There is something about Sara Holland’s books which just make them work for me. Before I even turn the first page, I know that I will end up enjoying the adventure I am about to embark on. I like her characters, the magic she brings into the stories and the worlds she creates. Havenfall just proves the case for me.

Havenfall tells of an inn between worlds, the location of a series of portals to other lands with a variety of magical beings. Over time, doorways have been closed off until only two remain open. It is the job of the innkeeper to guard the inn, the land around it and ensure peace remains. Maddie is the niece of the current innkeeper and due to inherit the role one day, a role she finds herself thrown into when a body is found on the grounds and her uncle is gravely injured. With very little experience, she must navigate fragile politics, secrets seeped into the very heart of the inn, and tragedy that goes back to her childhood.

I loved so much about this book. Loyalties shifted and twisted throughout the story so you never quite knew where everyone stood, even as more secrets and truths were revealed. I enjoyed each of the characters, and Maddie in particular was a lead I found I could enjoy following – she was foolish at times, inexperienced but kept trying to work towards what she believed was the right thing to do. Her interactions with other characters, especially Taya, were a delight to read.

While Havenfall is the first book in a series, it also works well as a standalone which is something I enjoy with series, but there are enough questions and open plot-points at the end that whetted my appetite for a sequel. There were a couple of threads which I felt could have been handled better or were left too open or unresolved for my liking within this first book. I also found it difficult keeping track of the three worlds: which was which, who was from where and the politics between them. I did have a proof ebook copy, however, so there may be some extra resources in the final version to assist here.

All in all, I did really enjoy this book. I know what I get with a Sara Holland book, and they are ones I will readily turn to if I want to read something with little to no risk of disappointment. Havenfall was just a lot of fun to read. It’s a good, solid story with a lot occurring within its pages that will keep you coming back for more.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Havenfall’ by Sara Holland in exchange for an honest review. This originally was offered as an extract though the publisher kindly granted me access to the complete text.

‘Havenfall’ is narrated by sixteen-year-old Maddie Marrow, whose only solace from her dysfunctional life are the summers she spends with her uncle, Marcus, who runs the Inn at Havenfall, Colorado.

However, this beautiful manor holds a powerful secret as beneath it lies hidden gateways to other worlds, some long sealed. On the Summer Solstice each of the worlds with active gateways send a delegation to Havenfall for the Annual Peace Summit to negotiate trade and political agreements as well as to interact and celebrate.

Maddie has known this secret for years and hopes one day to inherit the role of innkeeper when her uncle retires. However, on the opening night a dead body is found on the grounds and her uncle is attacked. Maddie is forced to step into his role aided by his husband and senior members of the delegations.

This proved a very entertaining novel with rich descriptions and an appealing cast of characters as well as plenty of adventure, intrigues, and revelations. I was gripped from the opening through to its climax. There is romance but it is quite restrained and organic rather than it dominating other aspects of the narrative.

I appreciated that Sara Holland opened with a brief introduction to the adjacent realms including how the Inn at Havenfall functioned as the Omphalos for them. While classified as Teen/YA, I feel that it will appeal to a wider readership.

There was a lot for me to enjoy here as I am very partial to stories containing magical gateways and other worlds. I found this a promising opening for this series with a number of avenues to explore. I will certainly be on the lookout for its continuation and will likely read her other novels as I enjoy her style.

With its publication today I was happy to purchase its ebook/audiobook combination.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

I've never read anything by Sara Holland so I went into Havenfall with totally open eyes. I love her writing! She sets the scenes so beautifully and I adored her use of detail. I really liked the main character Maddie although she seemed a bit flakey at times she stepped up to the plate when needed. This book had plenty of twists and turns and yes some were quite predictable and I had worked a few out early on but that didn't stop my enjoyment of this book. The only down side for me was it was a bit of a slow starter and was a bit hit and miss with the action but overall a really enjoyable book and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next

