Havenfall
Sara Holland
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A safe haven between four realms. The girl sworn to protect it – at any cost.
Hidden deep in the mountains of Colorado lies the Inn at Havenfall, a sanctuary that connects ancient worlds — each with their own magic — together. For generations, the inn has protected all who seek refuge within its walls, and any who disrupt the peace can never return.
For Maddie Morrow, summers at the inn are more than a chance to experience this magic first-hand. Havenfall is an escape from reality, where her mother sits on death row accused of murdering Maddie’s brother. It’s where Maddie fell in love with handsome Fiorden soldier Brekken. And it’s where one day she hopes to inherit the role of Innkeeper from her beloved uncle.
But this summer, the impossible happens–a dead body is found, shattering everything the inn stands for. With Brekken missing, her uncle gravely injured, and a dangerous creature on the loose, Maddie suddenly finds herself responsible for the safety of everyone in Havenfall. She’ll do anything to uncover the truth, even if it means working together with an alluring new staffer Taya, who seems to know more than she’s letting on. As dark secrets are revealed about the inn itself, one thing becomes clear to Maddie–no one can be trusted, and no one is safe…
I picked up Havenfall because I’d read both Everless and Evermore from Sara Holland and was excited to what she would come up with next. From reading both, I think Holland is extemely good at thinking up a unique premise and building that into a book. For the Everless duology it was blood is literally time and money, for this book it’s that a small inn in Colarado is the place where realms meet.
The ideas of different realms is not new, but the Havenfall inn being a place for yearly meetings between realms, and the reason for a lot of human fairytales and monsters was intriguing. I loved that we got to know the process and all about the delegates too – as it gave a lot of depth to this process.
The delegates also gave a really good way of world building for the other realms. For the most part, this book is taking place only in Havenfall which is the area around the inn which is in Haven which is Earth. We don’t actually visit anywhere except earth, but it feels like we know so much about the other two realms of Fiordenkill and Bryn that we had been there. The world building is immersive.
The delegates also bring across their different cultures, we see Maddie try to help them negotiate between each other, and how they have different characteristics. We also get to see how each of them has a different type of magic, which was extremely interesting for me. I love magic systems and this one was interesting mainly because of the different people.
The conflict in the book is very murder mystery like in places… so this made it ever so slightly predictable. You can kind of guess the bad guys and the good guys from the start of the book, which both makes it annoying when Maddie does the wrong thing, but it does work to create a lot of tension.
The secrets inside the halls of Havenfall are good. You want to find out all the little hints which lead you down the path to find out the truth. These secrets actually created some twists and turns out of the predictability which was helpful to the overall story.
Maddie is our main character and point of view. She’s in love with Havenfall and has a tragic backstory which makes her run back this summer. Throughout the book we see her mature and grow into a more confident innkeeper as she has to take over for her uncle whilst he’s out cold. Without her uncle by her side (and limited training as no one expected her to start so young!) you can clearly see her struggle and make poor decisions at times. But she does grow on you as a reader, as well as into her role.
Overall the book was enjoyable and a fast read! I’m excited to see what Maddie and co get up to next.
Positives of Havenfall
- World Building
- Magic system
Negatives of Havenfall
- Predictable
I received Havenfall by Sara Holland from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
