I received an ARC of this book. I loved this book. It had me laughing out a laugh on the train and many strange looks. I like that the book was a middle-aged woman instead of standard 20 something. It has all the good stuff like angels, demons, werewolves, vampires…. It was interesting and kept your attention. If there was really such a place as Crossing Shadows – I go… The story was a fast-paced book and a good start to a new series. I gave it a 4 because it was part of a series instead of a stand-alone. I do look forward to the rest of the series. I would recommend it. This story is worth putting aside the time to read; you will not regret it.

FINALLY a main character in a fantasy that isn't a teenager! I loved this book and Everly's story! She's snarky, too tired to do deal with people's crap and is fiercely protective of her daughter and it was a heck of a ride from start to finish! Loved this!

"The Accidental Gatekeeper": 4 ⭐

(Unpaid Review: thanks to @netgalley, @carlarehse and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review).

I really enjoyed this book. The narrator has a twinge of humor while making this thrillery and full of suspense. I confess I chose this book for the cover but the premise was so satisfying, I had to give it a try.
The story about a middle - aged woman was a little weird to read about, but I enjoyed it.

It’s not often I get to read a book where the protagonist is a less than perfect twenty-somethinger. Yes, their lives are a hot mess, but the bodes are young and perky. That is not the case here with The Accidental Gatekeeper. Knowing that the main character is not-so-young and full of flaws was what attracted me, and the blurb did the rest. So, I settled in to discover Everly Popa and to find out how one accidentally becomes a gatekeeper.

I see by other reviews this is either a love it or leave it story. I for one loved it. Middle-age and less than perfect, I found Everly to be one heck of a snarky riot. The situations she kept running into had me in stitches. The world-building was great and easy, if not chaotic, to keep up with. From hellhounds to witches, demons to angels, and all sorts of in-between, there was more than enough paranormal types to keep me happy.

Anyone looking for a book that doesn’t take itself to seriously is going to enjoy author Carla Rehse’s The Accidental Gatekeeper. I found it to be a great blend of edge of your seat suspense blended with laugh out loud crazy moments. With that cliffy type ending, and knowing this is a trilogy, it’s going to be a hard wait for the next book. Guess I’ve got another author to stalk!

Stars: 4
I received this book from Netgalley. I was not compensated for the book other than the entertainment it provided. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

En le commençant, je ne savais pas trop à quoi m’attendre, ne connaissant pas du tout l’auteur, j’ai reçu ce livre à travers NetGalley. Ce qui m’a tout d’abord attiré, c’était cette couverture et ensuite ce résumé prometteur. J’avais un peu peur de ne pas aimer le style de l’auteur ou de ne pas m’identifier au personnage principal comme Everly a 45 ans. Et bien pas du tout ! Au contraire, je suis quasi tout de suite rentrée dans le livre, je me suis prise dans le style et dans l’histoire qui est plein de rebondissements. Tellement d’ailleurs que j’ai fini par me coucher a 3h du matin pour le finir …


Avant de me perdre en digressions, rentrons dans le vif du sujet, a savoir qu’est-ce qui m’a plu et moins plu ?
Tout d’abord, je tiens à saluer le choix de l’auteur d’associer fantastique et personnage principal qui ne soit pas dans sa jeunesse et n’est pas un homme cis (6) caucasien hétérosexuel. J’ai vu assez peu de livres déviants presque totalement de ce schéma et c’est très agréable à lire car beaucoup plus réaliste sur certains aspects, notamment physiques. Par exemple, quand il s’agit d’escalader quelque chose ou même juste de s’agenouiller, elle ne peut s’empêcher de noter à quel point elle n’a plus l’endurance qu’elle avait plus jeune ou que son genou gauche n’est clairement pas d’accord avec ses plans. Cela rend son personnage d’autant plus accessible pour le commun des mortels qui n’est pas spécialement versé dans les activités physiques intensives et permet de s’y attacher. Après tout, qui d’entre vous n’a pas déjà lu une fiction ou les héros ne sont bizarrement jamais à court d’énergie, peu importe le nombre de course poursuites auxquels ils prennent part ? Cela a toujours le don de me faire rire. Mais ce n’est pas tout. Everly ayant passé les 27 dernières années dans le monde que vous et moi connaissons à faire des choses tout à fait mondaines, elle compare souvent ses expériences enfermée dans une ville aux frontières de l’enfer avec des anges, démons et autres, à celles de s’embrouiller avec un autre parent d’élève. Ce qui allège le ton, malgré certaines scènes et évènements assez durs, mais également envoie un message assez sympathique au lecteur je trouve. Peu importe ses expériences passées, on peut toujours y trouver de quoi grandir pour avancer peu importe ce que le futur nous réserve. Et enfin – promis après ça j’en ai fini avec ce premier paragraphe -, je place beaucoup d’espoirs dans le personnage de Sadie, la fille d’Everly de 20 ans et se trouve être gay, pour briser un peu ce fameux schéma. D’après la fin du tome 1, elle devrait prendre plus d’importance dans le tome 2 et j’ai assez hâte de voir comment l’auteur va la dépeindre, l’évolution de sa relation avec sa mère et j’espère ses amours ! Pour la dernière partie, je trouve que c’est assez peu fait quand il y a des personnages secondaires LGBTQIA+(7). Les seuls exemples que je trouve (et que je recommande d’ailleurs) c’est dans la série de livres The Mortal Instruments de Cassandra Clare avec Magnus Bane et Alec Lightwood, et le livre These Witches Don’t Burn d’Isabel Sterling avec un triangle amoureux assez intéressant. Et dans le cas de Sadie, je lui ai déjà trouvé un ship 😉


