Book Review: Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn
Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn
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Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!
Published: October 7, 2025
Series: The Merciless Realms #1
Genres: Adult // Fantasy, Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Open Door)
Quick Thoughts: Vesselless promised an interesting premise and magic system but the execution ultimately fell flat. Though there's a good foundation, the book needed much clearer and more coherent development of its plot, world, and characters.
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Physical Abuse/Child Abuse
Violence
Attempted Rape
Drugging of FMC (in a club setting)
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Forbidden Love
Enemies to Lovers
Tournament subplots
Paranormal Characters
Dual-POV
What is Vesselless about? (Spoiler Free Summary)
From debut author Cortney L. Winn, a pacy and addictive enemies-to-lovers romance following the reluctant heir to a fantasy kingdom, and the seductive spirit sent to claim her soul.
“I’ve seen monsters, Nizzara, and you are not one of them. A little beast maybe, but not a monster.”
Nizzara, reluctant heir to the Kingdom of Zarr, has always been able to perceive spirits better than the average caster. When she enters a deadly tournament to escape her betrothal, she’s determined to win without succumbing to the addictive spirit magic she channels, or the unnerving darkness growing within her. But finding herself outmatched, Nizzara must face her fear of power and team up with Dagen—an enemy who is half-ghost and all charm—to survive the tournament.
Dagen, the last King of Zarr, was killed by Nizzara’s father ten years ago. Now a half-ghost—able to phase between his human and spirit form—he is stuck in another realm, hunting wretched souls for the god of death. When his keeper offers him a chance to reclaim his freedom in exchange for Nizzara’s soul, Dagen takes the deal.
There’s only one catch: she must give it to him freely by the tournament’s end, or his own soul is forfeit.
Perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and The Serpent and the Wings of Night, Vesselless is a spellbinding fantasy of magic and intrigue—and a tantalizing slow burn that will have you hooked until the very last page.
Pre-Read Thoughts
I originally discovered Vesselless because it is one of the Allurial picks for the month of October. The back of the book sounds a little reminiscent of Phantasma and I really enjoyed the deadly tournament with the charming ghost love interest in that story, so I thought I’d pick this up as a fun October read.
Vesselless Review
When I picked up Vesselless, I thought I was signing up for an enemies-to-lovers romance between a vengeful ghost king and the daughter of his usurper, who also happens to be fighting in a brutal competition in the hopes of winning and using the prize (a wish) to end her betrothal. Yes, this book promised a lot but the premise seemed really interesting and unique.
While most of the promised elements are technically there, the execution needs a lot of work.
World-building
My biggest issue was the world-building, which suffered from two extremes: either overwhelming info-dumps or new terminology that goes unexplained for a few chapters. It was presented in a way that made the entire plot hard to follow. This meant that when we got to the big reveals, they fell flat because I didn't know who or what we were talking about. Oh, and the three kingdoms being named so similarly (Zo, Zem, and Zarr) made it impossible to keep things straight when it came to political conversations and lore.
Storytelling & Plot
Related to this, a lot of the interesting elements appeared throughout without clear purpose or integration into the story. Take the diary entries from Dagen's sister that open many chapters: beyond being vaguely connected to Nizzara's actions, they added nothing meaningful. Or the prophecy introduced halfway through with no explanation of its consequences or why fulfilling it matters to the kingdoms. These examples highlight the book's core problem: cool concepts are dropped in without showing how they connect to anything else. Because of this issue, the presentation of the plot is a little muddled and, at times, doesn't make much sense.
Romance
The enemies-to-lovers romance was nowhere to be seen, by the way. This was insta-love and it's still unclear to me why Dagen fell in love with Nizzara and when exactly he stopped wanting to sacrifice her soul for his freedom. It just kind of happened without much explanation.
So, should you read Vesselless?
Overall, I did not enjoy this as much as I would have hoped. There is a good foundation, but every detail of the plot, world, and characters needed to be fleshed out more and explained more coherently.
This could be good as a starter romantasy or if you just want to read a fast paced story without thinking too much about it.
Check out this review on Goodreads or Storygraph.
Happy reading!
Kim
Vesselless FAQs
Some of the answers may be spoilers if you haven’t read it already. Proceed with caution!
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No, Vesselless is the first book in the Merciless Realms series. There's an upcoming second book in the series, though the title hasn't been announced yet.
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Romance.io rates this book a 3 🌶️, which is Open Door. That means readers are present for spice scenes but explicit details are slightly glossed over.
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Here are the steamy/spicy chapters in Vesselless. Scenes that are not spicy but have some steam have a green pepper next to it.
Chapter 61 🫑
Chapter 69