Havenfall was a magical, enchanting and capturing book which I adored, it was full of dark secrets and mysterious worlds lead by a kickass but relatable main character with two swoon-worthy love interests and a world that was rich and unique.
Maddie was very clearly a YA heroine, but not in a bad way. She has a tragic past full of family issues but with hints of magic and secrets yet to unravel. She's headstrong and brave, doing what needs to be done to protect Havenfall, though she's not perfect in all her decisions. She was pretty badass but quite relatable too, and I really loved that she was openly and proudly bisexual but it wasn't a massive part of the story. Maddie is a great heroine to follow along with and I loved her perspective, but I can also see an alternative book from Taya's point of view, as she also had heroine material…spin-off?
So there was a love triangle between Maddie and her childhood best friend, and my true love TAYA. Taya is Bad Girl ™, which in my humble opinion is SO much better than Bad Boy ™. She wears a leather jacket and rides a motorcycle. She has a tragic past which affects her to this day, but she grudgingly tells the heroine of it. She is flirty and suave and definitely has some secrets. Ah, what a beautiful trope when reversed. I nearly always root for the good guy in love triangles, but this time I didn't. I really hope the author follows through on the trope and has Maddie fall for the bad girl.
One of the biggest highlights of this book was the world. Havenfall is a safe haven between three realms: Haven (our realm), Byrn and Fiordenkill and the whole place is SO atmospheric and is built and described so vividly that it honestly took my breath away. This is such a unique and interesting idea that I loved, and combined with the author's stunning prose it was SO well executed. Havenfall is an enchanting and surreal place of fragile peace and ancient magic. It was lush and beautiful, secretive and stunning, and all of this really attests to the author's talent with words and her gorgeous prose, as the whole book was told vividly and emotively, filled with beautiful imagery.
The plot of Havenfall was, admittedly, mildly predictable. I saw quite a lot of the main plot twists coming but honestly, that didn't actually annoy me at all. I enjoyed the familiarity and comfort of this book side by side with its uniqueness. I read it quickly and eagerly, at home in my favourite genre. In a lot of books, the cliché aspects take away from the book, but in Havenfall they seemed to enhance it.
Havenfall was an enchanting and enjoyable YA fantasy that I absolutely recommend. It's unique magic, gorgeous prose, loveable characters and capturing plot really make for a stunning

I went into this one with such high hopes. I was so excited to be approved for the arc of it from netgalley because it just sounding so intriguing and like it would be super whimsical and captivating.

I enjoyed the start, however the middle lagged for me a bit. That could have been because I didnt really like the main character maddie and I found her to be naive and foolish and the middle is where I think she made the most silly decisions. I found parts of it to be like a horror movie where you are thinking surely this person isn't stupid enough to do this and then she would do it.

I also found most of the plot to be predictable, pretty much from the get go too. I think there was maybe one reveal that I didnt see coming and the timing of somethings happening was just all too convenient for me like a cheesy rom com.

However having said all that there was a bit I did like. I did like the writing, I liked the setting of both haven and havenfall. Havenfall itself was very atmospheric with the lakes and the mountains and magical weather.

I also liked most of the characters apart from maddie. I feel like they all had more personality than her even though she has all the page time and they had barely any. Taya was probably my favourite.

The last 15% of the book was the stand out part for me as I liked how the team came together and fought. I liked the action and I liked how things unfolded. I had decided I wouldn't carry on in the series but the last 15% made me curious to see what would happen next.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me a with an arc in exchange for an honest review

The 2 chapters had be in it. I cannot imagine what the entire will hold for me. I cannot wait to read the full book.
I didn't see at first that this is only the extract and requested it; and it only makes it worse that I'll have to wait till I can read the entire book someday :( I hope I can get hands on this awesome book soon.
The writing and story building is great. One can see the story talking volumes from the first chapter itself!

This extract was amazing! Absolutely adored this world and cannot wait to get the full copy.

If you like mysterious secrets and new world relations this book will be a sure hit. Sarah Holland has blown my mind in a few short pages. Captivated writing and amazing storytelling.

Oh I enjoyed this book, alright. Got me hooked from page one, and I fell immediately for all the main characters.
The story is so interesting, and the world building is so cleverly done. One of the best reads in 2020 so far!
I hadn't read anything from Sara before, although her books are on my tbr. I will definitely read them now.

When I first heard that Havenfall was coming out, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I remember the hype for Everless being quite extreme, but then I just never got around to book two, and it’s still sitting on my TBR waiting for me to pick it up (soon, I promise!). So yeah, I didn’t know too much about Havenfall going into it, except that I enjoyed some of Holland’s previous writing. One of my friends, Becca also gave it a great review, and since we have similar tastes, I thought that was a pretty good sign.

Havenfall is a weird book. Good weird, but still kind of odd. It is based in our world, in a sort of nexus point where other worlds connect. Havenfall serves as a kind of peaceful location for political discussions between the allied worlds, and the main character, Maddie, is hoping to become the next Innkeeper, the person who runs the meetings and keeps everything ticking over. I thought this was pretty unique. I’ve seen lots of YA books about royalty, and on occasion books where politics come into it, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. It was refreshing, and interesting, and it hooked me from quite early on. It helps that the pacing was tight, too. The tension was always simmering away, and there are definite moments where it picks up and really doesn’t let you go. There were some very high-stakes, and it helped me almost immediately sympathise with Maddie. She has so much responsibility, and it was just awesome to see her grow with this and learn from her mistakes and become an even better character as the story progressed.