Après ce premier paragraphe bien dense, parlons un peu de l’univers du roman. Comme mentionné plus haut, l’histoire se passe à Crossing Shadows, une ville se trouvant près d’un des portails vers les enfers et de ce fait, la ville est peuplée d’anges, démons, humains et autres créatures fantastiques. Comme on peut s’y attendre, les humains au sein de cette ville ont tous des rôles bien précis et la ville est gouvernée par un conseil composé d’anges, démons et humains (si je ne me trompe pas). On a donc les bases pour un univers passionnant et des fanfictions. Seulement … on reste un peu sur notre faim de ce côté-là. Si on a les grandes lignes de cet univers, on manque un peu d’informations pour vraiment s’approprier cet univers. J’aurais par exemple beaucoup voulu en savoir plus sur sa mère, sur son enfance, ce que font les hunters ou encore l’archiviste.


Et cela est je pense du au rythme du roman, ce qui m’amène à mon troisième point. Le rythme du roman est très soutenu, avec action sur action ce qui est génial pour garder le lecteur plonge dans l’histoire, mais qui a aussi ses défauts … On a très peu de temps morts pour vraiment approfondir cet univers ou les relations entre les personnages, ce qui donne une impression d’inachevé à la fin du tome. Alors, c’est peut-être voulu, comme il s’agit d’une trilogie, cependant ces vitesses amènent à des scènes qui surprennent un peu à mon sens. [Attention la suite du paragraphe contient des spoilers] Notamment, sur la relation Everly-Lawson. On sait dès le départ, que ce sont des amours de jeunesse qui se sont quittés pas vraiment en bons termes et qu’Everly le trouve toujours très à son goût en revenant grâce au début du livre … et c’est à peu près tout jusqu’à une scène de baiser qui arrive un peu comme un cheveu dans la soupe en fin de tome. Alors certes on sait dès le départ qu’ils vont finir ensemble, mais ils se comportent plus comme des collègues ou des amis durant la plus grande partie du livre et surtout Lawson ne laisse paraître aucunes émotions ce qui donne un peu l’impression que peu importe ce qu’il se passe est à sens unique. Ce baiser est donc aussi sorti de nulle part que la relation entre Harry et Ginny(8) dans les films (if you know, you know).[Fin du spoiler]


En conclusion, malgré quelques petits défauts, c’est un premier tome très solide avec de l’action, de l’humour et un univers prometteur. J’ai beaucoup apprécié cette lecture et j’ai hâte de lire le tome 2 pour voir l’évolution des personnages et les péripéties qui attendent Everly !

This was a phenomenal book and I enjoyed reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

The Accidental Gatekeeper is a story about a middle aged woman Everly Popa who is running away from her current life. This is after exposing her husband for the criminal he is which leads to a series of events that make her feel unsafe and thus the running away.

She is going back home to stay with her mother however Everly's home town is a little different. It is a place where angels, demons, shifters and all sorts of things roam freely. Within a few hours of her arrival, Everly finds herself as the town's Gatekeeper thanks to a series of unfortunate events. This puts her in a hard position that requires her to solve the problems that begin to plague the town.

Just from the cover and the summary I could tell that this book had an interesting premise which is why I read it. Sadly that was all it was, a good premise. The writing did not do this story justice. I feel that if this story had been written differently, it would have been a four star book for me. However as I said the writing was awful, boring, and a cliché. Reading this was a struggle, everytime I began it I nearly always fell asleep. I would have DNFed it if not for the fact that it was an ARC.

