I went into this book with so much expectations. The pretty cover, the intriguing name and everything but I couldn't even read many pages before marking it dnf. Maybe it wasn't the book, maybe it was just me- but I read this way back and I can't remember my exact reaction to it except the pangs of disappointment,so I am not going to rate this book.
Thank you Netgalley, Author and Publishers for giving me a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review

The Celestial Gate sounded so good.

A coming of age story of four teenagers set in Israel, Heaven and some fantasy realms.

A very ambitious story that needs more editing. The pacing is off throughout the book, some important events happen suddenly and totally out of the blue.

It’s a wonderful book for older children, teens and young adults.

I really liked the sci fi theme.

It was a good read.

Thank you for the arc

i really enjoyed the scifi and fantasy element, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going on the story. It really felt like there were high stakes and I really enjoyed going on this journey.

I thought the Celestial Gate had a great premise and it started off really strong for me. It starts off with The Draw which is a lottery system where souls are always reincarnated on Earth from Heaven. They're given a glimpse into three families and 30 minutes to decide which family they will be born into. The glimpse they're given is immediately before they are born and that was the most interesting part for me. One of the characters who is deciding is presented with a very traumatic vision and it was interesting to see how their own past trauma can affect their decisions. Sometimes there are only great options and sometimes there are no good options at all.

We then follow these three babies until they become teenagers where very little happens and takes way too long to get to which is where I started to lose interest. The real story begins at this point starting with a terrorist attack in Jerusalem where our three teens are separated from their families and they flee into a gate.

The story and details become very convoluted and suffers from pacing that's all over the place, plot points come out of nowhere and I often found myself having a hard time getting fully immersed and found a lot of things very unbelievable even in a fantasy setting. Our main characters also lacked a lot of depth and I found the parents to be much more interesting and especially towards the beginning.

This will not be the most positive review… I get more and more confused about this book every time I reread the synopsis honestly!!

So, let’s get the one good thing (which was the only reason I kept reading this book) out of the road first. That is that the book is very fast paced & quick to read. Yep, thats my positive thing.

Now, onto the less positive things. Firstly, and the main thing that I simply do not understand is the synopsis of this book! I received this book through NetGalley and had never heard of it before hand, so the synopsis was what I read and what I thought sounded interesting. HOWEVER, I have now discovered that the book & the synopsis are BARELY similar… First off, the events that are mentioned in the synopsis do not even play out until 35% through the book. Which was weird to start with as why didn’t the synopsis tell us about the start of the book & the basic idea of the world instead of details about events that happen around the middle of the book?? Confused. Then there is the fact that the synopsis is inaccurate.
So, let’s break some of the synopsis down. The bits of information between the emojis is spoilery, so skip those sections if you want no spoilers!

"The world is about to end. There is only one way to save it. But the price could be her life"

As far as I saw the world was not ending… There was a terrorist attack in Jerusalem which was also happening in some other areas. There was mention that there could be a full on War but that still isn’t the world ending.. I’m not sure what this ‘one way to save it’ was exactly because it was never mentioned. 🙄 The MCs blow up an old building or something to stop the bomb blowing up most of the city instead (which was a split second decision nearly) but that wasn’t exactly the only option. They could of disabled the bomb or literally anything else.. 🙄 And lastly besides trying to avoid being killed by terrorists there wasn’t any big events that could of been succeed by costing them her life..

"The paths of three teenagers cross at the heart of a large-scale terror attack in which their parents are injured."

No they didn’t… 2 of them literally knew each other since birth (not to mention they all knew each other anyway before being reincarnated at this time – which is not even mentioned in the synopsis, except one tiny hint. Yes the entire book is based on reincarnation and religion)… The other one did cross their path but not all 3.

Time is running out and the only way to save themselves and the city is to find the Celestial Gate.

I don’t recall the characters actually mentioning that they thought finding The Celestial Gate would save the city. The female just wanted to find it to get to God so she could tell him that the system of reincarnation they are stuck is wasn’t working…

"To accomplish this, they will have to overcome their differences and find the meaning of the secret bond that connects between the three of them, rooted in a previous life and in ancient history."

‘find the meaning’?? They literally get to a certain location and each of them remembers everything about the reincarnation and everything else… It wasn’t exactly something they were looking for or discovered. Their memory just came back.

"Will they manage to find the secret gate and save the city from death and destruction?"

Finding the gate did basically nothing in saving the city. They did that all on their own after they were sent back from Heaven.. Unless I missed something finding the gate really didn’t achieve anything except understanding a couple things.

So overall the synopsis was just all over the place. It does not mention religion once when that is literally the main focus of the book. It very very briefly hints to reincarnation which again is the major part of the world… Then other parts just simply aren’t accurate to the book I read. I just do not get it at all..

Enough about the synopsis and now onto the parts about the actual book I didn’t enjoy.

Firstly the 3 major characters felt very 2 dimensional.. The parents whose lives we briefly follow before the main plot felt more fleshed out than Mor, Anise & Yam. Due to them being so flat I just didn’t really care what was happening to them.

