I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed this story, I have not read anything like this before. I could not put it down, I had to know how it would turn out.

This was such a heartbreakingly beautiful story. I loved the concept of it and was utterly heartbroken by the end. This author has a special talent for story telling.

This was a thoroughly compelling debut from Khalia Moreau. Following the story from both sister's POV was such an interesting way to tell this story. I loved the way Moreau set up stakes for Laine and Alyssa in their own realities. I was a wreck by the end of the book! I will be watching closely for any future books from Khalia.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to GCP and Forever for the copy of this book!

Khalia Moreau's debut is such an innovative idea: two sisters trapped apart from each other, one in the contemporary world and one in a parallel fantasy world. The story is told in alternating POVs between the sisters, and walking through scenes from both of their POVs is fascinating becasue their realities are so different! There are lots of magical creatures included in this book and a dark prince. Note there's a sexual assault trigger warning.

Props to the author for an original premise. I particularly enjoyed the chapters told from Lane's point of view. I struggled a bit with the ones from Alyssa's, as I often failed to understand how her chapters contributed to the plot. Looking forward to more from this author in the future.

I love Khalia Moreau's world-building and the creativity in her storytelling. I don't normally go for fantasies, but found this enjoyable despite being outside of my genre preference. Also, beautiful cover!

I typically really enjoy any books that have a portal fantasy element, as well as unreliable narrators. The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees comes to mind. I was expecting something like that going into this book. One thing I did appreciate was the juxtaposition of Laine and Alyssa's perspectives of different scenes. Like, Laine would talk about the horse stables, and in the next chapter, Alyssa would listen to Laine talking about the dragon stables. Things like that. I did really enjoy Laine's perspective from a realistic fiction standpoint; she was a very strong character and I think that the depiction of her inner turmoil was done very well. However, as for Alyssa's point of view, I found the plot becoming increasingly convoluted and hard to understand. While Laine's real-world interactions were easy to understand and often had a fantasy counterpart immediately following, Laine was not present at Alyssa's facility, so we didn't get the real-world version.
I didn't particularly like the ending, but I also wasn't expecting a happy ending.

I think it would be wrong to say this is a BAD book, but wow it is not for me. I do not usually get along with first-person narration, and I really, really did not enjoy the voices of these characters at all. The writing style is very blunt and direct, which is not a bad thing, it's just something I don't enjoy. The rich colours in the cover had me expecting really lush, rich prose, and I didn't get it, alas. I kind of felt like everything was dumped on me at once, with no time to get to know the characters or the situation - again, not inherently a bad thing, just not a stylistic choice I enjoy.

Lots of readers are going to love this, and they're not wrong to. This is very much an it's-not-you-it's-me situation.