Otherworldly is a super cute story that follows Ellery, a skeptic of magic, and Knox, a supernatural familiar, in a town that has been stuck in a Perpetual five-year winter.

I enjoyed the different supernatural creatures we meet throughout this story; they gave me "Percy Jackson meeting mythical creatures" vibes (though full disclosure: I've only read The Lightning Thief so far in that series).

I also loved the interPlay between Knox's innocence and Ellery's grumpy (but lovable) disposition. And Charley and Zara were a lot of fun! This is definitely a story of queer, found family and the romance is so cozy and fluffy.

On a more Personal note, reading a novel with a nonbinary main character meant a lot to me. I have been with my spouse since the beginning of their gender journey and seeing someone like them in this story was so lovely.

This book is Perfect to cozy up to on a cold day or to read in the heat of summer when you're dreaming of colder weather.

Once again Lukens has made me weep, and smile, and swoon over a book. This is my third of the authors books and honestly I feel like they can do no wrong.

This one was so well put together for the conclusion that I loved how everything was woven together. it all made sense in the end and all of our achievements felt like they were hard fought wins.

And these characters? They are the best part. They're so well put together and loveable and they have some of the best interactions and I just fucking love them man.

I'm really happy to be getting into more and more male x male romances. Especially in fantasy. For the longest time it was never present or they lgbtq+ couple was always side characters. I really loved every moment of this book, and it had me immersed into the word from the very beginning, and I never wanted to put it down. Thank you Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I’ve loved all of F.T. Lukens books so I’m not surprised that I loved this one too! I think their characters are the shining points of their novels and this one was the same! It was so easy to love and root for Ellery & Knox from the first time you meet both of them and the way the story was going to unfold was never obvious which kept me invested throughout the story! I also loved the found family aspect of this one and the supernatural aspect was really interesting! This is one I’ll definitely recommend in the future ☺️

I’ve been a fan of FT Lukens for a while so I was excited to receive Otherworldly.

As usual, the character work and relationships were excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know our main cast and their found family.
The plot was interesting, but I do always find FT Lukens’ stories are very character focussed and that was true of this one too. The plot often feels like it’s just a mechanism for the characters to develop, but as long as you’re expecting a character forward story you’ll not be disappointed.

Overall, I enjoyed Otherworldly, and I will continue to look forward to FT Lukens’ books in the future.

Ellery has moved to the city with their cousin to get a job specifically to help send money home. The world has been stuck in five relentless years of winter and back home on the farm things aren't going well. With parents that constantly trust their offerings to the gods and goddesses with help, Ellery has become a non-believer. Until he bumps into Knox a familiar sent by the shades to help a human with a life elixir. This was such a cozy fantasy with a lovely ya romance that you could curl up and disappear into.

Ellery is a young skeptic from a family of farmers. The family has been struggling ever since a brutal, unending winter descended upon their region. Out of concern over the family's wellbeing, Ellery has disobeyed their family's wishes and moved out to hold a restaurant job in a bigger city. They keep to themselves and keep their head down. They have a small crush on a handsome, mysterious guy who stops by the restaurant often - but they haven't done much about it, aside from admiring the guy from a distance.

Knox is a supernatural being who gets pulled into the world of the living to serve as a genie for a clever witch. He has an enormous amount of supernatural power, yet longs to have agency so he can make his own choices. He wants to explore the world outside his witch's living room, but he hasn't been given a chance to see very much besides the restaurant where Ellery works.

One evening, as Ellery heads home from work, they happen across a weird and apparently unfair fight. Before they realize what they're getting themselves into, they jump in to defend the guy who's being attacked.

It's a supernatural love story in a winter setting (my favorite season).

DNF at 25%. I might come back to finish the novel - it's just not interesting enough for me at this time, unfortunately.

I got this ARC from Netgalley.

"Otherworldly" begins with Arabelle, seeking immortality, making a bargain at a crossroads with goddess shades. This opens a mystery surrounding Knox, her familiar, and Ellery, who soon meets Knox. Ellery, struggling with a long winter, strikes a deal with Knox to end it, setting the stage for their adventure. Despite initial confusion about Arabelle, her story sets the perfect backdrop. The book is filled with beautiful imagery and character growth, with themes of friendship, belief, and sacrifice. Ellery's skepticism clashes with Knox's optimism, but Knox's vibrant character shines through, making the journey enjoyable despite some shortcomings.

