When I started this book I expected to read a middle grade book about a girl trapped in the world of the Fae while she is being replaced by a changeling in her own world. What I didn't expect was a dual perspective, told from her pov and her father's.

I enjoyed both povs but sometimes I got a little bored by Abbie's. The Fae world lacked a bit of world building for me. I didn't fully understand how this world and it's magic worked other than it has two seasons; summer and winter. Names were dropped and it felt like I was supposed to know these people, when i wished they would be further explained.

This book is only about 200 pages long and most of the time it felt too rushed. I wish the author would have taken more time to introduce these characters and make them and their enviroments more flashed out.

The idea and overall story is good and interesting I just wish it would have been implemented a bit better.

Fae Child was a cute, magical middle grade portal fantasy. it follows an eight year old girl named Abbie, who gets pulled through a portal in a pond into the Faerie World, where she must journey from Summer to Winter to get home again. Along the way, she makes friends with all sorts of magical creatures like elves, werewolves, dryads, and other lost humans.
I liked this story and thought it had great potential. However, the pacing was strange. It felt extremely rushed at parts, especially at the beginning and the end. I wished that we got to know Abbie and her personality and life before she went through the portal at the beginning - I feel that it would have given her more of a personality. Throughout most of the book, she felt like a very generic eight-year-old, although she was supposed to be a nature-loving wild child, this part of her personality was only told to us, and not shown. Some of the relationships and characterizations did not feel fully realized, although I hope that will be helped by the next book in the series.
All in all, I thought this book was very promising, I just wish the plot and characters were fleshed out more.

So! This book was... interesting, to say the least.

Our main protagonist is Abbie, an 8 year old girl that accidentally stumbles into the world of fae when a young elf-in-training opens a portal between the worlds. Unfortunately, human children are quickly enslaved to the fae queens upon discovery. As a result, she must get back to her own world as soon as possible, which proves to be difficult considering the portal is unable to be created once more. Consequently, this means a long journey through dangers to get to the only other portal: a portal deep in the heart of Winter.

But her disappearance has not gone by unnoticed. When Abbie is sucked into the fae world, a changeling remains to take her place in the human world. The changeling's odd attitude quickly makes Dan, Abbie's father, realize what really happened, and he will stop at nothing to get his daughter back.

It was a nice book, truly! It actually reminded me a lot of the Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis with the exception of the adult perspective. Upon reading the book, I could see why it was necessary to have Dan's perspective as well, though I felt that it rather diminished the quaint charm the book had. I preferred Abbie's perspective and don't think that Dan's perspective might continue too much in the future. Still, even if it does, it wouldn't stop me from picking up the next book in the series! Thank you to Netgalley for providing the ARC! I look forward to the next book!

3/5 stars

** I was provided an E-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review""

A very middle of the road book. I am putting this on the lower end of three stars. I wanted to love this but it just didn't do it for me. I wasn't a major fan of the writing, and there were times where things felt very abrupt that I felt i had missed something. That being said I still thought it was a very interesting magical world and would recommend at least giving it a try because I definitely see potential.

I'd like to give thanks to the publishers of this book for providing me with an eArc of this book.

Unfortunately I had to dnf it at just over 30%. It was much more of an early reader book than Teen/YA as it was advertised as.

The characters seemed cute but the writing style was too simplistic for my liking and the story couldn't keep me focused for long.


I usually love reading books for middle grade and such but I think the fact that I was expecting it to be teen/YA I was thrown off by how drastically off it was in terms of age range.

DNF at 35%. This book just did not work for me. It is described as YA but read like an early reader book. It was written in an incredibly simplistic style that lacked both flourish and pertinent descriptive detail. I was not able to immerse myself at all. It is an interesting concept, but I think this needs to go through a few more rounds of drafts to flesh it out.