The world-building was interesting, but I think it could have been a bit stronger. It was patchy in places—there were moments when there wasn’t quite enough backstory, when the magic systems or politics were glossed over a bit too much. I would have really liked to see this be polished and gleaming. Although I do wonder how much of this is because it’s only a first book, and whether Holland might be saving more info for later. I’d be fine with that. From what we did get to see, I’m pretty intrigued. There were some beautiful descriptions of Havenfall, and I definitely felt like I was falling right into the story whenever it was described. It was also quite nice to see how some of the politics worked, the tensions between the different worlds, and stuff. All in all, it’s a good, strong start to a series.

Character-wise, I think this was pretty decent. Maddie was well-developed. She has a difficult past, and it was interesting to dip into her head and see bits of that influencing how she acted throughout the novel. She was definitely my favourite. I also liked Grayling for some reason. Even though he’s kind of a minor character in the grand scheme of the book, I enjoyed his subtle, kind parenting. I do think we could have done with seeing a bit more of Brekken, and while Taya appears quite frequently throughout the novel, I think we were missing some of her character too. But again, I do understand some of the reasoning for this. I just hope there’s more development later down the line, because right now I don’t know much about these characters.

Overall, I’d give Havenfall an 8/10. I liked what I saw, and I thought the story was utterly unique, but I thought the world-building at times fell a bit short, and the other characters needed to be developed a bit more. But it was a good start to a new series, and I’m curious to see what happens next!

This is such a great beginning to what I think is set to be a really interesting read. Great world building, interesting concept and a complete page turner.

Havenfall introduces us to a magical world. Showing earth is connected to other worlds. All the worlds are so different and interesting.

I love the idea of a hotel that has doors to other worlds, and they use the hotel to arrange deals and peace agreements. I would want to work in a hotel like that, it would never be boring.

Maddie is the leading lady of Havenfall, she is a bit of a misfit due to her family situation. Once she gets to Havenfall you can see how comfortable and confident she is in the walls of Havenfall. But when taken out of her comfort zone you can see her age and lack of confidence. Which is completely understandable and made me relate to her even more.

There a mystery going on in Havenfall which drives the plot. I found it interesting and engaging. Certain aspects of the plot wasn't a surprise but I was surprised by one thing.

In Havenfall there are two characters I would like to see more of Tanya and Brekken in the next book. Both are very promising characters.

If you like the idea of a hotel/ Inn that connected to different worlds than give the Innkeepers series by Ilona Andrews a read.

My rating for Havenfall is 4 out of 5.




Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for supplying me an e-book copy for a fair and honest review.

So let me set the stage. This is a portal mystery with a plethora of GLBT+ characters. So, basically already an amazing set-up for a novel and I was so excited to get my hands on it early! Havenfall is a place deep in the mountains where all of the various multiverses converge and leaders from the various worlds come to parlay and work together.

Maddie is a human girl who has grown up hoping to take over from her uncle and become the leader of Havenfall. However, when violence starts happening within the walls and her uncle is down for the count, Maddie has to step in far earlier than she expected, and with virtually no actual information about how the worlds actually work.

There was a lot I liked about this book. I liked that Maddie acted like a real teenager — she made bad decisions, took things personally that maybe she shouldn’t, and fully admitted that she wasn’t ready to be a leader. We also saw a bit of her struggle with PTSD after witnessing a violent incident involving her brother, which I thought was handled very well. So often in YA novels, we see teenagers get thrust into the spotlight and suddenly they can do everything perfectly. This is definitely not that book, and I appreciated that.

I also enjoyed the interplay between the characters. They were all well-developed and surprised me at one time or another. The LGBT+ representation (mostly bisexuality/lesbian/gay rep) was well done — it wasn’t the focus of the book, it just WAS, which I liked for how realistic that seemed. The individual characters could have used a bit more depth — we are just thrown right into the drama involved without a lot of time to get to know people, but overall I thought some of the character interactions made up for that.

Haven itself is a great setting, and Maddie’s love for the place is tangible. In this way it reminded me a bit of A Treason of Thorns, which is a novel I LOVED that focuses on the symbiotic relationships we sometimes have with places we love.

That said, I personally found the pacing to be a bit on the slower side. I have to come clean here — I’m in the middle of a giant reading slump, so pushing through a novel with slower pacing definitely could have been a case of right book/wrong time based on my own reading issues. I had to force myself to come back to it a few times, but I was glad I finished it.

I also thought some of the twists and turns were a bit predictable, and could definitely see where things were going pretty early on. I would classify this as a bit younger YA, sort of an older middle grade. There isn’t much romance or violence (on page) and Maddie definitely reads as a younger character to me. We see a lot of her thoughts around her first kiss and first love and that sort of thing that read more juvenile overall.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable read and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next. Even though some heavy things happened, it overall felt like a light read to me and I think if you’re looking for a fantasy novel with some twists and turns that’s not as heavy as some of what is out there right now, you will enjoy this one!

