For fans of ACOTAR, An Enchantment of Ravens, and The Folk of the Air. 

Ora takes readers on a journey to a fae world that exists adjacent to the human realm, separated by crossing portals. Kidnapped during a hunt on her seventeenth birthday after a run-in with a fae species called dren, Ora desperately works to find a way to return to the human realm to save her brother, who was transformed into a forest pig when the fae stole her away. Various encounters with the fae reveal there may be more to Ora than she had been lead to believe by her family. 

The author really shines in the concept of this story. The lore surrounding the fae has been well developed and their world is clearly rich and vast, even if we don't get the opportunity to learn too much about it. While at times the action could be slow, the plot made sense and flowed in an easy-to-follow manner. There were also scenes where the author's writing style really shined, where the reader can tell the author was excited to share the next plot point. The author also doesn't fall into the trap of most fantasy books of info-dumping on readers. The dissemination of information about the world was appropriately timed and doesn't overwhelm the reader.   

Unfortunately, the details of the books weren't developed enough for me really enjoy the reading experience. The concept is definitely here, but the execution is a bit missed.  

I found the characters to be one-dimensional, paper dolls instead of fleshed out beings with motivations, hopes, and fears. Half the characters have no apparent motivations for their actions, and the ones that do are unrelatable. Little time is spent actually giving readers a sense of who these characters are, so I found myself completely apathetic towards what happened to them. At the very least, I expect to have a sense of who the protagonist is and what motivates them, but really all we know about Ora is that she's a 17 year old girl who is annoyed by her mother's over-protectiveness and likes listening to stories from her uncle. That doesn't really give us a sense of who she is. From there, the rest of the characters get progressively less interesting.  

Additionally, the pacing of this book is quite awkward. It feels a bit like the reader is in stop-and-go traffic, jerking rapidly between plot points with not much to bridge between them. There were many instances throughout the book where the author would set up a scene and then spend one paragraph giving a summary of what happened next, often covering a timeline of hours in a few sentences. I almost couldn't get through the first chapter. The pacing does improve significantly after the first chapter, but there is definitely still entire portions of the book throughout that feel really awkward to read. 

This is the authors's first book and I'm excited to see where their writing career takes them. The potential for greatness is here, in my opinion. They are definitely one to watch.

SPOILERS AHEAD: Ora’s universe and the many variations of fae that exist in it were intriguing, and added a lot of depth to this book. In spite of that, however, I would still call this a three star read. The world itself was well developed and it was a nice way to pass my time, but the characters felt a little flat to me. I enjoyed it but I wasn’t enchanted. Ora and Tyg were interesting; however Tyg’s hatred, her anger, felt very one note. If she hadn’t been a POV character I would’ve written her off as a character designed to do bad things for no reason, but it was different since we saw in her head. I felt like she needed a lot more backstory behind her anger at... well... everything to make it worth killing her own husband over. One thing I did like was that Ora didn’t have a love interest clearly thrown into the mix. It felt a lot more relatable than stories where the human girl with her family in danger immediately throws herself at the nearest broody type.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. This novel isn't bad. It's just... okay.

First of all, I'm not sure what category this is supposed to be for. Ora, the protagonist, is seventeen, but she acts a lot younger. The novel is also written more like a Middle Grade than a YA, so take heed. There isn't any romance either.

I really did enjoy the worldbuilding, and Day's writing style is lovely. Very atmospheric and magical. But the characters seemed flat and one-dimensional. The plot was predictable to the very end. Nothing about this novel was new.

Our protagonist Ora and her brother go out into the forbidden woods. Her brother accidentally kills a fae creature and is transformed into a pig as punishment. Now Ora is whisked away to the fae realm to serve as a human servant girl to an evil, human-hating lady mage named Tyg. As Ora is desperate to escape, she learns that she has magical powers, and there is a war brewing on the fae borders...

Does that summary sound familiar? Yes. You've read it a hundred times before.

I think this is my fault for expecting more out of that summary. Hot take: I think this novel would be greatly improved if Ora and our villain Tyg fell in love. Yes, you heard me. It had potential. Besides, doesn't their situation sort of remind you of The Cruel Prince? Just me?

I don't know. I think that would have been the ONE thing that this novel could have built up to so it could separate itself from the rest of the genre. Tyg pretty much hates Ora for no reason (other than that she's humaaan and she's disrespectful to her captor blah blah). And we got Tyg POV chapters so, hey, genre conventions...

If you've read as much YA fantasy as I have, then you should probably skip this.