Havenfall is a world unto itself--an inn situated at the gateways between worlds offering neutral ground for the Last Remaining Adjacent Realms. It's also the one place where people believe Maddie Marrow when she tells them what really happened to her brother all those years ago.

Maddie knows that this summer is her last chance to prove herself to her uncle Marcus and earn her spot as his successor running the inn. She's up to the challenge. But when Maddie gets to Havenfall she realizes that things have started changing. Her best friend Brekken is a Fiordenkill soldier, Marcus is keeping secrets, and then there's the new girl--Taya--who is supposed to be temporary help for the summer but draws Maddie's attention more than she cares to admit.

When a body is found on the grounds and Marcus is attacked, Maddie is left to pick up the pieces and figure out the truth before Havenfall and the tenuous peace it represents is ruines in Havenfall (2020) by Sara Holland.

As the start of a new series, Havenfall lays a lot of groundwork introducing readers to Maddie's world at the inn and the adjacent realms Fiordenkill and Byrn as well as Solaria, a rogue realm whose portal was sealed off years ago. While the premise is interesting and offers a unique spin on traditional portal fantasies, the world building is one of the bigger problems with this book.

One of the tenets of the story is that that the porous nature of the portals between realms is part of why we have myths with magic even though Earth does not have magic of its own. Solarians--the main villain for a significant part of Havenfall--come from a world that is associated with mythology including djinn, vampires, demons, and soulstealers. This choice is problematic because djinn are also the only non-white/non-western mythology named in the entire story. It's also the only mythos associated with a specific religion/culture which, again, here is being coded as villainous.

I won't get into spoilers explaining Maddie's history with Solaria but suffice to say that her hatred of the entire Solarian race informs a lot of her character. Does Maddie eventually see the error or her ways? Yes. Are reparations being made? Kind of. Did we need to spend an entire book vilifying an entire race (which although presented as white in the novel is the only group in the book associated with a nonwhite culture)? Absolutely not. What's worst, the only notable person of color in the entire cast of characters is Marcus’s husband who is from one of the other “good” worlds.

Holland's ambitious world building never gels enough to transcend this messy foundation. Similarly, the plot never quite comes together despite ample time spent setting up the story with an incredibly slow beginning. Maddie is bisexual--a fact that is refreshingly a nonissue for her family and friends but which also hints at a love triangle that frustratingly never leads anywhere interesting.

Havenfall is a mystery wrapped in a portal fantasy setting that centers an ambitious if often naive heroine. Recommended for readers who prefer slow building suspense to quick action and are willing to overlook messy world building entirely.

Possible Pairings: Caraval by Stephanie Garber, A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury, Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus, Mister Monday by Garth Nix, Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige, The Archived by Victoria Schwab

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Havenfall is a book, which brings reality and fantasy together. Havenfall Inn is ran by Maddie’s brother. Maddie is tired of life, as mom is on death row for killing one of Maddie’s brothers, but Maddie knows this cannot be right. She goes back to Havenfall Inn where she feels alive.

Havenfall is unique in that it is the safe place between realms. Many come to the Inn to find peace, but when a body is found and shadows lurk, Maddie begins to wonder how safe this escape from reality truly is! Did she make the right choice coming back to Havenfall?

Fantasy book lovers will enjoy this one! YA read
I was given and ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 Stars

Havenfall has left me feeling a bit wishy-washy. On the one hand, Sara Holland’s premise is sound. The book has a solid structure, and characters that should be enticing. But I finished the book feeling more meh than anything.

This is the first book in a planned series, so maybe the author is holding back on purpose. There are a lot of unanswered questions here, including some character flaws. Because the book mostly takes place at the inn, it has an insular, almost claustrophobic feel to it. Again, this could be a choice to mimic the guests’ feelings as they end up on lockdown. Still, it made me antsy.

While Havenfall is a fast-paced read with a decent premise, I wanted more. I wanted to see the realms. I wanted Maddie to be more. I wanted Brekken to be more than a convenient plot twist. I’m curious to see if any of these things are addressed in the next book. But for now, I recommend this as a library read only.

Link will go live 2/21/2020

I am so unbelievably sad to say that Havenfall is my biggest disappointment of the year so far. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s the worst book of the year to date- I’ve read far worse books just in the past week. But I was very, very excited for Havenfall and it really let me down. I loved Sara Holland’s Everless books, they were fun and inventive. Havenfall felt like neither of those things and honestly shocked me as a follow-up to that series.

