Since Alyssa roused from a two-month coma a year ago, the only discernible thing she’s said is “King. Queen. In the forest.”

The Princess of Thornwood Drive was a debut fantasy novel about two sisters, one who survived a car accident that killed their parents and the other who now takes care of her. Laine is the older sister and feels immense guilt, blaming herself for the accident, and now along with all the medical bills and stress of trying to take care of Alyssa, who was left paralyzed and nonverbal, she's battling panic attacks. Dropping out of college, she works as a barista and part-time gives horse riding lessons, trying to keep afloat with enough money to keep her house. A house that her uncle wants and is just waiting for her to sell to him before foreclosure. Getting a small break, Alyssa qualifies to be sent to an adult care center for free during the day, called Lake Forest. There they seem to take care of Alyssa and Laine is delighted when it seems to be helping her and Alyssa has a break-through, saying “Go” when Laine is trying to decide if she should go on a date with a doctor there.

“Evil runs rampant here. Most of us who come never leave,” Veranda says matter-of-factly.

Told in alternating point-of-views, Laine's is set in the real world and when it's Alyssa's chapters, we get the fantasy. In Alyssa's mind, she's a princess in a land called Mirendal and their parents were kidnapped while Alyssa was cursed on their way to visit Laine. Alyssa is now a changel and can't physically or verbally communicate with others, unless they are also changels. When Alyssa is at the healing tower for changels (Lake Forest) she can telepathically talk with the other patients. Here is where the ominous tone creeps in and the other patients warn her of the “Dark Prince” and a chamber where you go to be punished. The chamber comes into play pretty quickly and it sends Alyssa to another plane of reality where she can be physical and verbal. She meets another patient there named Wren and he helps her navigate the world as they meet goblins, fairies, mermaids, and other beings on their journey to find a way to help Alyssa communicate with Laine.

“There are two mortals of interest who have walked into your life. One set your heart bitter, unhinged you. The other is a scholar with much power.” Judging by the way Laine’s eyes widen, Marcella is onto something. “What else?” she asks. “What else did you learn? “You will love both in time, but you must be very careful. One of them is a wolf. He will try to destroy you.”

I thought the switching of realities was done well, it's pretty much a straight timeline, the driver just changes from Laine's reality pov to Alyssa's fantasy pov but the car never stops, there were some cool additives I liked, Laine talking about Alyssa before the accident and how she liked Harry Potter and studied some Latin (gives depth to the creation of fantasy world), and the “Oz-ness” of the characters, same characters in both the sister's realities but dressed up different. There was also some added Trinidadian folklore with Laine “communicating” with a jumbie always sitting on her shoulder and I liked how it brought a little bit of fantasy to her pov to meld the story together even more. There were hints that I started to catch and as I read this as an arc, I don't want to give too much away but readers should also be warned that I thought this read thematically pretty closely to The Lovely Bones. Alyssa is eighteen in this story but sexual assault (readers don't “see” it) is definitely a content warning.

If I hadn't already read the aforementioned Lovely Bones, I'd probably be a little more fascinated with how the author incorporated details and melded the plot, with how Alyssa lost in her mind could look like and the journey to communicate with Laine. I thought at times some of the dialogue didn't feel quite natural, the middle slowed in pace some, and the light romance with Alyssa and the character of Wren ended up feeling not needed to me. The ending did pack a few punches with some thriller and emotion that will bring a lot of tears. If you're looking for speculative fiction that incorporates some interesting new elements and takes you on an emotional ride, this debut would be one to pick up.

This was a wholly unique, genre-defying debut about the bond between two sisters who face a tragic family accident that kills their parents and has 18 year old Alyssa paralyzed, unable to communicate with her older sister Laine in the present. Alyssa in fact has a whole other life in an alternate fantasy universe where she is a princess with the kind of agency she doesn't have in the real world.

Told in alternating POVs, this book deals with some heavy topics from the burdens of being a caregiver to the vulnerabilities of disabled people subject to the unscrupulous practices of our very flawed healthcare system.

I loved the strong, Black female protagonists and look forward to reading whatever this author writes next! Recommended for fans of books like Laurie Frankel's One two three. This was also good on audio with dual narration by Jasmine Walker and Marlo Su.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary digital copy and Libro.fm for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

CW: sexual abuse

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.