Oh my goodness, this book! I stayed up two hours too late last night finishing Havenfall because I could NOT put it down!

I picked this one up because I loved the cover (I mean, look at it!), and I loved Everless and Evermore that Sara Holland also wrote, but I wasn't 100% sold on the description. Once I got into it, though, I fell in love. I can't say I like it more than Everless....but it's at least a tie. And it was a strong 4.5 star read for me! I loved the contemporary setting (though I do hope we get to somehow explore the other worlds in the next book).

I loved the twists and turns the story took, as well as the way the magic came into play. And I loved seeing Maddie (the main character) learn that the way she saw the world may not be the whole picture, and...well that would be a spoiler, but she had a nice character arc. Maddie states that she likes both boys and girls, but there's only a small amount of actual romance in the book, and nothing explicit. It's not the focus of the story, which I liked. I would personally rate the book as okay for ages 12 plus (though obviously all kids are different). I need to get my grubby little hands on book two NOW, but since I can't do that yet, I'll instead just urge you to pick this one up if you enjoy YA fantasy with a contemporary spin, and characters with relatable anxiety, with a good dollop of mystery mixed in.

Thanks Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the free advanced ebook to read and review. All opinions are my own.

(I will also review this on my Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/read.write.coffee/ tomorrow, Feb 4th)

Wow.

So it’s kind of become my thing to start a review with a single word that expresses my feelings on a book.

And wow pretty much sums up Havenfall by Sara Holland.

I’ll be honest, it didn’t start wow.

It started more like meh.

Not MEH meh, but meh.

Am I making sense?

Let’s dive right into the Book Review of Havenfall and I’ll explain.

Havenfall starts slow.

Anyone who has been reading my reviews for any length of time knows I hate slow starts.

Chop of someone’s head in the first chapter and color me intrigued. Okay, well, you don’t really need to do that. But I prefer to start with action, with some sort of struggle to get me hooked.

Havenfall starts like a dictionary.

No, really. It could of course just be the ARC that I got, but I waded through a few pages of terms and explanations before even getting to the prologue.

And the prologue was kind of confusing. Maybe that’s the wrong word, perhaps just uninteresting is a better turn of phrase.

Chapter 1 begins with our heroine, Maddie, bemoaning her sad life.

She lives in Sterling, Colorado. At least I think it was Colorado. She just calls it Sterling after the first mention of where Sterling is.

You might be tempted to think that if she lives in Colorado that this must be an Urban fantasy novel, and you’d only be about 10% right.

Because aside from the frequent use of Maddie’s cell phone and references to pizza parlors, a horcrux, and slew of other pop culture references, the whole of this story takes place in Havenfall.

What is Havenfall?

Havenfall is an inn.

An inn built into the side of mountain.

But not just any inn.

It’s a magical inn.

Havenfull is the omphalos. The heart of the world, the crossroads between the Adjacent Realms.

There used to be dozens of Adjacent Realms, but now only four exist, including Earth. The other three are Fiordenkill, Byrn, and Solaria.

These three worlds have gates in the tunnels beneath Havenfall that allow the peoples from these Realms to cross over into Haven, a place of peace between all lands.

The inn is run by the Innkeeper. But that title is not merely his job description, but an honorific signifying that he is the ruler/keeper of the peace. He is human, thereby being unbiased to any of the three Adjacent Realms.

The innkeeper’s name is Marcus, and he’s Maddie’s uncle.

Maddie wants to be Innkeeper someday, but her father wants her to go to college and hold a respectable job.

Maddie’s father doesn’t know about Havenfall’s magic. No human outside of her immediate bloodline knows.

Am I boring you with details yet?

Cause this is the sort of thing that fills the first 5-6 chapters of Havenfall.

Where is the Wow?

Before we get there, I have one last thing to get off my chest.

Without spoiling anything, there are a few spots in Havenfall that knocked off a few points in my book.

The first is a bit of overly dramatic whining from the main character towards the beginning of the book.

She talks about a traumatic experience, and I get it, trauma is a lasting thing. But holy crap, it happened like 15 years ago and this girl is so sensitive about it that literally anything sets her off.

“He’s a boy, just like my brother, I clam up and remember that fateful day.”

“She’s the same age as my brother would have been, I can feel myself being swallowed up in grief.”

Does this happen every time you meet someone that’s 19? Because I don’t see how she copes with the world.

There’s also a moment where Maddie jumps to a conclusion that needed no jumping, and she stubbornly hangs on to said assumption even when logic and reason could at least delay judgement until all the evidence is in.

But that’s not the most offensive thing to happen.

There is a point towards the latter half of Havenfall where the answer is so friggin’ obvious.

It stares her in the face.

You will know it when you see it, because an astronaut in space could have seen it that’s how big the sign was. And yet Maddie is oblivious as if someone stole all her reasoning skills and drowned them in the lake outside Havenfall.

