Review: Caged by Fallen Crows: Part One

Book: Caged by Fallen Crows: Part One by Ava Larksen

Reviewed by Your_bookish_fantasy

Rating: 4/5

KIND OF 🆂︎🅿︎🅾︎🅸︎🅻︎🅴︎🆁︎🆂︎ AS I DISCUSS WHAT WAS NOT GREAT, I do not give away anything heavy
𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕠𝕗- Caged by fallen crows

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤-
🗣 (out of 5 stars, my rating scale is at the end)
📚 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5
🌡️ 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲🌶🌶🌶 / 5
♟️𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹- >>>⚔️<<<
🎃: 𝐶𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 🌑: 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑦 ⚔️: ᵒᵒᵒʰʰʰ ˢᵗᵃᵇᵇʸ ᵖᵉᵒᵖˡᵉ••• 💀: 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 M̶E̶N̶U̶ 😳 -𝑖 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠!! ☠️: P͟I͟T͟C͟H͟ F͟C͟u͟K͟I͟N͟G͟ B͟L͟A͟C͟K͟!

𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕀𝕟𝕗𝕠:
•📖# 635 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀
•𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁? 3 days
•# DUAL 𝗣𝗢𝗩
•𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲- 11 February 2026
•𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁 or 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 driven? A MIX
•𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 & 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗻𝗼-
•𝗔𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 on 𝗞𝗨? ✅
•𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗲- MEDIUM
•𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? ERM, TOUGH ONE…

●𝕋ℝ𝕆ℙ𝔼𝕊
😈𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕤 & 𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕪𝕒𝕝𝕤
🔮𝔐𝔶𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰
🧭ℚ𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕤
🪧Pᴏʟɪᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Iɴᴛʀɪɢᴜᴇ
☯️ℝ𝕖𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕚𝕠𝕟/𝔻𝕖𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤
🍭𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕪 𝕍 𝔾𝕣𝕦𝕞𝕡𝕪
🌡𝕐𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝔸𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕥, 𝕋𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟
🧩𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒚
🗡𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 to 𝙀𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙚𝙨
🧨𝕊𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕪 𝔽𝕄ℂ

IF THIS WAS A NEW AUTHOR TO ME ID HAVE RATED IT JUST ⭐️⭐️ but because i know book one an I’m expectant of part two I’m giving the benefit of the doubt because the writing style is damn good!
>>First, I know the review sounds negative but I’m frustrated because I need answers and I got none, and I need nelle to kick him in the nuts and tell him he is unworthy of her!!

🌍 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕓𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘:

Ok so world building was minimal because we’re stuck in one location for the whole book. Sorry- two locations including the side track task. It was all set out in book one so not much to develop.
The pacing was good and held my interest, the writing style was brilliant as ever.

POSSIBLE SLIGHT SPOILERS FROM HERE
But, when I finished that last page- it hit me:
NO EVENTS HAPPENED in this book and we learn NOTHING NEW:
About the Horned Gods
-About the alverac
About Silas Boon & Children of Harbingers
Greyson spends the whole book hunting a creature but the book finishes without actually capturing the creature or explaining any hint of the relevance.
The Uzrek reappears but offers no information or character development
SHE LIVES WITH THE CROWTHERS but we learn nothing new about the family except for the godly reverence for Tabitha. We don’t even get to know about the family members because fern has disappeared off part planning and the adults have just dropped off the book.

I was annoyed that the book covered just one maybe two weeks and nothing at all happened, it was one big info dump (entertaining and easy to read) without anything helpful or intriguing actually happening.

Nelle is in the keep yet No family secrets are uncovered?? And No interactions between Greyson and Caiden about the scene in the first book where caiden clearly shows he has feelings for Nelles sister and caiden knows that Greyson has feelings for Nelle. I’ve been waiting for this chat since book one!

Worst yet the romance was a so unsatisfying and it angered me. Because everything seems to revolves around making sure the author could "redeem" Greyson enough to shove spicy scenes or god forbid have him turn around and make it all better leading to a happy ending with them both- IT BETTER NOT!
BUT THERE WAS NO PLOT TO USE to give the MMC the redemption that was needed to remotely deserve her in the slightest... I was so annoyed at this because he’s going to sell her to be used as a whóre or cut up into pieces and yet she lets him get under her skin. I know the bond is strong and I know she is horny and desires him so why couldn’t she have USED HIM or used shmex as a weapon or something. Plus, while he’s getting his rocks off there was no guilt or remorse about the collar around her neck, even though it must be dangling in his face!