The plot itself was kind of interesting at times but also kinda bland even more often. I found myself getting bored a lot and also dosing off and having to reread the same sentence 5 times before I actually took it in. It was also very predictable which didn’t exactly help to make the book more exciting.

Lastly I didn’t enjoy how the POV was written. It swaps between the parents and the 3 major characters. However only 1/4 of the time did the paragraphs start with the characters name so you knew who you were following. I did however read an ARC of the book, so this could have been rectified in the final copy, I can’t be sure, but it made it very hard to follow in the ARC. I also found a couple times where the POV would change from one character to another half way through a paragraph without warning. Which means I was going back and reading sections trying to figure out who was doing what and what the heck was going on.

Overall I don’t recommend this book, even without the obvious synopsis issues. It was bland and not overly well written.
Majorly though, I went in expected an action packed adventure/quest book following 3 young adults and instead got a heavy religious based reincarnation story with a little bit of action but an overall quest to find God.. Not what I signed up for at all. I also wish that the heavy religious base of this book was mentioned in the synopsis so readers could have the choice on whether to read about the topic or not. It is not something I would have picked up if I had know and that should be something people have a choice on. Just being thrown into that expecting something completely different is not on and it’s not fair to the reader…

This mystery thriller/sci fi fantasy takes place in Israel, “heaven,” or various fantasy locations (think ABC’s “Lost”) as three teens dodge bullets – both ideological and actual – from the world’s three major religions.

The basic action and storyline are divided into four main gates: The Draw, The Birth, The Tunnels, and Awakenings.

The story opens with a celestial trolley and a lottery-based distribution system in The Draw. That’s unfortunate, because this is the weakest and most convoluted portion of the gate quartet.

The Draw is a system in which disembodied souls are eternally reincarnated into human lives. In this case, it’s Mor, Yam, and Anise. It takes way too long for the trio to select their birth options. When they finally do, Anise is the daughter of Sual. A Muslim woman trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, Sual meets an American journalist stationed in Israel. Anise is the result. Yam is born to a single mom named Amalia, the result of a beach romp with a bartender. Mor is the son of an Israeli consul posted to Italy. His mother died soon after Mor was born and his father resents him.

It takes about five overly verbose and largely useless chapters to explain this as Anise, Mor, and Yam become teenagers.

Then a devastating terrorist attack at an art exhibition rocks their world. Separated from their injured parents and on the run from terrorists of every stripe, the trio stumbles into the Old City, Jerusalem. A gate creaks open. A wrinkled hand bids them enter. With bullets whistling past their heads and explosions at their backs, the kids race inside and into a world of intrigue, conflict, and a seemingly endless cycle of religious-based hate.

Assisted by a mysterious eight year-old boy who seems to appear and disappear at will and has a penchant for Ray-Bans, the teens seem to have all of Jerusalem at their throats. With the aid of an ancient map, they desperately seek a mysterious gate located somewhere between Repentance and Mercy.

Meanwhile, a Jewish terrorist and a Muslim terrorist wind up being bound together in an underground room. Jews blow up a mosque in Jaffa. Muslims break into a Tel Aviv synagogue and shoot congregants. (I forget what heinous crime Christians commit, but you can be sure it’s included.) Russia threatens to send in its army. The United States says if Russia intervenes, it’s all-out war.

What a mess.

There’s also a silver-colored briefcase that spells trouble with a capital “T” if it’s not recovered by midnight. Can the teens locate it, save Jerusalem, meet God, eat fog, survive a doomed submarine ride, say goodbye to purply Rae and the rotund angel Enochio, defeat the ferocious Orphil angel guards, dodge terrorists on both sides, reunite with their parents and save the world before it’s too late?

It’s a full day in paradise.

An imaginative, engaging read, the story suffers from uneven pacing in places. Also, no advance warning is provided when there’s a sudden, inexplicable shift in setting within chapters. Reader whiplash is the result, such as the sudden sandstorm that springs up from nowhere in chapter 19, jerking Yam, Mor, and Anise into an adventure in another dimension.

The text could also use a fresh coat of editorial attention. Typos and other errors are numerous and jarring.

This book represents an ambitious undertaking and is undergirded by robust, lyrical prose. The plot makes a valiant effort at securing PC Champion of the World honors, but it’s imaginative and inventive throughout. If you recognize the former and appreciate the latter, it’s a pretty good ride. Just keep your eyes open and remember it’s fiction.

#TheCelestialGate
#NetGalley

I really really loved the first 2/3rds of this book. It was really original, pacy, and didn't resort to stereotypes. The metaphors were brilliant, and I especially liked that an Israeli author was able to write so fairly about different religions - particularly the commonalities.

The final third I liked less. I think I preferred the build up of the adventure, rather than the actual adventure itself.

Slight niggle: the translation was American. Given it is YA I do encourage the publishers to check some of the wording to make it relevant to a UK audience.

Overall a good book