Here comes the Wow

Forget about the slow start, and excuse a few momentary personality quirks and the story of Havenfall is AMAZING.

All caps was totally necessary.

The worldbuilding is second to none. Even though we technically never leave Colorado, you could swear you were in a high fantasy world the entire story.

The characters from the different Realms are so uniquely distinct. The magic in the story, though light, is placed at just the right spot for just the right amount of pizazz.

Mystery bleeds through every single page of this book (after the first 5-6 chapters of course).

I was getting some very strong Clue vibes in the early pages. A dark and stormy night, an attack when the lights were out, somebody dead, somebody else critical, and a search for whodunnit that lasts until very nearly the end of the book.

That’s not to say that Havenfall is anything like Clue. Not in the least. This is fantasy at it’s finest, the mystery is the icing on the cake.

Yes, my predictions rang true about the obvious points, but there were so so many more wows and wonders as Havenfall unfolded that it overshadowed those few lackluster moments.

Havenfall is light on the action, though. Sure, there’s a few scenes of fights and danger, but mostly the excitement lies in the intrigue as Maggie unravels what’s really going on at the inn.

Havenfall does not fail to keep the pages turning and is worth a solid 4 stars out of 5.

This story is a must-read for all lovers of fantasy and science fiction! I'm always on the fence about magical realism and science fiction stories because they lose that fantastical element I long for when reading the fantasy genre. Havenfall is the perfect blend of fantasy, magical realism, and science fiction. The main character, Maddie, is your average teenager if your average teenager's mom is on death row for killing her son. Maddie is traveling to spend the summer with her uncle, who manages the inn at Havenfall, the crossroads for the multiverse. The sole purpose of the innkeeper is to ensure harmony between the different universes and be a neutral ground for peace discussions. Maddie hopes to take over as innkeeper someday, but she isn't ready for the responsibilities this summer will bring. (Insert awesomeness here.) The plot of this story takes off from the get-go, and leads you down a path of twists and turns that you wouldn't expect. This story had me guessing the whole time and was so action-packed that I literally could not put it down. I don't usually finish books in a day, but this book was unstoppable. I was worried about the pace of this book interfering with my connection with the characters, but it enhances the experience with twinges of mystique. I thoroughly enjoyed the protagonist, Maddie, she was relatable, and I loved seeing her rise to the challenge of her new responsibilities. The idea behind Havenfall being the crossroads to other worlds was genius, and I loved how the author built up the world of Havenfall. I cannot gush enough about how great this book was! It's a must-read.

This story was fun and interesting. I enjoyed the characters and the world, hopeful that we will learn more about the history and the other worlds in future books. The pace of the story was good, quick and kept you interested. While I was able to see what was coming, it was something that was built, it wasn't an instant connection.
Overall, this was a great book, I'll be adding it to my library and I look forward to what happens next.

Someone recently asked me for something that mixed Agatha Christie with fantasy, and I think this essentially manor house mystery with alternate realms would certainly fit the bill.

I appreciated the bones of the story, and found Maddie to be a relatable narrator; regardless of both the supernatural and criminal specifics of her life, she's a character who feels at home only in a certain place but now finds that place not the safe haven it once was, the feeling of being forced to grow up, which is certainly more broadly applicable.

The feeling of escalating panic was effective, though I did find at least two of the twists to be fairly obvious and I found myself wishing the secondary characters were a little better developed and the universe went a bit more in depth. I would certainly read a second book at least to follow up on some of the unanswered questions, but might not race to be first in line

Havenfall was a book I couldn't put down! I hope there are more books in this series.

Why couldn't I put this book down?

I wanted to learn as much as I could of the secrets and differences of the 4 magical realms, including, what we know as the human world; Earth (or Haven as its know in the ancient magical world).

I fell in love with the characters, Maddie, Taya, Brekken, The Silver Prince, Uncle Marcus, Graylin, Willow, The Heiress and more! There wasn't one character that I didn't care about or wanted to know more about.

This first book perfectly set up for more Havenfall series reading but was still such a great and satisfying read on its own!

I highly recommend this book and can not wait for the next book in this series to come out.

Thank you to #netgalley for an advanced copy of this arc in exchange for my opinion.

I really enjoyed the first of this series and can't wait for book 2! It had a great setting, and likeable characters. I would definitely recommend.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review

Interesting premise with the inn being the home to portals to magical worlds. I liked the characters and the murder mystery plot. I also love the mountains of Colorado and thought that was an great setting for the inn.

I picked this one up because the worldbuilding sounded fantastic, and I’m so glad I was right. Lots of twists and turns - some of which I kind of saw coming, others I very much did not. It kind of feels like this book was all buildup for the sequel (hence 4 stars instead of 5), which I’m now very excited for.

