I really, really want to like this book more. I love the concept, the world, the characters. However, there were parts where the writing cops out. At least two or three times, the narration says something to the effect of, 'she couldn't quite remember how it happened.' Things may seem unbelievable to Beatrix, but don't punk out on scenes by making them 'too hard to remember.' Fill in that section. Give me your best magical shot. I was quite disappointed that this kept happening, leaving me confused as to (A) what happened and (B) what the rules of magic really were.

Also, the author tended to end her chapter right before a significant reaction to something. A big thing would be revealed, a character's eyes might turn white, or a person passes out, then nothing. The transitions were frustrating and inelegant. I felt some chapters were dropped without a proper explanation as to significance or impact on the main character.

However, I really enjoyed the world building, the friends Beatrix made, the longing to belong that drives Beatrix, and the adventure. I hope the final draft has a bit more polish to it. I'd definitely pick up this book to add to my shelf and read again, and I would welcome more adventures. The story and concept were that good. I hope the final product will raise my star rating.

A fun and refreshing story. It has really good world build and nice and powerfull characters. The world building was wonderfull and very into detail so it felt like you where really into the worls. It had a little bit of everything, a little romance, some nice action, amazinf fantasy and a beautiful cover. The fmc teaches you a bit what it means be really strong with whatever life throw at you.

You seldom come across a book that gives you the pleasure of pure magic and entertainment. I wouldn’t be surprised if this novel will have a screen adaptation.

Loved the premise of the story. The first two parts are all for world-building and characters introduction. I was a bit worked up on the narrative arc because of too many persons involved to help the main character solve the mystery behind her mother's letter but be patient, keep reading, you won’t regret it! The last two parts are where the arc of the story develops and where the big revelations are.

The main characters are superb! I like how intuitive Beatrix was and how she has shown her courage and strength throughout their journey. The slow-burn romance was a yes for me. The story was well written and the descriptions of the characters and the events are so astounding that you would want to be present in their world.

An epic adventure full of fantasy, magic, friendship, courage, and romance that you would look forward to reading and would want to know what happens next! This is one of those books you would want to purchase a physical copy of for you to enjoy rereading.

I will surely read the future works of the author! I’m grateful to the author, Alicia J. Novo, the publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this phenomenal book!

DNF at 48%

I really wish I had enjoyed this. I really <i>wanted</i> to enjoy this. The idea sounded like so much fun, who wouldn't want to live in their favorite book worlds? Sadly, the characters and worldbuilding didn't support the concept.

The characters in this had no substance. They were just there. The author really tried to make them memorable, but nothing about them made me care. It might just be a me thing, but I didn't connect to any of them.

And the worldbuilding was another mess. I almost feel like the author took on too big of a task. She wasn't able to build a single world to excellence, so all the others were similarly lacking. So many new terms and things were built in, it got way too confusing.

I got almost to the 50% mark, but I couldn't continue on. I couldn't see myself rating this more than 3 stars, so I had to give up

Unwritten is a young adult fantasy/adventure that is, at its heart, a book about books. Beatrix is a young lady who has lost her mother years ago and is living with her temperamental father. At the outset of the story, she learns her grandfather has died. He was her last tie to her mother and also the last person to appreciate her. Upon returning home, she meets with some individuals who inform her that her mother was actually a character from a book and whisk her along to the Zweeshen, which is the home of all the characters who have ever been written. Suddenly, some things that her grandfather had taught her seem to make sense. There, with aid of her friends, she endeavors to solve a puzzle her mother left her that could be the key to saving the land of her mother, while evading 'the powers that be' that are accusing her of trying to bring down the Zweeshen.

Throughout the story you meet with characters from different books. Some are outwardly called by their names and others you are left to figure out who they are by their description. The author does a great job of mixing different types of characters, so you are sure to meet with someone who will appeal to you. Except for the length and some of the characters that were mentioned (ex Mrs Dalloway), I'd say that this book was geared more towards the younger end of the YA spectrum. Not to say that others won't enjoy it - but that's the impression that I was left with. But any reader who loves books about books will find this enjoyable.

Pros
Good world building
Interesting characters
An intriguing and fun idea - I love the idea that all of my favorite characters could be grabbing a coffee in some other world

Cons
Abrupt shifts
Pacing
Too fast shift w/ love interest

My biggest problem with the book had to do with shifts/pacing. I felt that sometimes we'd all of a sudden jump to a new scene when the first wasn't resolved. This didn't happen all the time but enough that it made certain parts of the book feel long and/or abrupt.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next installment. I'd recommend this book to readers of YA and those who enjoy books about books.

Thank you for allowing me the ARC to read! This book was as amazing as I was expecting it to be.

