Reviews

The full review + more can be found at The Book Bratz

*Thank you so much to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review HAVENFALL. All thoughts and opinions are my own!*

I really enjoyed Sara's debut duology, Everless. So when I learned that she was going to be publishing another YA fantasy duology, I was super excited. Havenfall captivated me from page one and has me flipping the pages as fast as I could to see what was going to happen next.

All Maddie wants is to become the innkeeper of the Inn at Havenfall, the neutral space between three different realms. Summer after summer the Inn at Havenfall has been Maddie's escape from the reality of her mother facing death row, her brother's death but it's also been the only place she gets to spend the summer with Brekken, a Fiorden solider that Maddie is falling for. But Maddie's summer begins to fall apart the moment she arrives at Havenfall, the door to Solaria, a world that was closed off generations ago has opened, someone is dead, her uncle is gravely ill and unable to run the inn and Brekken is missing. With the help of Taya, one of the mortal helping hands at Havenfall, Maddie must become the innkeeper in her uncle's absence and make sure that this years summit doesn't fall apart. But, what happens when darker forces are at work?

I really enjoyed the world building in Havenfall. Sara used a contemporary backdrop to create a captivating and lush fantasy world, that comes alive in front of your eyes. Though I have many questions about the different worlds mentioned in Havenfall, Sara gave us enough world building to get and overall idea of the world and its culture and it's importance to the story line. But I am excited to learn more about Fiordenkill, Byrn and Solaria in the next book (and possibly even get to visit one of these worlds!) In her debut series, the world building was one of the aspects that I did have issues with and I am glad to see that in this series it isn't an issue.

I really enjoyed Maddie's character. A lot of the time in fantasy characters act older then there actual age. In Havenfall, Maddie actually felt like a seventeen year old to me. She made mistakes, she was overwhelmed and she looked to others for help. When she was a child, a Solarian broke into her house and killer her brother and her mother, trying to protect Havenfall took the blame. Through out the novel we see Maddie struggle with survivors guilt and how if she had called for help and didn't climb into the cabinet, how things might be different.

We learn pretty early on in the story that Maddie is Bi, so when Taya was introduced I suspected that there would be a love triangle. I want to say that there is a slight love triangle, it is nothing crazy and it isn't overwhelming in the slightest. I can see Maddie ended up with both Taya and Brekken. But, with how Havenfall ended I am intrigued to see how the romance aspect is going to play out.

Overall I really enjoyed Havenfall and I can't wait to see what book two is going to have in store for Maddie, Brekken, Taya and the rest of this cast. Sara's sophomore series is one that shouldn't be missed and has the potential to appeal to both fantasy and contemporary readers alike.

leschroniques_delea's review against another edition

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2.0

2,75/5

J’ai été pas mal déçue par ce premier tome de la duologie. Le résumé était assez prometteur, l’univers également. On a même avant le début de l’histoire des explications sur les différents endroits évoqués.

Cependant, on finit par vite s’ennuyer, il ne se passe pas grand-chose, et l’intrigue avance trop lentement puis la fin est vraiment trop rapide et trop prévisible. Sur 300 pages, les 250 premières pages sont très lentes et très passives, on pourrait croire à un long prologue.

La protagoniste Maddie est assez insupportable, elle n’écoute pas les autres, n’en fait qu’a sa tête, ne réfléchis pas avant d’agir et elle est constamment sur la défensive dès qu’un des personnages la conseille. Je ne me suis absolument pas attachée à elle ni aux autres personnages malheureusement. Et vraiment l’intrigue était trop fade, on savait déjà qui était le coupable depuis le tiers du roman.

Je ne continuerai pas avec le tome 2, mais point positif l’anglais est assez abordable, y’a presque pas de moi compliqué si vous avez un niveau débutant/intermédiaire et si vous avez déjà lu quelques romans de fantasy.