Full of mystery and magic, this well written novel takes the reader into a world where magic rules and the role of an Innkeeper is vital to the safety of all. I enjoyed this newest story by Sara Holland and was glad to read an early arc. I did find myself wanting a little more developed of some of the relationships, but overall this was a strong book and I'll definitely be looking forward to the next! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed Sara's debut duology, Everless. So when I learned that she was going to be publishing another YA fantasy duology, I was super excited. Havenfall captivated me from page one and has me flipping the pages as fast as I could to see what was going to happen next.

All Maddie wants is to become the innkeeper of the Inn at Havenfall, the neutral space between three different realms. Summer after summer the Inn at Havenfall has been Maddie's escape from the reality of her mother facing death row, her brother's death but it's also been the only place she gets to spend the summer with Brekken, a Fiorden solider that Maddie is falling for. But Maddie's summer begins to fall apart the moment she arrives at Havenfall, the door to Solaria, a world that was closed off generations ago has opened, someone is dead, her uncle is gravely ill and unable to run the inn and Brekken is missing. With the help of Taya, one of the mortal helping hands at Havenfall, Maddie must become the innkeeper in her uncle's absence and make sure that this years summit doesn't fall apart. But, what happens when darker forces are at work?

I really enjoyed the world building in Havenfall. Sara used a contemporary backdrop to create a captivating and lush fantasy world, that comes alive in front of your eyes. Though I have many questions about the different worlds mentioned in Havenfall, Sara gave us enough world building to get and overall idea of the world and its culture and it's importance to the story line. But I am excited to learn more about Fiordenkill, Byrn and Solaria in the next book (and possibly even get to visit one of these worlds!) In her debut series, the world building was one of the aspects that I did have issues with and I am glad to see that in this series it isn't an issue.

I really enjoyed Maddie's character. A lot of the time in fantasy characters act older then there actual age. In Havenfall, Maddie actually felt like a seventeen year old to me. She made mistakes, she was overwhelmed and she looked to others for help. When she was a child, a Solarian broke into her house and killer her brother and her mother, trying to protect Havenfall took the blame. Through out the novel we see Maddie struggle with survivors guilt and how if she had called for help and didn't climb into the cabinet, how things might be different.

We learn pretty early on in the story that Maddie is Bi, so when Taya was introduced I suspected that there would be a love triangle. I want to say that there is a slight love triangle, it is nothing crazy and it isn't overwhelming in the slightest. I can see Maddie ended up with both Taya and Brekken. But, with how Havenfall ended I am intrigued to see how the romance aspect is going to play out.

Overall I really enjoyed Havenfall and I can't wait to see what book two is going to have in store for Maddie, Brekken, Taya and the rest of this cast. Sara's sophomore series is one that shouldn't be missed and has the potential to appeal to both fantasy and contemporary readers alike.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I previously read a sneak peek and was very interested. I really liked Sara Holland's Everless duology, and the description of Havenfall sounded so unique!

I really liked the characters; Maddie was determined while also being very kind. She's also bisexual, and has potentially romantic situations with both a guy and a girl throughout the book. Her uncle, who is the Innkeeper of Havenfall, is gay and married to a man. The other characters were all very complex and exciting to read about.

I also liked the different worlds, especially Fiordenkill (which is mentioned to have a resemblance to Narnia), but I did wish that it was possible for Maddie to go into the other worlds. It's stated multiple times that members of one world can't stay in another for more than a few days without getting sick and dying, except at Havenfall. So, while there were many descriptions of the different worlds, Maddie (and therefore the reader) never sees them for herself, and presumably never will be able to.

The plot twist at the end involving Taya was completely unexpected for me, and I loved the way clues were subtly dropped throughout the book before the reveal. However, for the first 70% or so of the book, I felt like nothing was really happening, and then I felt that there was too much happening in the last 30% of the book.

Ever since hearing about this book earlier this year I have been waiting to read it but this was a disappointing read for me.

Maddie has dealt with a lot when it comes to her family. Even though her father wants her away from the inn, she is drawn to it since she also wants to take over after her uncle retires. My problem with Maddie was that she was very indecisive. She also pined over another character throughout the whole book and even when she was finally near him, it still wasn't good enough and then she was worried about someone else. She was never happy.

There was never a connection formed between me and the characters either. All of the minor characters were pretty flat and I just can't deal with that. I needed more from them and never got it.

As for the plot, it revolves around a mystery. It did keep me engaged for the most part but that was well after 30%. The beginning, besides the prologue, felt slow and a lot of information was thrown around about the inn and its other-realm doors. Besides all the information about the doors and some characters that were not from Haven, little else is known about the other realms. They really didn't play a huge part and I think that's why for me the fantasy element lacked a bit. Hopefully there will be more from those realms in the next book. I also guessed a few of the plot twists and the ones I didn't lacked the surprise I enjoy.

Overall, it was an interesting concept for a book but it was executed well enough for me. I'm hoping that book two will have better character development and more to do with the other realms.