I really wanted to love this, and though it was enjoyable, I don't think I fell in love as I had hoped. There's som great magic and world-building. The Inn is great, the different realms have me wishing I could travel there, and the different species/creatures/people are awesome. It's nice that there's bi-sexual representation, a lovingly married m/m couple that I ship lol, and a mystery. I always love a mystery! But, I distinctly disliked our MC which is the biggest problem aside from pacing that I had with this. Full review to feature on blog on March 2nd.

Set in a secluded mountainside inn, Havenfall is a neutral crossroad between different worlds. A safe haven to any who seeks refuge. Maddie Morrow loves the magic of Havenfall and its welcome respite from her broken family. This is why she always looks forward to her summers where she can spend at Havenfall, assisting her uncle, Marcus, in its day-to-day operations, and prove her worthiness to be his successor. However, something is wrong at Havenfall and this may very well endanger everything the inn stands by.

Given the introduction this extract provided, I can say that the writing was pretty average and the story itself was filled with tropes right from the start. This story features an lonely teenage girl with a broken family who was visiting her uncle at a strange, isolated place which she has an otherworldly lover, and now has to team up with the new kid in town to solve the problem and save the world. I have only read the extract, and already I can see that it will most likely follow this path in terms of its predictability.

I was originally interested in this title because of its gorgeous cover, and the synopsis lends itself to be an interesting portal urban fantasy setting, featuring people/creatures from several worlds. However, this was not the case as within the first chapter, you are already informed that there will be only four worlds explored; Haven (Earth), Bryn, Fiordenkill and Solaria. This was quite disappointing given my expectations. In regards to the setting, quite liked the idea of an isolated inn, however, the writing failed to really capture the dark, creepy, whimsical atmosphere I was hoping for given the setting. It was a shame and if I do read the full book, I feel as though that I'll give it 3 stars based on the tropes and writing I've seen which is quite disappointing given its premise.

Solid preview for what looks like an amazing book! The concept of this amazing title is really shown through this little preview that I got to read. That plus the descriptions I’ve read about the concept of this book really peaked my interest. I am going to be picking this one up soon. I suggest anyone that loves a good mystery and fantasy book this one is for you! Maddie also seemed truly amazing!

Havenfall is a richly woven fantasy about an Inn at a crossroads between realms, and a dark mystery that must be solved there.

Overall, I really liked this book. The characters are interesting and really well written, including the protagonist Maddie, and I found them easy to engage with.

Although this book is definitely a fantasy, it has a strong element of mystery/thriller, which was broadly very cleverly done. Some of the twists were fairly obvious, but others I didn't catch, so I suppose that balances out!

The descriptions of the different Worlds were incredible and I loved the concept of the multiple doorways. I was a little disappointed that the entire book actually takes place on Earth, since I would have enjoyed exploring the other realms more.

Strangely, I found that as I was reading Havenfall, I was addicted and couldn't put it down. However, once I'd put it down, it was really hard to pick back up!

If I were allowed half stars, I'd probably give Havenfall 3.5. It was a good, enjoyable book, but one I probably won't reread.

This review has been posted to Goodreads, and will be posted to Amazon and Waterstones after its release.

I just read the extract, but the first 2 chapters are really well written, and I can't wait to read the entire book march 3rd !

Reading the synopsis of this book I was instantly intrigued by this new fantasy world. Maddie Morrow spends every summer at Havenfall, where her uncle is the Innkeeper, a place where four magical realms meet. Maddie is going through a troubled time with her family life and is fully focussed on becoming the next Innkeeper, which happens quicker than expected when her uncle is attacked and Havenfall becomes her responsibility as she tries to uncover what has transpired.
This book had such amazing promise but i don't feel it reached it's potential. The plot felt rushed and so many elements felt tangled and not overly easy to follow. Some characters felt one dimensional which is a shame as it could have helped navigate the plot better.

I received the first 2 chapters and they gave me a very small taste of what this book was like.
The first 2 chapters open up the very interesting concept of Havenfall.
The writing style was not fantastic. It's pretty simple and to the point. However, I am in love with the concept of Havenfall, this safe haven between worlds. There seems to be a lot of background and history that is alluded to and which we will probably find out about later in the novel.
I can't write much more of an in-depth review without more story to draw from, but what I read was intriguing. The writing style was mediocre and was a bit jarring, I do think the plot will definitely make up for what I found lacking.

Two stars
This book was one of my most anticipated reads and it REALLY let me down.
Maddie spends her summers in a magical inn, she hopes to be in charge of someday. Then a body is found!! She will do everything she can to protect the inn and find out what's going on! Sounds amazing but it wasn't. Maddie spent most of the book complaining (and running around like what should I do, what should I do, should I confide in someone who can actually help? Nope, I'm just gonna be dumb , do even dumber shit, put myself and everyone in danger.) Doors to other worlds, a magical inn, hints at romance all those things listed in the description that made me want to read this are barely there. This was ultimately a predictable and disappointing read.