I dnfed this title at ~50%. It is overall a unique and engaging story but the writing style just did not do it for me. It is very very YA and we are spoonfed all the information instead of leaving room to guess. The book has so much potential and if youre looking for simple writing this might be the book for you. Sadly it wasnt for me. I really tried multiple times to get back into the book but the intrigue, or mostly how it was portrayed just did not do enough to keep me reading. There are more books planned in the series and maybe those get to be more exciting writing wise as the concept of the multiple worlds in a fantasy setting is quite promising. Might give this book another try in the future tho

Who doesn't want to discover magic? No me!! I loved this book from the first page, it did not dissapoint my expectations and the sotry was something else WOW let's get more books in this series so I can go back

3.5 to 4 ⭐
A very lovely young adult novel, the first in a series of epic fantasy.
I would say a nice read for a 16-17 year old, simply because there is quite a bit of world building and political intrigue, which would be quite interesting for a 16 year old to uncover and understand.
Definitely a very big fan of Alice, who is decided to chart her own destiny in life, despite what her parents have set out for her. She is a very typical 17 year old, brave and bold, yet reckless and sometimes unsure, which makes our FMC very relatable. And Evias is really good at creating this link between the FMC and the reader, as to draw the reader in.
The plot is quite slow at times, but then makes us for it quite fast so that the reader does not lose interest in the book.
We do have a murder mystery on own hands, and the book end on a really big cliffhanger, so I am very much looking forward to the next book!

Thank you NetGalley and author for providing me with an ARC for this book!

Alice Harper yearns to determine her own fate. Desperate to change her parents’ minds about moving away from everything she knows, the gifted archer sets out to win a coveted scholarship. But the seventeen-year-old feels completely out of control when she and her friends stumble through a strange portal to a mysterious world. Separated from the others, the bold and reckless teen finds herself whisked away to an impossible palace where charming mages offer help. But as she becomes entwined in the politics of the court, Alice grows suspicious of her new allies, and she struggles to distinguish friend from foe… As she’s pulled deeper into treacherous plots, can the heroic young adult rescue her peers and get everyone home?

This is the first book in a new series. The author did a good job with world building and character development, and it will be interesting to see where they take the series from here. Because Alice and her friends were separated and they were all trying to find each other in this "other world", the chapters were told in alternating viewpoints of the different characters, from each of their locations. It took me awhile to remember which names belonged to which storyline, but that is just a "me thing" because I am terrible with names. overall, it was an enjoyable read, albeit a long one.

This is an interesting tale about multiple worlds. The cast of characters are good and it will be interesting to see how they develop over the series. This is a good scifi story.