4 Stars

I was really questioning how this could be a YA with such a young main character, but the world building is pretty dense for a kids book, so I can see how this would be categorized as a young adult simply for that reason. That being said, I absolutely loved this book!
Abbie is an eight year old girl who grew up with two loving parents. One day she finds herself by a mysterious lake, staring at the reflection of a boy she has never seen before. She reaches out to him, and is pulled into the Otherworld, where the Seasons of Summer and Winter live divided. Abbie is in awe of this new world but is eager to go home, and enlists Foster- the elf boy who pulled her through the Gate- to help her get home. Abbie makes the acquaintance of several other magical beings in the Otherworld and together they venture to the Winter Season, where there just might be a gate for Abbie to get home. Of course, things are complicated along the way. Abbie is not really supposed to be in the Otherworld, and if one of the Queens were to discover her, she might never get home.
When Abbie is pulled through the gate, she leaves a changeling in her place. It looks, sounds, and acts like Abbie- but it is not Abbie. Wodan, Abbie's father and former leader of the Wild Hunt, knows this and begins a frantic search for his daughter, all while trying to keep his human wife from discovering the truth about him and the Otherworld, and Abbie.
Fae Child is adventurous, fun, and whimsical. If you are a child at heart like I am, you will definitely love this! The characters are easily lovable, my personal favorites being Foster, Wodan, and Gwyn. I'm excited to see where this series goes! I'm wondering if we will see Abbie grow into her powers more in the next book?

This adorable fantasy centers around Abbie, a charming eight-year-old little girl who one day is yanked into the Otherworld by way of a forest pool and an innocently guilty young elf -- who might have, maybe, accidentally performed the magic that transported Abbie into the land of faeries. Abbie, with the help of the summer elf, Foster, and a few other magical friends that pop up along the way, must find her way to a portal that will take her back to her own world -- and back to her family.

Back in the land of humans, Abbie’s father, Dan, knows the little girl who comes home from a walk in the forest isn’t his daughter; it’s a faery changeling, one that will either grow stronger feeding off the energy of humans, or fade away before it can open a gate to the Otherworld where the real Abbie lies. Dan has to keep the stranger wearing his daughter’s face appeased until he can get his little girl back home.

This book was so cute! A younger take on fantasy that offers a dual perspective of child and parent and is appropriate for middle grade/YA audiences. Original and engaging, if a bit fast paced and easily wrapped up. A very quick read that I wouldn’t have minded spending more time with for more depth and worldbuilding. But I am very curious to see what happens next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book took me a while to pick up and read, not because it was long or because it sounded boring or anything, but because when I read the first chapter of this book, I felt as if the hook just wasn't there. Other than my issue with the hook, I thought that overall the book was well written, and is a good idea, and had a good plot. But, sadly, the missing hook took away from the beginning of the story a bit. Overall, this was a well done, beautiful book, and I would recommend it to people who enjoy fantasy books and people who love reading portal centered fiction.

This book was the perfect mix of many of the things that I really enjoy in books: portal fantasies, fae, elemental magic, seasonal fae, and many other fantastical elements. It reminded me of other books similar in nature, especially the Wings series by Aprilynne Pike.

I enjoyed the overall story a lot and liked following both Abbie and her father Dan as we found out more about the Fae world. Especially, the differences between the courts of Summer and Winter. I would be interested in getting even more from the world. Dan's chapters were great in the normal world and I kept wanting to know even more about his backstory than what we were getting.

I will say that I would not classify this as a young adult novel. It was more of a middle-grade novel, but I guess that the author plans on following Abbie as she grows up throughout the series. I definitely would be interested in picking up the rest of the series because I want to know what happens next.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and am intrigued to see more of this world.

*Thank you to Netgalley, Jane- Holly Meissner, and Inkshares for my ARC of the book. All opinions are my own.*

Fae Child tells the story of a young 8 year old girl, Abbie, who is brought into the Otherworld by a summer elf, Foster, a guardian of the forest (in training). So it’s no wonder that Foster frets for the fact that he 1. was able to open the gate all by himself and 2. doesn’t know how to open it back up again and nor does he want to, because the gates are heavily watched by the queen. Which means they have get going if they don’t want to be eaten by her wolves. Meanwhile, a changeling has appeared in Abbie’s World to take her place. They are creatures of almost pure magic and needs nourishment in order to thrive. Dan, Abbie’s father, recognizes what it is right away and reaches out to connections he thought he’d never need. While Dan worries for his child, Abbie seems to have formed and unlikely friendship with unlikely people as they travel through the forests of Summer and Winter in a desperate attempt to get her home.