The writing was condensed. Filled with too much of everything. From idioms to similes? Those things were literally on every other sentence especially for the first half of the book. Some things didn't make sense as to why they were in the book because they were unnecessary. Everything about this screamed that it was trying too much.

Everly is a middle aged woman but you wouldn't know from the way she is written. She reads like a terrible hybrid of Bridget Jones and Charley Davidson. She was annoying beyond belief and I would have given anything to read someone else's POV just to get a break from her. I did not feel any connection to the characters. Some of the minor ones had potential but it just didn't happen.

To be honest I was extremely relieved to finish this. I will not be recommending it to anyone anytime soon.

The Accidental Gatekeeper is the first book in a trilogy by Carla Rehse. This book has a little bit of everything -angels, demons, vampires, werewolves and a LOT of laughing out loud humor! I have never read a book like this before and really enjoyed it! A great fast paced summer read!

A fast paced and quirky books with lovable characters and a fun plot!

This book was hard to put down as the writing was fun and quirky while it at the same time was well-written. I immediately grew fond of the main characters as well as the friends she later on got.

I enjoyed getting to know Everly and her character development was interesting to follow, you could see her grow into the role as a gatekeeper as the book went on.

As mentioned before the writing style is very fast paced which I really enjoyed but due to the action packed book the reader didn’t get much info about the world and how it co-existed with the world we know. It would have been nice to find out more about the world, the species and how things really worked at the town. Hopefully we’ll get to know more in the upcoming books!

⭐️ “The Accidental Gatekeeper” by Carla Rehse gets 3/5 stars from me!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, even though I got the opportunity to read this book for free my thoughts about this book is mine and has not been affected.

Everly Popa is a plus-sized, middle-aged mom of one who has informed the FBI on her husband. For the safety for herself and daughter, she has returned to her hometown, Crossing Shadows. This town isn't the usual sort of hometown, but a border between other worlds and the earthly one. And Everly is from one of three families who are marked and who alternately act as gatekeepers between the worlds in order to keep the balance. Currently, it's another family that is slated to take over the job but when Everly arrives it seems all hell has broken loose (almost literally) and the next candidate for the job has disappeared just as the current gatekeeper dies. Everly is then appointed temporary gatekeeper and thrown in the deep end with no training.

Along the way, there are people dying, rules being broken, and connections between old friends and acquaintances being reformed. Not to mention a ghost that helps out and a bunch of angels that are rendered nearly helpless by the town being isolated from the universe.

There are quite a few humorous moments and pop references to help the story along. Everly gets the job done, even though it isn't in the most conventional way.

It's a fun and sassy book if you looking for a lighthearted read. Overall I give this 3 stars!

Lighthearted humor with a bit of pizzazz. What a fun, light easy read enjoyable for many. It would ,and. Good book club read.

Everly’s home town that she ran away from isn’t exactly normal.... Crossing Shadows sits next to Hell’s Gate so there may be some demons around, angels set archaic rules and are technically in charge, but there are a lot of celestial politics that play out in town as well. Not to mention that witches have come to visit and they want to cause trouble. 🔮

Everly goes home to escape her problems, namely a drug-selling ex-husband, and a daughter who is mad at her. But when she gets there, she gets bitten by a Hellhound and accidentally becomes the Gatekeeper to Heaven and Hell. Just in time for things to go sideways! 😇😈

This was a very fun book! The concept of a border town of Heaven and Hell is great, and sets it up so a ton of different supernatural beings can show up, and they did: the angels are sassy, there’s demons that live in suburbia, there’s were-people, and humans.

I liked that Everly is in her fourties, and is therefore an older main character than we often see. She is very sassy and that humour helps ground the story when there’s so much chaos going on around her. After being “appointed” the Gatekeeper, she does her best to keep chaos at bay, and does an okay job at it, but that’s part of what I liked! She didn’t know what she was doing. Like at all, and she never really figured it out either.

This book kind of reminds me of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett in the best way. If that book was your jam, I definitely recommend checking this one out too! Can’t wait to see what Everly gets up to in book two! Thank you to @netgalley and @carlarehse for a free copy of the ebook, in exchange for my honest review. ✨

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The accidental gatekeeper follows Everly, who went back to her hometown after her drug-selling husband lands in jail. When humans go missing and the town shuts down its magical borders, Everly must learn to control her new powers.

This was an interesting read and I liked the MC personality. The only issue I had was the pacing of the book. I did feel more YA to me due to the MC feeling young to me. Due to the pacing and not understanding the outcome of the story, I am unsure if I will continue this series.

