The concept of Havenfall is very interesting, and I liked the description of all realms at the start of the book (made it easier moving forward with the story!).
The MC was great, it's good to see MCs that aren't perfect little snowflakes, and makes lots of mistakes (but learns from them).
The other characters were ok, sometimes one-dimensional, and I didn't connect with most of them.
I enjoyed this read and would continue with the series.

Perfect fall read. Great characters, intriguing plot. Twists and turns, high stakes suspense with just the right touch of cozy mystery. Couldn't put it down. And the audio version was very easy listening. Narrator totally fit the role and gave a believable performance.

*review will be posted 7/15/24

I started off reading a sampler of this book and got hooked enough to purchase the full book on my own. Though the beginning is a little slow with Maddie arriving at the Inn, I was really intrigued by the concept of all these worlds converging at this one spot. I loved how magical the setting felt and I desperately wanted to learn more about all these worlds.

The plot was fun as well. It gave a sort of fantasy murder mystery vibe. Aside from trying to figure out what was going on at the inn, I was also really curious to learn more about Maddie's backstory. That said though, I wasn't a huge fan of her character. She felt naive, too trusting, and easily manipulated. I think Taya was a great addition to the story. She balanced Maddie's character out and helped the plot move further along in the right direction. 

I also didn't think the villain in this book was very well developed. He felt too one-dimensional. I wish his motives had been more complicated.

I'm a little curious to see how the romance develops in the next book and whether we'll be looking at a love triangle situation or not. Despite its flaws, I still had fun reading the book and really want to see how things continue. I'm hoping Maddie steps up more in the next book so we can see her as a true leader.

The world building was great. The story started off with the right amount of suspense and nothing was thrown out way in the means of an info dump. However, the pacing was a bit off and it took a while to properly get into the book. It was an okay read.

This novel was just a meh for me. It was entertaining but I didn’t find myself excited to pick it up. I probably won’t read the next in the series. Thank you netgalley for my free copy.

Maddie is on her way to Havenfall to work under her Uncle Marcus. Havenfall is the place where the doorways to other worlds are connected and protected. On her way, Maddie meets Taya, who wants a landscaper job at Havenfall. Maddie’s family has been torn apart and she mourns her brother and mother. Havenfall is her sanctuary or has been until one of the realm walls cracks and evil escapes, harming her Uncle Marcus. This leaves Maddie in charge of Havenfall with enormous responsibilities of having to solve the problem and helping save Marcus and keep the peace among the realms. Everything is much more complicated than Maddie ever expected. She discovers treason, mistreatment and a history of kidnapping. She’s overwhelmed and as things keep being revealed, Maddie feels like her world is falling out from beneath her feet. Intrigue and surprises, 5 stars!

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

Such a beautiful fantasy world crafted together, but i just couldn’t get into the story. It was a very slow pacing and it just couldn’t keep me entertained as much as I wanted it to!

This book felt like too much and not enough at the same time. It should have either been shorter or there should have been more going on.

The plot and world building are definitely unique but the situations just felt flat? Like they were definitely exciting events! But they weren't actually exciting as written. I found myself struggling to care. I think maybe as the series goes on it might matter more but this just felt like a book that needed to get out of it's own way so the real stuff could begin.

I tried to give this book a go but it just wasn’t for me. I thought the story was interesting but I just could not get into it.

This story had so much more potential than was executed.

When I first read that this book was about ancient realms and such, I thought we'd actually get to explore those realms. That never happened. We really hardly leave the hotel, the place where these ancient realms connect.

There is nothing more annoying than a teenager who thinks they can outsmart everyone and solve everything on their own, while still making incredibly immature and rash decisions. I have to say, the thing I disliked the most was the MC. It was like she was on a personality rollercoaster. At one point she seemed like a damaged loner who had experienced terrible things in life. Other times she was like a naive 16 year old who didn't know left from right. Sometimes she would put up a fight, most times she would hear something absurd and believe it 100%. The fact that a 16 year old who didn't know ANYTHING about what was actually going on suddenly came up with this simple revelation that all the people decades before her hadn't though of, is worthy of a good eyeroll.

The other main issue I had that killed this for me was the execution. Frankly, it was a bit dull. Very slow paced. At times it seemed like there was a lot happening, but it didn't really FEEL like it should have. An example... "And then, shitshitshitshit, he's opening the trunk, shoving me in." Thats it. Is there no fear? No emotion? No fighting back? I feel like a situation like that warrants a bit more description. There was an entire paragraph just on her fighting with water. Scenes that should have been more exciting fell flat.

And then,the climax happens in the third last chapter. And only lasts half of said chapter. Things resolved too quickly and I am sad to say that this was a big disappointment for me.

I read this because I got an arc of book 2, so here's hoping the sequel is better!

This cover is gorgeous and is what initially drew me in to pick this one up. This is a contemporary fantasy, that bridges on a portal fantasy (which I love). However, in this book the reader only stays in this world. You can definitely tell that this is a first in the series type of book and I'm hoping that the other worlds will be explored in the later books. I liked the characters okay (I'm hoping that in the later books that there will be more character development though), but I loved the setting. I loved it being in a small town and how it was a safe haven for all the realms but it was also a safe haven for Maddie. The plot and world-building are definitely unique. The pacing of this story was pretty slow and I felt that it could have been condensed down, but it was still an enjoyable read.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Thank you Bloomsbury YA for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Havenfall
By: Sara Holland

REVIEW ☆☆☆

It took me a while to read Havenfall. The story begins with too much information about the world, etc., and I got stuck in it. The type of fantasy is not my favorite, and I didn't connect with the characters. This book would do well with the right audience, but that isn't me.

Although this book took me quite some time to get into (I got about 50 pages in before I had to put it down and then came back to it.) , I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to people just because I wasn't too fond of the main character and it took me some time to get in to. . I did however like that there is a hidden inn with creatures, magic, and tons of mystery. I rated this an overall 3 out of 5.

DNF'ed at 60% This started out interesting but I quickly lost interest. The main character was frustrating and naive and made such stupid choices consistently .Also there didn't seem to build a lot of world building, which you would expect from the first book in a fantasy series.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an great intro to portal fantasy. For someone who is new to the sub-genre, this would be a fantastic read without being too high fantasy.

However, I do wish the worlds were a little more fleshed out. It seemed a little one note, but I did ultimately enjoy my time reading Havenfall.

I loved Everless but Havenfall missed the mark for me. Urban fantasy isn't my favorite genre anyway and I didn't feel connection with the characters.

Oh how I wanted to love this book... The cover is fabulous. The world-building is interesting (but I don't think there are "enough" worlds to call for a treaty...). The characters have so much potential in-so-far as diversity and emotional depth. However, somewhere the story fell flat. It was predictable and it shouldn't have been. I really believe with better editing maybe this could have been a really good beginning to a very good fantasy. Instead, for me, it rates as "good."

This was really fun. It wasn't exactly something I loved monumentally, but it had great promise and the writing was really nicely done.