Thank you to NetGalley and Akira Varma for allowing me a chance to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet your favorite fictional book character?

Well, Aliya does.

When she gets home from work one night to find an injured man in her house. She realizes that its Crown Prince Enzo of Ravendore, a character from her favorite book series. The rest of the story from there is a wild ride.

If you like:
✔ Changing timelines
✔ Fae
✔ Magic portals
✔ Adventure
✔ War torn kingdoms

There's a lot more, but I'll leave it at that.

This book was very fast paced (it takes place over only 2 DAYS) and I found myself flying through it. It was nice to read about the characters of books being placed into our world. I found myself laughing out loud whenever Enzo was riding in a car.

Romance was not the main point of this plot, which is a bit out of the norm for me, but I really enjoyed it. The plot of the book had you wondering what was going to happen next and the CLIFFHANGER at the end of this book. This book isn't even out yet and I need the second one.

A few things that I found was the repetitiveness, it felt like sometimes I was reading the same thing over and over and I was just ready to get to the next part. Also the fact that the same words were being used quite often. I don't think I've read the word "unhelpfully" more in my life than I did in this book.

Overall I would recommend this book, just push past the repetitiveness and I think you'll really enjoy it.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and rate your novel, but I will not post a public review. I thought that the overall creativity of the book was excellent, the foundation of the story is there. My dilemma came with the the prose and editing. The writing was repetitive about details and could have used an additional round of editing and rework. An example of this repetition: within the first couple of chapters of the book a knife is mentioned and noted that it was purchased at ComicCon. The same specific detail is provided again two pages later. Within a singular character, the subjects name is mentioned 2-3 times. Because of issues like this, I was not able to finish the book. With another round or two of editing I believe you have a great story on your hands!

So so so so so gooooood! Loved every second of this book. The plot is fantastic. The author is fantastic for creating this story and characters.

This book breathes life into the protagonist's favourite fictional character and book series. It was interesting to see a fantasy we've probably all indulged in be brought to life through the pages of this story.
The light humour in Aliya's thoughts was really entertaining, and Enzo's rogue behaviour and confusion as he navigates the modern human world was comical. The multiple perspectives were fun to explore, but I wanted to feel more connected to Aliya in particular by learning more about her personally. I think that this would be developed in later books within the series, and I'm particularly invested in how things will turn out for Aliya and Enzo.
The book is probably best suited for those looking to read some light fantasy, and would be enjoyable for those interested in fan fiction as a theme.

Thank you very much for the eARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op.

I want to start this of by saying thank you to Akria Varma for giving me the opportunity to be an arc reader of Only a Portal Away.

Being someone who has enjoyed fantasy for years and has always dreamed of what it would be like to get to meet a character from a book, the amount of joy I had for Aliya while reading this was unexplainable. She was living my dream.

When ordinary college student Aliya comes face to face with her favourite fictional character, her whole world turns upside down. She is pulled into a war that she has only read about and sees things that seem so unimaginable.

The world-building was amazing, with multiple kingdoms, magic portals, battles, and different creatures you can really imagine everything that is going on. I really enjoyed the muli-POVs giving us insight to each of the characters. I also think that Enzo’s memories were very well done and helped expand our knowledge of the plot as a whole.

The only thing that really bothered me, is how fast the plot moved. I’ve had issues like this before, so it might just be a personal preference, but just into the second chapter I felt thrown into so much that I would have preferred a bit more build-up. Though it got better in the second half of the book, everything in general seemed to move really quickly which didn’t feel entirely realistic to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the cliffhanger definitely got me so I will be watching out for a second book. I would recommend this book to any lover of fantasy who wants to see their own unimaginable dreams come to life.

“No fictional character should know the extend you love them.”

“Only a Portal Away,” by Akira Varma

Aliya, a struggling college student, comes home one day to find her favorite fictional character in her apartment and he’s injured. Crown Prince Enzo al’Deran goes through a portal to the human realm even though he’s in the middle of a war. Now he and Aliya are trying to find a way to portal him back to his realm.

This book is incredibly adventurous. It had a fun, lighthearted, joking feel even though they are being hunted and then when he dreams of the war, he was in. the banter between the two main characters and the humor of Enzo being so confused by human realm things was very entertaining. The story was interesting and never boring the entire way through. I really liked it and can’t wait for the next book. 4 out of 5 stars.

-Slow Burn
-Portal Fantasy
-Multi POV
-Elves

Thank you for the ARC.

Aliya comes home and finds her favorite fictional character, Enzo, comes to life in her living room. He asks for her help to return home...

A fresh story. I love the plot! Love Aliya and Enzo too. Both are terrific charaters and interesting independently.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Loved this book! Really liked the premise and the characters were wonderful, especially the chemistry between Aliya and Enzo. The ending was action packed and the cliffhanger left me wanting more - can't wait to read the next book!

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.