I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

I loved the world building in this book. We have two parallel versions of Los Angeles. One our familiar world and one that has magic, wyverns, spells and mana. There were some really cool elements that were mirrored such as mana surges and earthquakes, and the fashions. This was done particularly well and was my favourite thing about this book, I thought the two worlds were positioned, explored and juxtaposed really well.

Within this book we follow two teenage girls, one from each world and we see what happens when their worlds collide. This is quite a YA book and some of the teenage stuff landed less well for me, causing the book to feel a bit slow at times, but this is my only and a minor criticism.

There’s an intriguing mystery running through this book which our characters find themselves embroiled in. I enjoyed seeing how this unravelled.

I enjoyed Brenda as a character, her hyper organisation, list making and bullet journals felt very relatable!

I really wanted to like this one- it is a cute queer romantasy featuring a coffee shop. Sadly, after several tries, I was unable to finish-the story just did not hold my interest. I think it would have helped if I knew something about D and D , but even then, I do not think we needed such detail about building spells- The plot was overly complicated, and the stakes, while high, did not feel real. The story did not work for me, although I think it shows promise. The writing is decent, the characters interesting. I will watch for more work from this author.

I LOVED this book. It was magical and incredible. This book is about two young girls who live very different lives. Not only are they living different lives they live in alternate universes. Stressed with a deadline and no wifi Brenda wanders into a Coffeeshop head down trying to get her scholarship sent off before the deadline she doesn't notice anything weird. Once the pressures off she ends up speaking to the girl working at the coffeeshop Kat, they hit it off instantly talking and arrange a date. It is all so exciting only when the day of the date happens why are they both stood up? Both down in the dumps going on with their lives til a Target incident does not go quite to plan and they realise Brenda doesn't quite belong in Kat's world. We see them plan dates, meet up in both universes and see how their individual lives are whilst also working together to see who a group they have discovered who call themselves the order are and what they have to do with these portals. We have mystery, a pesky Dragon, fun and just so much love. The way this book unravels it was executed perfectly.4.75

This was cute but very underwhelming.

The best elements of the book were definitely the worldbuilding. The dimensional differences between Brenda's contemporary reality versus Kat's fantastical one were intriguing, like how electricity had barely evolved because magic was easier to harness and use, which also led to carriages or trolleys to be the primary modes of transportation rather than cars. It was details like that that had me invested the most.

Brenda and Kat's relationship was cute, and that's about it from me. I'm not a big fan of instalove, but I did like that the girls supported each other. Brenda's arc from obsessive over planner to laxed take-it-as-it comes felt rushed. So rushed I felt like I missed a page or two when she took things not going to plan in stride. The romance being an instant fix for that is a cop out that somewhat annoyed me, but not too much so. But I did like Brenda's big friend group and the D&D shenanigans they pulled once they were let in on the magic.

The overarching plot was more serious in nature and didn't really mix well with the cozy tone, in my opinion, particularly in the last third of the book when the mystery behind the portals was bleeding through. The book was too focused on the relationship and contemporary feel to really hone in on the serious stuff that made the plot possible, which sucks because the core of the mystery could have been explored a lot more in depth. Additionally, the book instantly wrapped up after the culprit was caught, and everything working out in Brenda and Kat's favor just doesn't gel with me. I guess this wouldn't be a cozy fantasy if the story wasn't all that happy (Do cozy fantasies have sad endings?), but I may be also projecting expectations onto a book that isn't really my thing at he end of the day.

All in all, this was perfectly fine, but it kinda left me wanting something else it couldn't give me.

Brenda and Kat live in parallel worlds, one has magic and one doesn't. So when Brenda accidentally finds herself in Kats coffee shop, they arrange to meet again, however they discover they are not as local as they thought. There are issues in the magic world with rituals supposed to stabilise the magic that don't seem to be working, and what really happened to Kats mother all those years ago. Friends on both sides of the portals work together to solve the issues and the mysteries. Full of lots of lovely detail and rich characters such as Fancy the cat, and Ana the dragon, this ties in Vietnamese and Chinese culture with a world of magic and friendship

This was so incredibly nice to read! Honestly, it wasn’t that cosy- they did have to save the world, after all- but the delightful characters made me feel all the warmth! Really solid YA book, definitely recommend it!