Let’s start with the writing itself. It felt so amateur, more like a bad debut than the author’s third book. There was so much dialogue, I felt like I was reading nothing but talking, talking and more talking. And yes, dialogue can be used as a great way of showing and not telling, but when the only way anything is shown is through dialogue the doesn’t it just become another form of telling? That’s exactly what happened in Havenfall and it made for a Beverly lacking reading experience. That also leads directly into my second issue with the book.

The world building was just not there. The setting might have been partly to blame, as the majority of the story takes place at the titular inn, but that feels like I’m making an excuse for poor world building. All of these magical worlds and races were supposed to exist, but even the ones directly presented on the page were hard for me to picture because the book just didn’t give me enough to go on. There was a lot of potential to build a really cool, unique setting, but instead it just felt bland and weakly written.

I’m going to go over the pacing and characters together because I feel like I linked them while reading. I never connected with any of the characters, which just added to how very slow this book felt. Again, too much dialogue. With all of the talking it never felt like anything was actually happening, which led to a very boring read and characters that I was told to care about but never actually did. Even the main character, Maddie, never grabbed my attention. She made a lot of decisions that didn’t make sense to me and seemed to only be there as an attempt to add tension and mystery to the story. Which leads me to my last qualm with this book.

The potentially mysterious story presented in Havenfall was absolutely not mysterious at all. Everything leading up to the “twists” was so heavy-handed and clichéd that I saw how it would all play out from practically the beginning. This was just another way that this book both bored and disappointed me. The stakes never truly felt high, and all tension dissipated the moment I figured out how everything would go down.

So yeah, I didn’t like Havenfall, and I’m still really sad about it. I hope that others will like it, and even though I won’t be reading the sequel I really do hope that it’s better. I would recommend it to readers who maybe aren’t big fantasy readers but want just a bit of magic in their books. It is a fast read, which might make it appealing to some. For me, though, it was overall just a very lack-luster read and not at all the quality that I was expecting.

My review will appear on NovelKnight.com on 2/28/20.

Fast-paced story set in a magical location where different worlds connect. While the story isn't completely new, it will hold readers' interests. (Book One of a series)
There are some flaws in the character development--for example, how does our main character, a regular human girl, know how to pick out weapons to fight monsters?

3.5

Is this the year of the 3's for me???!?! I don't think I've ever rated this many books a three in such a short period of time. Again, it's not that any of them have been bad, I've just been missing some kind of wow factor.

This story in particular had the structure to be great. I honestly think we'll see more of that in the next book if Maddie is able to travel to different realms, it just seems like this one spent the entire time setting up for future events and because all of it took place within the walls of Haven (or just outside of them) I really didn't feel like I could rate it any higher than a three.

There still were quite a few twists and turns that had me really guessing who the mysterious bad guy was going to be and honestly you don't get all of the details on certain things until right at the end which made the suspense more real and exciting. Along with that, I really liked the writing in general. I haven't read Holland's first series, <i>Everless</i>, yet even though I've heard really good things especially about the first book. I can't say for certain then that those of you who loved that will love this but I really think she set up for an amazing second book.

Other than more action, one thing I hope to see more of is character development from Maddie. I think she came a long way over the span of this book but it seemed like every other second she was doubting herself and being self-depreciating and just going through a LOT. Given her circumstances, I really do ~get~ it but...it was a lot to handle. I just wish she had made some better decisions a little earlier or tried to get help or something, anything really. I don't know, I'm conflicted, lol. I keep playing devil's advocate with myself to see both sides of the picture but I also can't help but feel what I feel immediately as I'm reading, ya know?

Overall thoughts, this wasn't bad but it also wasn't something that WOWED me--it was just good. It was solid. Will I still read the next book? For sure!

<i>Huge thanks to Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I really enjoyed this book. The plot moved along nicely and the characters were well developed.

The story itself had several twists and it wasn't easy to figure them out - I had to wait until they were revealed, which is how it should be.

I look forward to reading more from this series!

This book was wonderful. The descriptions of the Colorado scenery were excellent. I am someone who can really picture what I'm ready well, and with such rich descriptions I loved being in my head while I was reading. My only wish is that somehow the descriptive language could stay while moving the story along at a quicker pace. The story was slow, and at times I rest felt the slow pace wasn't necessary. I'm hoping the sequel will contain more of the worlds and a quicker story.

