I appreciate the ability to review this ARC and I think this book has a lot of promise.
I’m giving 3 stars because I think the beginning needs a bit more building of the characters and I think there needs to be more of a build-up to the intrigue the characters feel for one another. The relationships do not feel organic, they feel a bit forced. I also would love more description of the characters, I feel like I don’t get a sense of what they look like to each other besides standard “tall” or “blonde,” and to me (especially with dual POV) I want to know what the characters are feeling and seeing when they look at one another.

With that said, I love the found family aspect, the magical world the author has created, and I’m interested to see how the final copy of this book plays out.

I really enjoyed this book and looking forward to more from this author

~This book was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

First, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for approving me to read this arc and write this review! Now to the book.. At some points I was leaning towards a 4 star, then something would knock it down for me.. spoilers ahead. First off, I loved how the start of the book was. Her kind of dead end job, then coming into inheriting this mansion and all this money (all of our dreams, right?) her power to open doors to other realms is awesome! Westvane… I absolutely LOVED the raven that turns into a tattoo. How freaking cool. I was really looking forward to Westvanes powers and personality. Side note, I was not a fan of either of the main characters names. As soon as he came to earth he was not what I was expecting which sucked a little. I was still leaning to a four, then mantipede… I had to put the book down. I almost wish the tone of the book didn’t jump from serious to the attempt at what I assume would be humor? I think it could have completely done away with mantipede and been better for it. Then, the queen only gave him less than a day to get her and the Wendigo who burrows at night? Should have been at least a week and in that time he could have helped her learn her magic like he said he would. Instead she pretty much figures it out on her own (which common) and spent their first night together drinking scotch. The boss being a gargoyle was good, I liked that character but again, do away with the mantipede and keep the gargoyle. I loved the part where they were running from the rock creatures and then going into the forest. I LOVED that he called her “princess”, totally swoon worthy. My overall rating is going to be a 3.5 star. Some fine tuning would really make this book a 4 for me. It had some really strong areas, as well as some really weak areas.. At one point there was like three or four pages where it was just talking about the ‘Couda. I did have to skim because I didn’t want to read more about a car. Also, wish there was more Wendigo as that is one of the main “bad scary” creatures of the book and I feel like we spent more time with the rock creatures (even though I loved that). That being said, thank you for this opportunity to read and review your work!

After reading the synopsis of this book I was immediately intrigued. I loved the idea of the monsters coming through doors. Unfortunately I was a bit let down. I really needed chapter headers indicating what pov we were in. It read a little disjointed and I was left wanting more and needing more details. Thank you to the author and net galley for approving my arc.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read and review this book!
Reading the synopsis, I was very intrigued in the idea of this book - doors that can be opened to another world and monsters that can go back and forth? Yes please!
However, throughout the book, I feel like I was constantly being left wanting more, but unfortunately not in a good way. I found myself pointing out many world building flaws, information that characters shouldn’t know considering it was their first time in the human world (Westvane knew how traffic lights worked but not that you couldn’t walk down the middle of the street?). The ideas behind the magic lore and mechanics seemed good, but I don’t think they were executed well. Truly seemed to figure out her magic without any help, and somehow knew what she was capable of doing without any exploration or explanation - or at least any that was included in the book.
I was also disappointed with the seemingly immediate change in Westvanes personality once he met Truly, I do wish he had kept some of that fear-mongering-“I mean business” persona instead of seeming so easy to breakdown and grinning at everything Truly said.
I didn’t DNF this story, but at might have if I wasn’t reading for the purpose of writing this review.

I want to first off thank the author and netgalley for giving me the privilege of reviewing this book, I really appreciate it.
Diving straight in I loved the idea that literal monsters could walk through an open door.
Unfortunately due to the style of writting I had to DNF at 16%. For me it was very messy and I had to constantly reread certain parts or geuss whos perspective I was reading from which took the enjoyment away.
I did love the concept and idea of the book but the overall writing is what made me DNF.

ARC Review: 3.25 ⭐️ This book was good. There’s magic, found family, powerful FMC coming into her powers, protective MMC, adventure…

I’m excited to see Truly and Westvane’s friendship develop. They make a great team and once they get on the same track then they’ll be even more formidable opponents. Love Eastbrook and want to see more of him. Pretty much hate everyone’s name in this book though haha.

I wish that there were labels on chapters to indicate a POV change.

I do feel like the Queen having falsies and other human makeup 27 years after the bridge to the human realm was closed is a bit unrealistic. If it is originally from the human realm, then it would probably be bad by now. If those things were made in Azlandia, then that was not explained. Some things were just not explained very well throughout.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I was so excited to start it, and it had so much potential. I loved the isea of suddenly inheriting a big house and monsters and magic! However suddenly I was reading from another’s perspective? And the only thing that made me realize that was when she called herself a queen. And then I was reading from yet another perspective, it took me awhile to figure that one out. There were no text that told me “this is name’s perspective” i had to keep on guessing. And going in to the book i was under the impression that this was a single pov book. I got so confused and lost in who i was reading about, and why I needed their perspective I had to stop at 20% my brain could not handle anymore. But for people who can handle reading from multiple perspectives I think this will be a good book, just not for me.

First I want to thank Netgally and the author, Coreene Callahan for giving me this book to read and give an honest review! The House of Starlight and Shadow is full of fun and mystery surrounding Truly and the house she had inherit at what seems to be the perfect time in her life. When opening the doors (literally) monsters and beasts arise from another world and enter Earth. That being said, I absolutely LOVE the concept of this book and was so excited to start reading it but I unfortunately had to DNF it at 20%. I was very confused by the switching of character chapters because there was no indication that we had gone to a different person/perspective/world. The names also were very confusing because it seemed that the "beasts" in the second world had formal names but also nicknames. They were used intertwined when we first met them so we never had an opportunity to understand who they were. Truly's chapters were extremely understandable and readable but in the second world, I had a really hard time understanding who was who/the world/the connection.