I requested this book because it was labelled as YA but I don't think I'm the target audience for it. When I'm reading a book that is labelled as YA I'm expecting certain things, like:
- a teen main character
- character growth
- romance, usually
- some kind of intrigue, especially in fantasy settings

This book does none of these things, and I honestly think it's a middle grade book instead of YA.

Eight-year-old Abbie Brown suddenly finds herself in the land of the fae when the reflection of a boy that she sees in the pond yanks her through to the other side. The portal closes behind her, leaving her stuck in the Otherworld while a changeling takes her place by her parents' side. Dan, Abbie's father, notices the change in Abbie and finds himself calling on long ignored friends and mythical creatures to find his daughter. Meanwhile, Abbie must make her way through the lands of Summer and Winter to find one of the portals that will take her home.

So as a middle grade, I think this will probably appeal. It doesn't change my rating because I personally didn't enjoy it much as much as I thought I would, but that has more to do with wrong expectations to begin with and then a general lack of maturity in the story itself. Dan's parts were slightly more interesting and have a bit of that intrigue I usually enjoy, but the very young age of our protagonist makes the story itself pretty tame. But for kids who are looking for adventure and excitement with a bit of magic, I think this is a fine read. It has a few nods to other, well-known fantasy stories which I definitely would've enjoyed at that age.

i really enjoyed this read, it had a great fairy tale element going through the book. The characters were great and I really had a fun time reading this.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

We begin our tale with Addie and his dog Sam prancing aroung the woods of her house. Soon after Addie is pulled into the land of Fairy by a strange child, a soon-to-be forest guardian, and so our journey/adevnture to return home begins.

Along with Addie and a band of misfits that soon become her allies on this journey through the land of fairy, we get to experience Dan's POV. Dan, as Addie's dad, is in the works of figuring out how to get her girl back home while having a few secrets of his own.

I felt this was a really fast paced, cute read, suited for a middle grade audience. It was a really interesting world to dive into, with a lot of Shakespearean influence to the world of fairy, a little bit of whimsy and many familiar elements of the fairy realm we so adore.

However due to the shortness of this book , I feel there was a lot of telling and explaining the world in a tale kind of way instead of actually discovering it through our main characters eyes. This do not affect the enjoyment or cutness of the book is just a point that I wanted to bring forward.

Unfortunately I couldnt quite connect with either of our main or side charaters, although I did find Dan's background really interesting and wished to have known more (maybe in future books?) I do belive it had to do with the voice of this novel, in my opinion, being more suited for midlegrade than an adult.



Overall I would say I do recommend this book if you want a fun, fast paced story about faery, and if you where thinking this book might be the perfect book to introduce someone, specially a kid, to this kind of fantasy stories I would say you are totally correct.