I was hooked all the way through though… it was like I was under the sway! I couldn’t put the book down as Ava has this incredibly was of telling a story. I will admit I skim read 1 chapter of Greysons because it felt so out of place and order and I don’t think there was anything important in it anyway but I needed to get to nelles pov again fast to see what was going to happen- on this note I got very confused with Jezz line- “your welcome” for what? At first I thought he was secretly helping, then I thought he was trapping her and then I just got confused…

I can see now why this is called part one not book 2, we clearly needed all of this info to get to the good stuff that part two will hopefully offer.

I must admit I expected a second love interest in this one, or a second option so to speak… so it surprised me that we were not presented with that.

🧝‍♂️ ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤:
Are pretty much non existent in this book, it’s the nelle and Greyson show.
Greyson was ruling this one, WHERE WAS THE GROVELLING AND BEGGING AND WORSHIPPING?! He mentioned that the family felt bad and let someone go before the last witches ball and yet he doesn’t even feel that same level of guilt for her? The woman he loves…? Has a deep connection with? Has this magical bond with?
He EVEN GETS BENEFITS OF IMPROVED SPEED AND STRENGTH while training but none of this is explored or fleshed out, no hints or info is given about these new improvements.

Nelle has fire then doesn’t, then breaks then Greysons magic cóck seems to fix her and make her want to fight again… but she does bring some interest to the story as she actively works to get herself out, we see her planning and taking notes and at least doing something- not enough to make grey suffer but enough to annoy him.

There is Basically no mentions of Nelle's family after her dad's appearance with Master Sirro at the start- even though a big plot point was for the Crowther need to break him, Evie gets her mysterious Penpal mail to Nelle but doesnt even write a note to her sister? Not even a hang in their kiddo… Evie hasnt shown up at the door to berate Caiden - with whom she has a close relationship - to see her sister or manipulated him in anyway to even get a note or a gift or anything to her?? Then I thought that door was opening as Mela requests help from Evie but yet Evie doesn't leverage to help her save or even see Nelle?

We get a new aunt that arrives to the fortress but get nothing about her. But we get a messenger / butler type character that drops in, drops some hints, offers us a long detour about another aunt who likes to party plan but doesn't add anything of significance apart from dropping a book then dropping out of the story like all the other characters. I got really excited about him too, thinking finally we were going to move the plot forward and get somewhere!

🪧𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤:
Book 1 was my second fave book of 2025, so I did enjoy this -but it left me very confused and dissatisfied yet hungry for the next book, this one is nothing compared to book 1 but I’m hoping it’s the temptation and taster for part two.

𝐹𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠;

𝕋𝕚𝕜𝕋𝕠𝕜
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𝕄𝕪 ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕤:
⭐️ DNF

⭐️⭐️
I managed to finish it but it was rubbish. I won't keep a physical copy and won't recommend it, but it's a shame as the plot could have made a good book in another author's hands

⭐️⭐️.5
It was OK. I wish I didn't start this one as it didn't do it for me as I struggled to read it. It had an interesting premise that fell flat but I had to see what happened in the end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
I don't regret reading it, and I will read the next one, but this one did have a few flaws. [These could be repetitive writing, gaps or plot holes, better character growth or world building, areas needing more detail]
Generally, the book lacked depth and became confusing. The plot resonated with me even though it annoyed me on the whole.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I'm glad I read it. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to the right people, but I wanted more! Sadly, it's easily forgettable with a few issues I just couldn't overlook/get past.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Good book! I loved it, but... I needed more! I really did enjoy it, but it had a few parts that needed more detail or added history/background or lore. But that's because the story or characters were memorable, and the plot was strong with brilliant twists. I would re-read if I needed to catch up for the next book and would recommend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Great book! I truly wish the story had been thought about more, or the author had been given more time as this book is so close to brilliance! I will likely read again and will definitely be recommending it to all!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
WOW! Absolutely amazing book! Well written with great characters and a plot so memorable that it will stay with me. I will definitely read this again, I will be recommending it and sharing it with the whole world! Also- I NEED A PHYSICAL COPY!

🔥⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🔥
This is my God level tier. The book must be perfectly memorable. Even after reading 50+ more books, I will remember character names and emotions along with the plot. If there is a special edition, then I need to own it! If there is a conversation on books- I'm talking about this!

SPICE SCALE:
🌶️– segsual language and a little on-page action

🌶️🌶️– a lot of segsual language and some on-page open door action, may be occurring a couple of times

🌶️🌶️🌶️– a lot of explicit action and dirty talk, occurring frequently with 2/3 lurvers

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ – super graphic and explicit, occurring 4 or more times, can be more grey and taboo themed.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ – Kinks and Fet!shism, explicit and super graphic. It is likely to be tushy play, toys, playrooms, and more dark / taboo fantasies and realities.

Read full review on ARC Library