What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods (Review)

Title: What Lies Beyond the Veil
Author: Harper L. Woods
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Bramble
Date published: February 11, 2025

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Bramble in exchange for an honest review.

Once, we’d worshipped them as Gods.

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.

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.

Now, they’ll claim what’s theirs.

But before they capture me, Caelum saves me from the Wild Hunt. Fae-marked and on the run, he is able to fight back in ways I only dream of. From tentative alliance to all-consuming passion, our bond strengthens as the fae close in and evil lurks ever nearer. With my life on the line, he is everything I shouldn’t dare to want and a distraction I can’t afford. I can’t seem to stay away, not even with something greater on the line.

My heart.

⤖ My Review ⬻

I was very intrigued when I first heard about What Lies Beyond the Veil and the Of Flesh & Bone series as a whole. Sure, I’ve read plenty of other books about Fae and humans, but the religious human culture (and hopefully a fight against the corrupt nature of it) as well as the veil or boundary between human and Fae lands are what drew me in. The promise of romance and spice were an added bonus!

As I started What Lies Beyond the Veil, I found the world easy to understand, the pace to be decent, and the female MC to be likeable. The setup was engaging, and I appreciated how quickly the story established the stakes. The early chapters kept me interested, and I was excited to see how the romance and world-building would develop.

Then the pace changed, and I found it a little more difficult to stay focused as I felt it had slowed down quite a bit and became repetitive. I also wasn’t sure how to feel about the male MC when he was introduced, and that didn’t really change for the rest of the book. My feelings about the female MC also changed due to how she was written—she seemed inconsistent, which I suppose is a human trait, but it just bugged me in this case. Some of the things both the female and male MCs said also pulled me out of the story on a few occasions.

I did make a prediction around a quarter of the way into the book, and that’s the main thing that kept me going… to see if I was right! I’ll continue with the series because I’m curious about where it’ll go and want to learn more about the world the author created. I also hope that the characters might redeem themselves for me? There were enough intriguing elements in What Lies Beyond the Veil to make me want to see how everything unfolds in the next three books.