en-Havenfall - Sara Holland Review

08/04/2020

Maddie loves spending summers at her uncle's Inn at Havenfall. But the Inn is much more than a Maddie's safe haven, and life in Havenfall isn't without its secrets. 

Beneath the beautiful, sprawling manor in Colorado lie hidden gateways to other worlds, some long-sealed by ancient magic. When a body is found on the grounds, the volatile peace brokered between these worlds is irrevocably compromised. What's worse is that Maddie's friend Brekken stands accused of the murder.

With everything she loves at stake, Maddie must confront shocking truths about the dangers lurking beneath Havenfall - and discover who she really is.

What a lovely cover!  I fell right for it and I couldn't wait to dive into this one. For those of you who haven't seen it on social media, the dutch version has a sticker of a  lock on it, that you got to remove before you can read it. It's so cute and it makes is o much more special! 

The first pages of the books contain a lot of information about the magical worlds and their history. This makes it feel kind of overwhelming, but you just have to read through it because a lot of it is still explained in the story itself. 

The story introduces itself slowly and is told from Maddie's point of view. We get a close look on Maddie's life and we get to know her real quick. We get a closer look on her personality and her history, this creates a bond between the character and the reader from the beginning. The tension is build up rather slowly throughout the story and it dissapears sometimes to reappear again a few chapters later. Until the end where you get blown away by all the action and plottwists! I loved that so much! 

I found the other characters very amusing and intriguing. They are all kind of mysterious which makes it hard to decide who to trust and who not. I loved this about the story because it felt kind of like a game to find out who you could trust. 

The places inside the story are basically the same all the time and I liked that a lot about it. You're not overwhelmed by thousands of places and this lays the accent to the story itsellf. So the story wasn't lost between the descriptions of them. 

I really liked the story and I enjoyed it! I recommend it to all the young adults and fantasy lovers! 

  • Author: Sara Holland
  • Genre: Young Adult, fantasy
  • Themes: Trust, magical worlds and folk, war between magical worlds
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
  • Published: March 2020
  • Pages: 320 
  • Rating * * * *