by Sara Holland
Genre: YA portal fantasy
My Rating: ★★★★
Description:
The Inn at Havenfall has stood for decades in the mountain village of Haven, a place where three worlds intersect. Every summer, delegations from each of the realms meets in the safe place at Havenfall in celebration of centuries long peace.
Havenfall is the only place Maddie Morrow really feels like herself. It's her home, not only a place to experience the magic she has loved since her childhood, but an escape, a place where she can forget, for a time, her life beyond the valley, where her mother sits on death row, accused of murdering her brother.
But this year, the longstanding peace between worlds is shaken when a body is found, and the Innkeeper -- Maddie's uncle -- is gravely injured. With a dangerous creature on the loose, Maddie is forced to take up the role of Innkeeper to keep the peace. But there are dangerous secrets brewing in Havenfall -- secrets about the Inn itself.
And soon, no one will be safe.
Overall Thoughts
3.8/5 stars.
This book is more than just a pretty cover.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading Havenfall. I've had mixed feelings about Sara Holland's books in the past -- I enjoyed Everless, then didn't like Evermore at all. But Havenfall ended up being a fun, original story with an engaging writing style, and I genuinely had a good time reading it.
The Characters
The characters were fun and likeable. Maddie was a fairly typical main character archetype, with a personality that could fit any number of main characters, but she wasn't annoying and she did have some great moments. Taya, the other major character, is awesome, honestly. I really liked her. She's really smart, and I liked that she actually figured out things for herself instead of just being 'there'. I don't really have much of an opinion about Brekken -- I feel like he didn't get quite enough page time for me to really 'get' his personality and motivations.
However, out of all the characters, I think the Heiress was one of the best. She's a very minor character overall, but she endeared herself to me after that one scene where she's pretending her scone is too sweet.
Plot/Pacing
The plot was interesting, though I feel that some of the individual plot elements could have fit together better. Maddie seemed somewhat clueless for a good portion of the book, and seemed to stumble on a lot of the clues to the puzzle more on accident than design. That being said, I did think that the direction the plot ended up going was interesting, and some of the twists were good. I feel that they could have been better if there was more buildup to them, however, as some seemed to come from nowhere with no real foreshadowing to them. I also felt like there was at least one leap of logic in the book where there were just one too many coincidences to suspend my disbelief.
There were a few places where I was confused, mostly by the fact that some minor characters seemed to know more about what Maddie had discovered than what she'd told them. It wasn't a huge thing, but it's something I did notice and did bother me slightly.
I do like how chilled out the romance was. The plot didn't stray too much from the focus, and that pleased me, since so much of YA nowadays seems to focus on the romance aspect instead of the actual plot.
Worldbuilding/Writing
I liked the writing a lot as well. Sara Holland has a really pleasing style, and her writing voice is excellent. I find that the style a novel is written in can really make or break a book for me, and the writing in Havenfall was definitely a point (or several points) in its favor.
The setting of Havenfall is very 'classic fantasy', but in a way that almost feels nostalgic. There's magic, there's monsters, there's otherworldly peoples, and everything has this almost fairy tale feeling to it. I'm not sure how to describe it, only that I really loved it. It reminded me (in a good way!) of some of the contemporary fantasy stories I read when I was younger. The political element was something I really liked, and I wish it had gotten a little more focus in the plot -- I'm hoping there will be a further exploration of this in the sequel.
Overall, I had a great time reading Havenfall, and I'll definitely be reading the sequel.
Havenfall is the first in a new contemporary fantasy series from New York Times' bestselling author Sara Holland (Everless.) The book will be released on March 3, 2020.
Content
Recommended for ages 15 and up.
TRIGGER WARNING: Two girls are kidnapped and locked in a basement. A character is shut in the trunk of a car. A character tries to drown another character. A mother is alleged to have murdered her son and is on death row as a result.
Moderate amounts of profanity, including at least five uses of the f-bomb.
Violence isn't very heavy, but there are several scenes where wounds and blood are described, semi-detailed. This could be disturbing for sensitive readers. A few fight scenes.
Sexual content is limited to kissing, as well as one or two vague references to sex. A female character is naked in one scene. A female character mentions having an ex-girlfriend. Another female character is bisexual, and flirts with both a female character and a male character. Two minor characters are gay and married. There is a forehead kiss between them, but nothing more than that.
Characters drink alcohol.
This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info.
I liked how you gave a detailed review of the book, of what to expect and also of things that could put the reader off.
ReplyDeleteAlthough classic fantasy isn't my favourite genre, I really loved reading your review.
Thank you! :)
Thank you for your comment, Shilpa! I'm glad you enjoyed my review. :)
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