The tale is about a lonely teenager named Beatrix . She is an outcast among her peers and lost her mother at a young age. Her father dislikes her and her only other living relative passes at the beginning of the book. Prompted by his passing , she discovers a hidden message, left to her by her mother. The book brings us on a journey to find out who Beatrix really is and what has happened to her mother. The story has me hooked at the beginning when she revealed the books talked to her! Who wouldn't want books to talk to them! This book not only brought us on a great self-discovery, but also introduced us to Zweeshen! I completely fell in love with every detail of this world. My only complaint is I want more! I wast to explore Zweeshen, I want to explore Beatrix and the connection of the friends she makes. I need another book, like right now!

I started reading this and it was beautiful. It was also sad, and her missing her mother hit too close to home for me to continue... I lost my mother not too long ago, and right now this book will make me too sad.
Thank so SO much for sending it though. BEAUTIFULLY written what I did read!

First of all I really want to thank the publisher providing me with an e-arc of this book to review! I was astonished by the cover of the book. Just amazing! I love the concept and the way it fits with the storyline. Next, the description also really got my interest. I was very surprised by how easy this book was to read. The writingstyle is very nice and interesting. And the storyline evolved quickly. From the moment Bea sets foot in Zweeshen, a lot of information is shared. The author knew how to spread all the rules and information about this world through the story, but yet there was a lot to learn. Sometimes it was a little overwhelming. The characters and the plot on the otherhand were amazing to read about. There are quite a few characters that Bea gets involved with, but it wasn’t that hard to keep them apart. The worldbuilding is very extraordinary. The concept of a world where you can meet all characters of all the books ever written is amazing. But Bea’s purpose of being there is a little unclear at the beginning. She needs to decipher a message and it takes quite some time. But the story never got boring or something. There were enough happenings and at the end a few plot twists. The end was very surprising and makes you wonder about the next part in this series.

It did take me awhile to get into this book, but once I did I discovered a cast of likeable characters, and a complicated yet fascinating story with a very surprising twist.

I had to DNF this.

I feel like the world building was lacking, could not keep terms straight (when they were explained at all).

The premise was very interesting and the writing itself was decent. I just couldn't get into the story.

*This eARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for and honest review.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and INtense publications for the eARC. My opionions on this book and my review are wholly my own.

I wanted to love this book. In reading the book description, I really thought I would . The author, Alicia Novo, has writing talent and there are some beautiful sentences and phrasing in the book. However, I fell victim to being confused and a bit befuddled during the world building process. The pacing was also slow for me and made it hard to become engaged with the story. I have read other new triologies that had their own languages, words, terms, etc. but the use of them in this book felt more clunky to me.

Beatrix Alba is living a fairly unhappy life where she is not treated well at home and outright bullied at school. The recent loss of her grandfather, who seemed to be her only ally, has made things even worse. He was the one that understood that books whispered to her and that she had a power that they named the Furie that needed to be cloaked and hidden. When this cloaking fails, she is then sent to the world of Zweeshen where books are alive, there are biblioworlds and you may bump into the characters you have read about. This is where it all got murky for me though. It was difficult to follow the characters, their quests and also difficult to connect with them as well. Also felt like the book concluded and there were still unanswered questions.

I unfortunately have to mark this book as DNF. Did not finish, I read until the middle of chapter 7 before I could not continue reading it. Though I regret not being able to.

It has a very interesting premise but fails to grab my attention very quickly. But the book feels drawn out, the main action doesn't even begin until at least chapter 5. And that is just the beginning of the story, The length, or at least the length as it is presented in ebook form of NetGalley is does not feel like it makes up for the slow pace of the book.

I love the idea of the main character being part of a book herself. What reader doesn't wish that they themselves are part of their favorite book. The world-building that I did get to see is very fun and magical, I hope one day I can come back to it and read it properly. Maybe once it is out in physical form, it will a bit easier to digest and keep reading.

A solid YA portal fantasy that builds on the idea of book characters having their own lives outside the pages (similarly to Jasper Fforde or a few other authors).

While it occasionally strays into cliche (for example, in the final villain confrontation), at least nobody has green eyes. The worldbuilding is original, though it provides more questions than answers sometimes, and (as you perhaps might expect from a world based on books) the magic and technology appear to be able to do whatever is plot-convenient. The world ended up, for me, feeling a bit like a movie set that's only finished where the camera is pointing, and would be revealed as just bits of wood and canvas if you went round the back. But that's a complaint I often have; truly immersive worldbuilding is hard to do, especially if you're attempting something original, and I'd rather someone attempted originality and ended up slightly less than acing it than that they built the whole thing out of prefabricated parts.

