What have you been doing during quarantine? If you’re Sara Holland, you’ve been celebrating the publication of your newest book, Havenfall. Released on March 3rd, 2020, this Young Adult Fantasy novel provides a promising escape for readers looking for more intrigue, mystery, and criss crossing magical worlds with each page turn. The book follows a young girl named Maddie, a determined heroine set on inheriting her uncle’s Colorado inn. This isn’t any ordinary place to vacation, however- it is earth’s only gateway to other worlds and a meeting ground for their magical powers to converge. Her ambitious aspirations are put to the test when the task of protecting it against murder and a dark family history falls on her shoulders. Can she stand up to the secrets that threaten to send Havenfall crumbling? As a sucker for a good adventure and literary escape, I know I’m going to be reading to find out!
If you need another reason to pick up one of 2020’s hottest new releases (other than the promising story and potential for a subsequent series), do it to become a fan of the exquisite author behind the story. Sara Holland’s love of books started in her small Minnesota town, eventually inspiring her to move to New York to pursue a career in publishing. After finding success when her first duology, Everless, hit shelves in 2017 and 2018, she was dubbed a New York Times bestselling author and rising star in the YA fantasy world. She gets even cooler when you find out that she not only releases excerpts of her projects on her website, she also makes playlists for her readers based on her characters and their most defining moments (no, I’m not kidding- here is the link for her Everless playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6fUfrv81I8ou6TPmekjR2E ). And yes, she also wrote a blog post complete with explanations for each song. What better way to learn about a character than to see them through the eyes of the woman who created them?
In the midst of chaos, there is something freeing about being pulled into a captivating story that sweeps you out of your current reality and fills your head with an entirely new world. If this is what you’re looking for, then this book serves as a reservation for a stay at the Havenfall Inn, where you can poke around to your heart’s content- at your own risk.