I wanted to love this story. The premise was great but the pacing was just too slow and the tone not for me

This book is definitely an amusing fantasy read. It's fairly easy to read and fast-paced which is something I enjoy. The world-building was also understandable though the creatures do keep piling up. The writing seemed to have been more suitable for YA and so should have the characters. However, the language was super relatable and I found myself laughing multiple times throughout the book at its realism. A solid 4 stars for the light-heartedness and rush feeling that this book gave me.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this title. I had a hard time and was only able to read about half the book.

I haven’t read a paranormal romance in awhile, but the Accidental Gatekeeper was a cute story. The characters are rememberable, even though at times it was a little slow paced.

I couldn't get through the first chapter a as I just couldn't get on with the writing style. I really liked the idea behind the story but the execution was just not what I wanted from a published book.

Everly Popa is on the run from her failed marriage and the catastrophe it became after reporting her husband’s money laundering to the FBI. Feeling cornered by lawyers, reporters, and her husband’s drug dealer contacts, she decides it’s no longer safe for her or her adult daughter to linger. She hopes that her hometown of Crossing Shadows will provide them with sanctuary but what she finds there is anything but that. The town is no ordinary one on the best of days with angels, demons, shifters and more making regular appearances. Everly hasn’t been back in nearly three decades - and her first day back is right when everything gets turned on its head and it falls to Everly to make things right again.

Right off the bat I really enjoyed reading about an older, plus-sized female protagonist, it’s a nice change from the normal format of skinny, doe-eyed twenty something. There’s also brief bits of wlw and mlm representation in the minor supporting cast which is nice but felt a little tokenized. It felt really awkwardly placed but I think it was more due to the overall habit of telling over showing that occurs in the novel. The story lore itself feels like it’s partially inspired by CW’s Supernatural series. The atmosphere has a very similar vibe which is also something I found enjoyable.

The story and cast concepts I think are solid, the general idea I think has so much potential to be a great jumping off point for a series however the execution of these concepts needed far more polish. This book was really hard to get through and several times I almost DNF’d it.

The narrative is overly bloated with idioms, pop culture references and internal tangents from the main character that drive the story action off track. The story is told in first person and the front half of the book is told in nearly full stream of consciousness. There’s so much happening at any given time that the story should be relatively fast paced however all these interruptions prevented me from getting fully into the story and slowed things down to a crawl. Each mention of Supernatural, Vogue, or a description of character outfits and wondering where a demon/angel gets their shoes in the middle of a fight scene ejected me out of the story each time. It’s not until just over 70% of the way through that the reliance on these things relent and I was able to get more invested. Everly’s asides are charming and witty when used sparingly -- in the first half of the novel however it is nearly constant and provoked eyerolls more than laughs.

There was also a lot of what seemed like filler, and backtracking portions that could’ve been cut or changed to make the story flow better. A good example is when Everly is given a key -- only to find out that during a random teleport via angel that the key was lost. So she heads down to go get some power tools only to open said door only to find out that oops - the door was open anyway under mysterious circumstances by the time she got back up stairs.

In short, I think the concept is good, it just needed far more in the way of polish. Most of where the narrative goes wrong could’ve been solved with a few more rounds of revision. The bones are there, the potential is there but unfortunately as it is now the Accidental Gatekeeper is not a book I can recommend as it is now.

I wanted to love this story about a middle-aged woman who had to flee back to small, magically hidden town in Texas after ratting-out her husband (who had been using their private practice as a drug front for the mob) to the FBI. But going home even with a hit on her head isn't all that easy, she turned her back on the magic so it's going to be a little hard getting heaven and hell to forgive.

While the story is an interesting blend of humans holding the line to keep evil at bay, I never really felt like things were all that clear. Relationships were forced and I often had to question if she was really in her mid-40's or 20's with how she acted in some situations. Everly often said she was more grown up but she kept saying that she was only using the people and the town for the protection they could provide her and her daughter. As soon as she didn't need them she would leave again. Very grown up. She kept saying she didn't want to be the gatekeeper because it was dangerous and that they needed to find the younger girl so she could do the job.

There is also this weird pseudo-romance, maybe being setup with an old fling that I just don't understand. Everly keeps saying her husband is good, though he's in with the mob and now they have a hit out on her and he's turned her daughter against her; then she says she was wrong to stay with him and reminiscing about what could have been with her crush. All told, this story was just too all over the place for me with a little bit of a problem of a clear focus and understanding of how to get there. I felt like there was a lot of muddling through with scenes that didn't need to be included when more focus could have been spent on clearing the main storyline