Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Romantasy
Length: 407
Format Read: Hardcover Trad Release
Published: September 8, 2026
*Post contains affiliate links*
We start “Tethered” by meeting Luna, our main female character, as she is getting ready for her arranged wedding to the vampire prince, Sebastian. Everything starts very quickly and Luna is (understandably) afraid for her life in her new surroundings with the vampire royalty.
Their wedding goes as planned, but they find out that they have been magically tethered together and cannot get more than 30 feet from one another or else they feel immense pain. As well as being physically stuck in the same location, Sebastian and Luna don’t necessarily get along right off the bat. They have some disagreements and misunderstandings as they get to know one another in their forced proximity situation.
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. Sebastian and Luna are a cute couple together and they learn to love each other despite the differences that they encounter in one another. They have a few struggles in this journey, but they learn to trust one another in the process. This first book ends on a cliff hanger, but I expect these two will continue towards a happily ever after in the end.
Potential spoilers below:
I felt like Luna and Sebastian’s story was disconnected from the other characters and the world as a whole — part of this is explained that they don’t want others to find out about the tether since that would be an exposed weakness of the vampire royalty.
Most of the book takes place in Sebastian’s room and he frequently passes messages to guards and servants in the hallway before rejoining Luna in his room. And it’s not because this book is especially spicy. Sebastian and Luna stay mostly separated, with Sebastian either sleeping on the floor while Luna is ill, or they have a pillow wall between them.
This release of the book has one spicy scene that wasn’t in the indie release. Even with this scene, I felt that the characters are isolated and written almost like younger characters; this makes sense for Luna in her early 20’s, but Sebastian is over 300 years old at this point.
Overall, this is a cute vampire romance story that takes place in a fantasy world. I definitely recommend it, especially if you’re looking to get into reading romantasy or fantasy romance and the genre is new to you. I think new readers will find this to be a good entry point because it is an easy read and a short read, while still being the first in a series. But also keep in mind, the trad releases of the rest of the series haven’t been released yet; the series shows that the indie releases complete the series, but they are not as spicy as the new trad releases are noted to be on the author’s website. The author’s website shows that the indie versions of the book are “upper YA” while the trad releases will be “adult and open-door”.