When I read that Havenfall was a contemporary fantasy 'perfect for fans of Melissa Albert and Holly Back', I was SOLD. The Hazel Wood is one of my all-time favourite books, and let's not even get into The Cruel Prince because those books are totally not of importance right now but I could ramble on for AGES.. Did I love Havenfall as much as I love my faves? Well, no. And that's no fault of the book itself! Before mentioned books just set crazy high standards. I genuinely really enjoyed Havenfall, though. The setting is wonderful, I really liked the characters and it the plot is so interesting!

Havenfall's main character Maddie is a force to be reckoned with from page one. I don't think she's really a rule breaker, but she doesn't do what she's told, either. This trope in YA sometimes makes me roll my eyes. "WHY?! Can't you see you're creating your own conflict?" But I think we can all agree we'd rather go to a fun magical place for the summer than some boring old relative, right? Anyway, Maddie is ambitious, strong and really brave. There's depth to her character and I love how she's bi! It was a bit just a little bit too obvious when she was clearly interested in this one guy and this one girl, but I actually quite enjoyed it!

Havenfall is this magical inn that holds doorways to these intriguing magical realms. We learn a little bit of each of them at the start of the book and I couldn't wait to read even more about them in the story. Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see as much of these magical realms at all. In the end, it felt more like the buildup for a sequel, which is fine! Havenfall's story focused more on the inn and the surrounding town itself. And guys, I LOVE this inn! It's on a mountain! And I just pictured this romantic, fairytale style house except the size of a mansion... Gahh, I can't explain it but it just felt so magical! It has a lake and a bridge and if I were to go on holiday to a book setting, this inn would be my destination. I just hope the weather will be better... hahah!

The plot revolves around a mystery and that's definitely what's kept me so interested in the book. I just had to know what happened next! If my predictions were true! It was so exciting to read. I love when things are being foreshadowed, and it was done so well! Some events felt a tiny bit predictable, but there were plenty great plot twists to make up for it. I do wish we got to see some more of the magical realms and actual magic, but I'm quite sure we'll get more of that in the sequel.

Overall, Havenfall is a great contemporary fantasy set in a wonderful location, full of interesting characters, intriguing worlds and mystery! It's a bit different from what I expected, but it remains a great read and I cannot wait for the sequel!

Havenfall was one of my most highly anticipated releases for 2020. Havenfall follows Madeline Morrow, the niece of the innkeeper of Havenfall. Havenfall is the connection between three realms, where the peace treaty is enforced. The Innkeeper, Marcus, maintains the alliance and peace between Haven (Earth), Byrn, and Fiordenkill and plans a summit every summer where delegates can come to Haven without worrying about being seen by humans.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It was good, but not great. I liked the characters and the twists and turns, but the flow and pacing seemed off. By the end, I was very much into it and I will definitely be reading the sequel, but it took too long to rope me in. I wanted more from it. One thing I noticed is there is so much time spent on world building and setting the scene - even to the point of being repetitive and redundant. That may be cleaned up in edits, so I'm not holding that against Havenfall too much.

I liked the amount of twists and reveals, it seemed like more than a usual YA book. I didn't see a few of them coming, so that is always a plus for me. The ending was nice too, because it was action filled and suspenseful without leaving it on a huge cliffhanger.

Thank you Bloomsbury for deeming me worthy of an ARC of Havenfall through Netgalley. I much appreciated it.

Especially because this book was very good! I dare say memorable. Usually with books that I like I don’t always remember them. They don’t always stick after a couple days of reading, but thoughts Maddie and Havenfall will definitely linger.

First and foremost the wooorld. It was fun. Maybe I’m being a tad dramatic BUT, I personally thought the idea of an inn dedicated to peacekeeping between magical worlds was SO INTERESTING. I didn’t even mind the contemporary setting surrounding this inn. In fact I actually found that it worked quite well with the story and the characters.

Maddie used so many curse words. That’s all it took to like her. She was already fun. Brave because of the risky choices she made and her confidence surrounding her decisions. She was definitely honest an just a genuinely good person. But she cursed quite often and I loved it.

Taya was my biggest let down because we got to know her but she felt very...bland. Sadly she’s the reason I docked a star. Taya and her relationship with Maddie.

(Spoilers might appear, beware)

Now, being as this was my first F/F romance book, I expected a bit...more? I mean it could be a genuine slow-burn, or I might have heard wrong, or any other possibilities, but she spent the majority of the book with Brekken. Her thoughts—when not focused on the safety of the inn—strayed to Brekken quite often with sprinkles of Taya here and there.

And then later on in the book, after having just a few moments with Taya, though she possesses this undying BOND with Brekken, she’s just totally into Taya over him Nope. Even if he came back after disappearing, I don’t ship her with Brekken, but I need Taya and Maddie to be developed a little bit better than “let’s help each other out” or “oh why are you out this late” or “oh, you’re injured let me help” if Sara expects me to ship them.