I adored this book. I purchased the physical copy as well.
Thank you FT Lukens and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

With this being my fourth F.T. Lukens book, its not a surprise to say that I enjoyed Otherworldly. But I was actually really surprised, upon the introduction of Knox–one of our main characters–with how much I immediately liked this book!

Otherworldly opens with Arabelle, a woman who wants to be immortal, leaving an offering at a crossroads for a goddess. When the goddess’ shades–minions, basically–comes to listen to her bargain, they gift her Knox, a magic familiar who can help her learn the secret to living forever.

With neither of our main characters being named Arabelle, I was actually a bit confused by this opening. I was expecting to read a story about Knox and Ellery, so who was this Arabelle? Why was she important to the plot?

Turns out, her story is the perfect place to start Knox and Ellery’s own adventure.

Immediately after this opening, I was left with a mystery that needed to be solved. As his goddess’ creation, Knox had access to his goddess through letters during his stay with Arabelle. But his goddess hadn’t responded to his letters in a while, and he became increasingly worried something was wrong.

So, in the first chance he got, he ran.

He soon runs into–literally–Ellery, our other main character. Ellery is the child of farmers, but a five year long winter has left their farm struggling. In order to help try and save the farm, Ellery moves to the city to get a job, but wishes they could figure out a way to stop winter for good.

Thus, a bargain: Knox will help Ellery stop the winter if Ellery helps Knox experience humanity.

I was really wowed by the setup for Otherworldly and how involved it was. It was obvious that there was a lot of thought put into this world and how the conflict would go, even from the beginning pages of this book, and I was excited to absolutely love this story!

Unfortunately, it did have its downsides.

I found this book to be a bit immature, and I wanted to get into the characters’ heads a bit more as they discussed the plot and how to survive the conflict. Maybe its part of growing up, but YA just hasn’t been hitting the way it should for me recently. While I’ve been loving the idea of YA books, I ultimately keep finding the characters a bit hard to relate to and their thought processes childish. For example, Ellery’s crush on Knox throughout this book felt very school-age and self-conscious, with jealousy and questions of “does he like me???” that had me rolling my eyes at times.

Inversely, while I could understand the reason why these characters took some of the actions they did, I felt as though there could have been more description into their thoughts than this book actually had. There was a bit of reading between the lines to follow their thought processes, while I would have preferred everything to be laid out within the pages of the book, even if it would end up veering into being over-explained instead.

While I still love F.T. Lukens’ writing and the worlds they create throughout these stories, it was obvious as I read Otherworldly that this was not going to be the five star book I had hoped it would be. I really loved the idea of the characters and this world, but the writing style (and possibly age rating, though that’s more my fault than the book’s fault) had me wishing this book was bigger than it was.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

I don’t normally go for grumpy x sunshine tropes but I really enjoyed Knox and Ellery’s chemistry and banter. The magic elements were familiar but possessed their own uniqueness and I just really enjoyed the quirky details throughout the story.

FT Lukens has become one of those automatic buy authors for me. I know the stories are going to be lighthearted, well-written, funny, and at the end make me go awwww 🥹❤️.

Otherworldly was no different. This book is such a grumpy/sunshine, which I love. Ellery is focused on working and sending money to their family whose farm has been a suffering from a five year winter. Knox is a familiar with so much warmth and positive energy. They strike a bargain and hijinks ensue.

I loved ALL the characters in this story. Ellery’s cousin and her girlfriend are funny and adorable. They create this little found family the four of them.

The story was fast paced and heartwarming, and SPOILER, there’s a lil Hadestown reference near the end that had me screaming 😂. My one critique of this novel is I felt like it went a little long. There was a certain part where I was thinking it was getting close to wrapping up, but then I realized there was still a lot of book left. Not a bad thing, while the ending was good, it felt a little disjointed from the section where I thought it was ending.