A truly magical read of fairies, werewolves, elves, and dragons. The story has two POV’s and jumps back and forth from Abbie and Dan. The characters are whole and form a warm liking to Abbie, even though they’ve never met before. I feel the author jumped right into the story which was a little too quick for me. As soon as we started the first chapter, Abbie was in the otherworld. Another thing I didn’t like was the ending at first but which I’m okay with for now, because there is a book after this. For anyone confused as to why this book is a YA novel and not middle grade, this is the first book in the Fae Trilogy, so therefore, we will see Abbie over the years. I look forward to the next two books in the series ❤️❤️.

Publishing Date: Dec. 15, 2020

Thank you @netgalley and @inkshares for a copy of this arc.

This was such a cute, magical book! I‘d definitely say that it gives me more Middle-Grade vibes than YA, but I‘m always excited to see sweet, exciting MG books coming out.

I‘m honestly just a little too old for this one - it didn’t feel very exciting, albeit being incredibly magical. I don’t think I’ll be picking up the sequel, but it’s definitely not a bad book - just not necessarily for me.

A fae-inspired children book for those who want to relax and have a comforting read.

The story is about an 8 year old girl who accidentally got pulled into the Otherworld through a portal beneath the pond in the woods near her house, thanks to a stranger dressed in leaves. What happened next includes a journey to the land of Winter to return home of Abbie and a father's effort to take back his daughter from a land he couldn't step into by himself.

This was an enjoyable book. But only it and nothing more. You got to see a group of creatures roaming the land of faes and faeries, with the sole purpose is to bring the girl back home. It's a fairly quick read, which an adequate amount of crucial scenes. But I suppose I wanted the main character, Abbie, to be more challenged, than to let herself be protected by the people around her like she is a princess. In a sense, she is, but making her a princess snowflake beat the purpose of being a protagonist, which is probably why her chapters were quite boring, comparing to Wodan's.

This book no doubt was written for kids. But I can't help thinking the author's choice of words was a bit off. Some lines felt too generic, some details were poorly narrated. It is a missed opportunity, since the Otherworld holds a lot of magic elements with potential eye-watering visions.

Overall, nice quick read. Not sure if I have learned anything from this beside the fact that the main character's not .

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I can't express how much I enjoyed reading this book from the cover to the last page and even the acknowlegements were well written. I mean that it was a fantastic well- paced story and the reader finds him/herself hooked by the progress of the events and the actions until the end. Each chapter was captivating, you can't put it down because we are curious to know what is going to happen to Abbie, does her odyssey in fairyland will end well?

A little girl who finds herself in the faerie world, a world that we all as kids we dreamt about visiting but at the end home is always best.

This was an amazing discovery and what made me like it was the author writing style. J.H. Meissner is a good storyteller that I would like to read her other works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

I requested this even after seeing a lot of people complaining that this read more like a middle-grade book than something for YA. I don't entirely agree. I personally don't think that a character needs to be a teenager in order to appeal to a teenage audience, nor do I think any other YA clichés (especially the romance) need to be present. While this book does feel a bit more whimsical in places than some modern YA, it also has some darker moments too. The older readers will probably be more engaged in the B plot following the father, and maybe they'll also enjoy the A plot following Abbie through the fairy world. The younger readers might not find the B plot interesting enough and skip over it to focus on Abbie.

Since I'm older than both those demographics, I can only say how I felt about reading it. I admit I disengaged fairly early on once the father's plot started, though mostly because it felt like it lacked emotion. Certainly he had emotion for his daughter but it felt very dead when concerning his wife. That made it harder for me to want to invest in his story since it felt to me that he wasn't even that invested. I guess I was wanting to see more of a moral dilemma with him, agonizing over saving his daughter versus the threat of the changeling in his home. I can appreciate the darker tone and what the father was willing to do; I just wanted more. It could be that the intention was to make him detached and a bit more morally skewed, but I still would've liked more thought process than him instantly going along with what was needed to help his daughter.

I'm not entirely sure why this book needs a sequel. While I feel like everything was maybe a little too neatly wrapped up, I don't think anything needs to be added to the story. Would I like to know more about the world, especially the father's past? Maybe, but there are lots of books that leave questions unanswered and that's perfectly fine. I do feel like stuff is missing, but that's more to do with character emotion and motivation.

