Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Tale of the Hidden Village is a wonderfully engaging and well written fantasy mystery by K.C. Norton & Riley Rookhouse set in the multi-author sandbox Heavenfall world. Released 20th Feb 2023, it's 310 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. This first book is currently available free for download.

This is an interesting multi-author collaborative writing co-op with cross-genre stories. There seem to be multiple books already published (not necessarily with *these* characters, although this is the first of two extant books) and a fair bit of finished work. In this case, the writing is solid, the plotting moves along at a good clip and the inclusion of non-mainstream positively portrayed characters is refreshingly honest. Aside from the mystery plotline, there's a lot of self-identity building and expression, some found family/loyalty and a good fantasy setting. The language and dialogue are fairly typical of the genre.

The mystery is self-contained in this volume and it works well as a standalone.

Four stars. The writing is compelling enough to make me seek out more work from this world setting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

If you've ever wanted your Sherlock Holmes to be more magical with a high fantasy backdrop than this is the book for you. The narrator starts the story just as unsure of what's going on as the you are and you're given the opportunity to try to solve the mystery with them while pondering what it means to be alive. I fell in love with Emerald and Crimson and I need more of them and their world. I'll be on the lookout for more stories of this fabulous duo and the World of Heavenfall.

This was pretty good. Interesting and strange. Really good mystery. Definitely an adventure that I couldn't put down. I had fun with this.

Thank you for this opportunity. I thoroughly enjoyed every spin word of this tale. I think this would translate very well into an audiobook as well. It has a very bard like in the way it’s written. Thoroughly enjoyed

This is an interesting book, the pov character is complicated in some interesting ways. However other than that it is very Sherlock Holmes. The language is actually too flowery and it was hard to get into it. I liked the story line but again some of the flowery language threw me off. So all around it's an okay book but not mind blowing.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

This was good. It was highly entertaining and it kept me wanting more. I highly enjoyed it.
I just reviewed Tale of the Hidden Village: World of Heavenfall by Riley Rookhouse, K.C. Norton. #TaleoftheHiddenVillageWorldofHeavenfall #NetGalley
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