The main character starts out as the usual uniquely special, socially outcast young woman with missing or abusive parents who's angry and impulsive and can't control her powers; but she's not a whiner, she doesn't instantly slobber over the love interest, and she does have a character arc that involves her exercising some agency and having some personal growth. So, better than average.

The secondary characters are perhaps slightly too numerous, and several of them (maybe as a result) are underdeveloped, but at least they don't help the MC for no reason. There are a number of useful minor antagonists - she's not one of those heroines who everyone inexplicably loves and goes out of their way to assist - and, while a bit of realistic dystopianism makes its way into the setting, it's not a political screed. I spotted the main villain slightly ahead of the reveal, but only slightly. <spoiler>I'd been successfully red-herringed before that into thinking that one or another of the secondary antagonists might be the villain in disguise. </spoiler>

There's a mystery plot (decoding a message) which helps to keep things moving and provides interim goals, and it's handled with variety, not just the same kind of solution over and over.

Overall, then, pretty solid, though with a way to go before it's truly excellent. There are some cliche elements, the worldbuilding is not always the clearest, some of the minor characters I found forgettable and hard to distinguish, and (in the pre-publication version I had from Netgalley), it suffers from some not-quite-right idioms and vocabulary choices. It definitely shows potential, though, and I found it above average for the genre.

This book is a delightful journey into the unknown. It is populated with beloved book characters and elements but in a unique world with more than an undercurrent of danger. This book hooked me immediately and I am sure book lovers will be charmed.
How can you but immediately adore our heroine who hears books! As soon as she asked to be called Anne with an E I knew I couldn’t be more smitten with her. Very quickly Beatrix finds herself off on a very unexpected adventure in a very strange place. The beginning of the book is strong but I do think it loses itself as it goes on. While I liked the slow reveal as the reader is as much in the dark as Beatrix as to what is going on I do think the author needed to give us more information and world building. Far too often chapters end with mysterious uttering and happenings that are never explained. Beatrix is far too stubborn and it’s annoying when she makes no effort to get the help she clearly needs. It’s frustrating that we never get answers to why she is such an outcast at home and the many questions about her family.

I found the strange names of the places off putting and hard to keep track of which is also true of the side characters. Some have similarly confusing names but there so many of them it can be hard to keep straight who everyone is. The most important are the adorable feisty sidekick Emma and the mysterious William. In my opinion too much time is spent on extraneous characters without fleshing them out. In many ways this book feels incomplete and could very much have used a revision and more details. Despite these complaints the story while rough is charming. I wanted much more of the story, it’s characters and it’s world. I really did like it and I hope the author is writing a sequel because there is so much here it would make a great series.

For those wondering about the YA classification while Beatrix is 16 the writing and tone do not feel juvenile. It’s a very tame book that could be read by a teen audience. There is some violence referenced but it’s mostly in a tone downed way even while it’s happening. It was more bothersome to me that it was just accepted and not acted upon in the main scene it happens in. There is more violence against citizens by those in charge but again brief. There is some very brief kissing and a character wakes up alone missing someone which struck me as odd because it certainly wasn’t written as if anything happened. It could have been a character staying to comfort an ill character more than a romantic situation.

This book is a huge slap in the face for every writer out there that hasn't finished their WIPs

I mean...a world where book characters exist and go on with their lives?????

What can I say?This book has a cast of likeable and great characters,a great atmosphere,mystery,a complicated yet fascinating story,a plot twist

Speaking of the plot twist,man,I never saw that coming.It definitely gave the "Reiner/Bertholdt vibe" from AOT that I've been into ever since I watched it.

Though I have to admit at first I wasn't that into the story but honestly this faded away as it progressed.Also not a fan of the love story 😬😬

All in all,I can't wait for the sequel!! I think this is the author's debut novel? Wow,if you're thinking of reading this,it's definitely worth it!!

I just have to say, that this was an extremely creative story! The plot was unique, I don’t think I’ve seen any other books like it, and I really enjoyed going along for the ride!

This book was not like what I was predicting but I really enjoyed it. I have never read a book like this and I flew through the pages. The main character was a very interesting person and I enjoyed learning more about her. Great book!

First, thanks Alicia J Novo, Intense Publications, and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was an entertaining adventure, fantasy mystery. In a rarity for teen novels, the romance does not overshadow the main storyline, but is interwoven. I'll be checking out the next in this series.

This story was magical all the way through. It was easy to read and easy to get lost in. I'd say it is a combination of Melissa Albert's "The Hazel Wood" and Erin Morgenstern's "The Starless Sea" for young adults. There are so many different worlds to get lost in all within one book.