took her husband and now her daughter??

As the priest pressed the blade to her throat at the commencement of the sacrifice, a surge of power ran through her and a sudden mark appeared. The Viniculum – aka the mark of the Fae. The mark meant that whoever embodied the mark was fae touched and thus favored by the fae. Having the Viniculum was punishable by the true death in Nothrek.

As the commotion commenced, Brann grabbed his sister and they fled Mistfell. They Ran for the woods and dodged the mist guards who pursued them before finding shelter. Brann departed shortly after to look for food.

While he was gone, a Fae-marked man came upon Estrella as she slept and woke her. When the guards found them, the stranger saved her and soon Brann rejoined them. Brann was suspicious of the stranger, who introduced himself as Caelum, so he took Estrella and they ran. A little while later the pair encountered the Wild Hunt who chased them to the edge of the cliff. Choosing death over capture, Brann and Estrella jumped but before they could touch the water, shadows wrapped around them and pulled them back up the cliff. The leader of the Wild Hunt ran his sword through Brann’s chest before he tossed his body over the cliff. At that moment, Caelum showed up to save her. While he began fighting off the soldiers, a distraught Estrella jumped off the cliff to search for her brother.

A p!ssed off Caelum pulled her from the water and they ran off. The couple’s attraction continued to simmer as they trekked on and eventually came across the Resistance. The Resistance was a group of humans and Fae-Marked who rejected any form of authority – fae, or human. They live in a system of underground tunnels and hunt and gather for resources. Due to their smaller population, the Resistance was a pretty polyamorous group of individuals who also had a public bath spring (?) – it does come in handy later on though… 😏😏😏



The leaders were quite welcoming once they deduced the couple wasn’t Fae. The Resistance’s tunnels were warded to keep Fae out as well as hide their location. Once Caelum and Estrella were safely in the tunnels, they were granted a private room and things began to heat up between them. The couple bonded over childhood traumas as they both began to yield to their mutual attraction for one another and f*ck. Caelum even took her in the bathspring in front of all these people. Aggressively. It was the best thing I’ve ever read.



As payment for allowing them to stay, the couple was tasked with certain duties; Caelum was assigned warrior duty while Estrella translated old texts from the Old Tongue within the Resistance’s library. While reading through, Estrella began to learn more and more about the fae and the Old Gods. She also came across a portrait of Caldris, the God of Death. Caldris was a necromancer belonging to the shadow court and was known for his army of the dead. This god just so happened to resemble Caelum…



The main leader of the Resistance, Melin, was very suspicious of Caelum and believed him to be hiding something so she began to plant seeds of doubt within Estrella, hoping to help her. Meanwhile, Caelum spent most of the time laying claim to Estrella’s body as some men of the Resistance tried to make a pass at her.

During an excursion to rescue some Fae-Marked, Melin, Caelum, Estrella, and some soldiers were forced to take a detour through a city of ruins. Melin began to tell the tale of what happened to the city. According to the legend, the people there used to worship Caldris but they soon turned on him and tortured the god. Caldris escaped and returned with an army of the dead to slaughter the townspeople. As each townsperson died, he resurrected them to fight in his army and slaughter their families and neighbors.



As the group continued through the city, they were attacked by the Mist Guard. Melin was run through by a sword and the attack caused a huge reveal…

In an effort to save Estrella, Caelum shed his glamour and revealed himself as Caldris, God of Death.



An enraged and confused Estrella begged him to spare the rest and take her. Caelum – Caldris – told her he could not and that she was always going to come with him for she was his mate.






🕊️ ➞ My Favorite Quotes:

“I want you in a way that should terrify me, that consumes my every thought. I want you in a way that I know I will slaughter anyone who dares to hurt you, to touch you… I will not watch you with other men. I will not watch you deny what is between us in every moment that my mouth is not on yours, and still act the part of a jealous lover.”

“Caelum,”

“I would burn the world to the ground and lay it at your feet if you so much as asked it of me, and yet you give me nothing. You’ve never once told me that you feel the same way I do. All you need is to say the word, and I am yours. So tell me, my star. Do you want me?”

“Yes… You’re going to break me.”

“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.”

– Caelum, Chapter 26

“I assure you, I do not give the first fuck what is normal when it comes to you. If you want to watch the world burn I’ll set it on fire for you. If you want to slaughter every woman who has ever taken what is yours, then I will gladly sit back and watch you play… Now f*cking come for me, Estrella.”

– Caelum, Chapter 27

“I love you, my star. I think I’ve loved you since you put a knife to my throat. Nothing will ever change that.”

– Caelum, Chapter 30

🕊️ ➞ Closing Thoughts:

What Lie Beyond the Veil was the perfect smutty fantasy read I needed. Loads of amazing spice while still maintaining world-building and lore. I listened to the entire series on Audible and it had quite the chokehold on me! I pictured Caelum as Henry Cavill’s Geralt from Witcher and every fantasy I’ve ever had just got realer and realer for me. This one’s for the fantasy smut girlies who need a Fae God of Death to get them off.



If you’ve read What Lie Beyond the Veil, leave a comment with your thoughts!

x LB

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