I will say that this book surprised me with its plot twist. There were a few that I guessed, but a few that actually managed to catch me off guard.

I’m so excited that in the next book, rather than remain on boring old earth, we get to visit Solaria! Yuuus. I’m excited.


Anyways this book was super good and I can’t wait to get my sexy finished copy.

Ok bye.

Portal fantasy with teen angst- an interesting twist. Sara Holland presents a world where magic is real, but hidden, and all of our world is non-magical. In a place that bridges these worlds, known as Havenfall, a teen named Maddie has been training to be the Innkeeper of Havenfall and it's famous inn all her life. But, when danger comes to the peaceful sanctuary, Maddie is the only thing stopping her world from falling apart.
Chock full of angst and interesting characters, Havenfall is a nice break from standard YA fantasy and a quick, enjoyable read.


Thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury, and Sara Holland for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I had such a great time reading this book. It was just so enjoyable. I was deeply invested in the plot, characters and worlds that I never wanted it to end.

The idea of Havenfall is so interesting to me. A neutral meeting place for different realms. How cool is that!? We only got a small glimpse into Fiordenkill, Byrn and Solaria though. I’m really hoping that we get to learn a whole lot more about each realm in the next book. Fingers crossed that the characters can somehow visit each place. That would be amazing!

I really liked the main character Maddie. She has a heartbreaking past that is still very fresh in her mind. She deals with some grief, anger and survivors guilt. Havenfall is the one place that she feels like she belongs. It’s a place where she can get away from everything in her normal life. It’s so obvious how much she loves the inn. She goes above and beyond in order to protect it and all it’s people.

As far as romance goes, there is very little in this book. I mean it is there, but Maddie has so many things going on so thinking about a relationship isn’t her first priority. I can definitely see a love triangle in the works though. I am not the biggest fan of those, but in this case I don’t think I would mind it. I really like both of the love interests as of right now.

Like I said above, I had a blast reading this. It was definitely a page turner. I had to know what was going to happen. Havenfall had a few different mysteries going on. I did figure out a couple pretty early on, but the other reveals blew my mind. So yes, this was full of twists & turns and I enjoyed every second of it.

I love the way the story ended. It left me wanting more and now I am so eager for the sequel! There are a ton of questions that I desperately need answers to. I don’t know how I am going to survive the wait!

Havenfall is a fast-paced YA fantasy with excellent world-building and engaging characters. In a world where there are four realms, an inn exists as a safe place that connects the realms. What happens when that safety is interrupted in what should be a safe-haven for all? Readers who enjoyed Sara Holland's Everless series will fall in love with this vivid new world. There are plenty of twists throughout and the writing is gorgeous. Highly recommended to readers who enjoy YA fantasy.

I loved Sara Holland's Everless series, but I always felt that it could've been condensed into one novel. I feel like a lot of her pacing issues and repetitiveness was gone with this book! Havenfall was a great fantasy! It has a really unique concept and great characters. The world-building was kind of crammed in there at the beginning, but once that was settled, the story took flight and was really fun. It was one of those books that starts with you unsure if you like it, but then ends with you wanting to tell everyone to read it! Definitely really impressed with her growth as a writer and I cannot wait for the next one!

Fantasy is hard for me to get into or understand. The world building and character development could use some work here. But overall, I am intrigued and interested, and a little disappointed. But like I said, fantasy isn't my thing.

I was super excited for Havenfall. I read an excerpt a few months ago, and I was so damn excited for it. I couldn’t wait to read it, so when I got approved on NetGalley for an eARC I was ecstatic. I couldn’t wait to read it.