The debate on whether this book is middle grade or YA doesn't matter to me. I think either group could enjoy it because the book seems to ride the line between them, providing something for both. I liked the stuff with Abbie and her father, but I only lost interest because I didn't feel the emotions coming through strongly enough to invest in the whole story.

This was a really delightful book that had me smiling many times throughout Abbie's journey. I worried for a moment that we might get stuck with a cliffhanger, but the plot resolves in a way I felt was both a satisfying and rewarding conclusion. The characters were wonderful. This is a lovely world brimming with magic that draws on various mythology, which makes it very easy to identify with - but that also includes little twists to standard lore that makes it new and special.

I would personally be very hesitant to classify this book as YA because doing so could create false expectations that might lead to readers giving this really sweet story less stars that they normally would just because the book was potentially marketed to the wrong audience. The disclaimer on NetGalley that this book was classified as YA but has an 8 year old protagonist is actually one of the reasons I was curious to read it because I recently wrote another review for The Golden Compass (which has an 11 year old protagonist / also very young for YA). The age rating for TGC was originally 12+ up but it was lowered to 10 which is, in my opinion, way too low because of the graphic violence and mature themes in that book. (See my review on Goodreads @CandiceJarrett for specifics)

However, the comparatively mild violence combined with themes popular in MG that are in Fae Child, especially the themes of friendship, a child discovering magic is real, and the longing to reunite with one's parents, are much more similar to Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - both of which are middle grade. In the case of the latter, the Harry Potter series started out MG but evolved into YA. I know that the author plans to continue this series as Abbie grows up, and my suggestion would be to allow Abbie to grow with her readers. (ie. start out MG with this book and evolve into YA for the later books) Because when you contrast this ultimately sweet fantasy story about an 8 year old who wants to reunite with her parents with popular YA books like The Hunger Games, Caraval, Scythe, Twilight, etc., there's just way too big a gap. I feel that marketing toward the wrong audience could hurt this book's success. Obviously, I'm not an expert. Disclaimer. Disclaimer. Yada Yada. This is just my opinion. But it's food for thought.

The last bit I wanted to include in this review is that the eARC I received for kindle had some formatting issues. Line breaks were missing from some paragraphs and between lines of dialogue that made it confusing to tell who was speaking when, and I caught a few typos like "Her the gold of her eyes intensified..." Obviously the first "her" shouldn't be there. Also "On the wedding day, the pledge between Alpha and Oberon truly broken, the wolves..." it should probably say "when the pledge... was broken" or "the pledge ... being truly broken" or something like that. It tripped me up because I felt like a word was missing there.

Again, I received an eARC (YAY Thanks NetGalley and InkShares/Quill for the eARC in exchange for an honest review <3) ) so perhaps these issues with formatting and minor edits will be fixed before official publication.

Ok, I know this was a SUPER long review. Thanks for staying with it if you read this far. To sum it up, I thought this was a very heartfelt story, exciting plot, and I really loved the world building. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

This book was not my thing. I had high expectations for it and really like the premise of the books evolving with the MC age. But, I just didn't connect with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this novel.

So....this one was a miss for me. HOWEVER. I do not think it was a bad novel. Both perspectives were pretty jnteresting (Though I felt more interested in the Father's POV).

This would be really good beginner fantasy, it reads really young and is simple to follow.

This was a really lovely tale. I enjoyed the chapters alternating point of views between 8-year-old Abbie in the Otherworld, and her father back at home. I found myself wanting to know more about the father's history and the politics of the world. I could see this translating to the screen very easily, as the land of the Fae sounded beautiful and alluring. I'm giving it a slightly lower rating because I think I would have enjoyed it more as a younger reader, but I am still curious what will happen to all the characters in the next book.

I DNF'd this book. Saying that, I think it's important to remember that consuming any form of art is a subjective experience and what one person doesn't vibe with someone else may love. I just wasn't giving with this one. I think maybe formatting had a little bit to do with my trouble, but mostly I just wasn't able to get into the story. Thank you for the opportunity to review.