Overall though, I enjoyed this one as always with this author. And of course as usual the cover is STUNNING. I highly recommend FT Lukens novels, they’re super cute YA rom-com fantasy that you’ll fall in love with.

Thank you @netgalley and @simonteen for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This is my honest review.

F.T. Lukens continues to be one of my favorite YA authors. Otherworldly was full of beautiful imagery, sweet, passionate characters, and an obstacle they all must work together to overcome.

Things I like most about their books is that there is always so much character growth. Found Family is present in every story, with amazing supportive side characters. The MC is not always the "chosen one" and other characters often contribute just as much to the end result.

Otherworldly was no different. Loved it throughly.

While I didn't like this title as much as the other Lukens books that I've read, it still had the same about of magic that the other books had. If you're looking for something that's a fantasy, but is still rooted in realism, I recommend this title!

Happy Reading!!

This was such a cute, cozy, and inclusive read! I fell in love with the characters in this one, and have no doubt that many of my students will enjoy this novel.

I've tried and DNFed F.T. Lukens books before, even though I always think the concepts are really intriguing. This is the first one that grabbed me in the first couple of chapters, and I enjoyed the exploration of this world a lot. Not a very summery read though.

I was so excited for this! Imagine a queer Supernatural episode, very unique and fresh premise. However, I DNF'd because despite the great start, it dragged and got too repetitive.

Another book packed with cinnamon roll vibes that left a smile on my face. Themes about friendship, belief, family and sacrifice are sprinkled with kisses on sidewalks, teen drama shows and grumpy bird gods.

Filled with characters that tug on your heart and make you root for them. Ellery and Knox are sweetly charming, watching their relationship bloom along with their own personal journeys is the highlight of the book for me. The side characters both human and supernatural were just as interesting and fun to read.

Set in a town stuck in winter, the story flows from corn fields, to sleepovers and magical crossroads keeping the pace moving forward in unexpected ways. I was enchanted by this book and am so glad to have discovered this author this year. Do yourself a favor and pick up an FT Lukens book whenever your soul needs to feel a little lighter.

Myths and magic meet everyday humans just trying to survive in Otherworldly. F.T. Lukens has delivered a story of an ordinary teenager struggling in a city that has been trapped in an eternal winter for the past five years and a liminal being desperate to experience life.

Ellery and Knox are easy protagonists to like. Ellery works hard and stands out by being ordinary in a story of so many large personalities. Ellery is a skeptic when it comes to the supernatural, but a whole new world opens up in front of them when they meet Knox. Knox is a familiar who can only stay in the human realm when bound to a bargain. A bargain is struck between the two and Ellery will help Knox experience the world while they search for answers as to why the goddess has abandoned their part of the world. The love story that develops is sweet and charming.

Ellery and Knox’s journey takes the two of them all over and puts them in the path of multiple magical beings. I really liked the world Lukens built in Otherworldly. The magic is well thought-out and the supernatural beings are interesting. There’s a lot to like about this story but for me, the trouble was the incredibly slow pace of the book. Otherworldly is missing some of the humor I’ve enjoyed so much in Lukens’s other works and it’s logical why it isn’t in here. That being said, even without the humor I expected some kind of spark or energy to pull me into the story. This book was very easy to put down, which was a pity. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se, but the pace kept me from liking this book as much as I wanted to. However, the story does pick up in the last quarter of the book and finished strong.

Otherworldly has a lot to recommend it – likeable protagonists, a strong supporting cast, themes of love in many forms, choice, found family, and standing up for what is right. I liked the book overall, but the slow pace did detract from my enjoyment.

3.5 stars rounded up - This has a LOT to love- queer romance, non-binary representation, light, cozy, and easy to understand fantasy and magic, grumpy/sunshine trope, and found family. This was really cute, and a quick read. Once the romance started to pick up (aka, they started catching feelings) the plot was playing second fiddle. I found myself more invested in the characters than the outcome of the plot, and did think that the plot conflicts resolved very quickly and without much drama. Overall this is a great YA Fantasy Romance, with wonderful queer rep, and lovely healthy dynamics between the main cast of characters. YA just isn't my bread and butter, unfortunately. :)