I don’t know where that initial excitement went. I have no idea where it ran off to. But it became pretty clearly early on, that it wasn’t going to be showing up again.
Now, I will be completely clear that I wasn’t a fan of Sara’s second release – Evermore. It was disappointing after reading Everless – which I loved. I went into this book with a clear mind, completely intent on giving her writing another chance, and I don’t know what it is, but this book just didn’t hit the mark.
Let me back up – overall, sure, I enjoyed this book. It had elements that I like in a story, and I did stay interested enough to keep turning the pages.
But with that being said, I never felt a connection with it. I didn’t connect with the characters…at all. Not once did I feel anything for the characters. I also had trouble picturing them…well everyone except Taya. I could picture her easily. You would think that as the reader, I should be able to picture the MC – Maddie, but nope. All I remember about her physical appearance is that she has short hair. It extends further than just the characters. I struggled to picture Havenfall. Ultimately, I just pictured like a Victorian Mansion, but I have no idea if that’s right.
Also, as a reader – tying into the whole not being able to picture anything or anyone – I felt like I was told everything. Told everything, and still unable to picture anything, or even fully understand everything. It was like I was dumped into the middle of this book, this world and expected to know things, which clearly wasn’t the case.
Then there’s the plot.
So much goes on, plot wise, and it’s all kind of a jumble.
I’m just so annoyed and so over these books that ultimately feel like almost a waste of my time.
I know some people absolutely love this book, and that’s fantastic, I’m so incredibly happy for you! I wish I did, but I don’t. The concept is really cool and unique, but the story – how it was written, just fell short for me. My excitement is gone, disappeared, blown away with the breeze. I didn’t connect to this book at all, on any level and I don’t know if I’ll pick up the second one when it comes out. I also have no idea how everything is going to tie up by the end of that book, but I’m sure it’ll be very convenient and easy.
If you’re interested in Havenfall, hopefully I haven’t put you off of it. I’m going to tell you to check it out and form your own opinions. I don’t want to convince you out of a book that might become your favorite read.

#Havenfall #NetGalley
Wow, oh wow! I was so excited to receive this E-Arc!!
Thank you to Bloomsbury and Edelweiss for the E-arc copy of Havenfall.
The novel has Holland's creative and quick paced writing. The characters are well developed and Maddie has such a underdog feel to her that the reader wants to cheer her on. The backdrop of Colorado and the mountain has a mystical feel. The secrets of the Inn are mysterious, but not too much to distract from Maddie's journey.

I liked the idea of this inn being the neutral zone connecting so many different realms.  And the cover is stunning - and that's before I even noticed the woman's head forming the mountain.

Initially, I was skeptical about this book.  The first several pages are descriptions of each realm, their people, and their magic - basically an info dump - and I hoped that wasn't an indicator of how the rest of the book would play out.  After the first few chapters, I was relieved that wouldn't be the case. 

Maddie is easy to like and care about.  Havenfall is her safe space where she's accepted and feels needed, but soon after she arrives for the summer, her world gets turned upside down.  For me, it seemed pretty obvious early in the story who she shouldn't trust, so it wasn't a complete shock when everything comes to a head near the end.  Still, I enjoyed seeing Maddie begin to figure things out and learn to trust her instincts.  

The supporting characters are helpful and occasionally fun, but none of them really shine or jump off the page.  With the majority of this story taking place at the inn, I'd love to venture into the other realms in the next book and learn more about the magic. 

Havenfall may not offer any earth-shattering revelations or breathtaking highs and lows, but it's an evenly-paced book containing an intriguing mystery in a magical setting and a series I plan to continue.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Havenfall is everything I want in a young adult fantasy: a cool concept, well-executed, with a great heroine.

Maddie has had a rough life. Her mother is on death row for murdering her brother, and this has made Maddie something of an outcast. The only place she feels comfortable is her uncle's inn in a small town in Colorado, where she spends her summers. Havenfall isn't just a hotel--it's the place where a portal to other worlds opens. Every summer, the portals open and the people of Fiordenkill and Byrn come through to meet in the safety of Havenfall. There were once many other lands, but their doors have all been closed, including Solaria, whose door was sealed off after a deadly incident, although it's believed that some Solarians escaped and are roaming around on Earth.

When Maddie arrives for the summer, all hell breaks loose, and she finds herself in charge of the inn, a position she is not at all prepared for. With her uncle temporarily out of the picture, arguing factions, a potential threat from the Solarians, and a Fiorden prince with ambiguous motives trying to help her, Maddie is in way over her head and she has to figure out what's really going on.

Maddie is a great heroine. She's in a rough situation. Havenfall is the only place she feels safe and welcome, but now it's no longer a haven and she has to be the one to figure out what's really going on. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot, and although I had some suspicions, I was really surprised by the big reveals at the end.

There's some romance in the book, but it's not the main focus. Maddie is bi and she has both male and female love interests in the book. Brekken is a handsome Fiorden who she's know since childhood, and she's hoping that friendship will turn into something more. Then there's Taya, a newcomer to Havenfall. She and Maddie become close during the chaotic weeks at the inn. There's a bit of swoon with both love interests, but the focus is more on the strange things happening at the inn. It does seem like a setup for a love triangle in book two.

The ending was very satisfying. There's no major cliffhanger, but there's a good setup for the next, which I'm very excited to read.