1.25/5 stars! The concept of this story was super fun, but the payoff wasn't there. I'm not sure if this was a debut but it read like one. It felt like the author didn't know what to do to connect her plot points, which led to it reading as repetitive and dull. I would give this book another shot in the future if it was significantly revised by the author.

The book blurb immediately drew me in to read this book.

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. There definitely is potential, but I struggled with the prose and storyline.

I'm only a fan of instalove when it is done well and makes sense. In this book, it did not work for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

Okay what sold me was the cover, it's absolutely gorgeous! However, the story left me wanting more. It felt short and cut off, there was so much more potential with this interesting plot line!

Note: This review is being published on Netgalley only as it's a DNF.

Unfortunately the book didn't click with me, and despite my best efforts to give it a chance I had to stop at around 40%. I felt like it had tons of potential based on the description, and I'm still convinced it can be a start to a great series as I truly enjoyed the premise.

Tone
While I do enjoy YA fantasy books enormously, this one felt a bit too young in tone and style and might do better with a younger/teen audience. Aliya sounded and behaved more like a teen than a young adult, and the contrast with the battle scenes was a bit jarring. I also found it a bit improbable how she stepped up to act in certain scenes, such as when both Sienna and Enzo were rooted to the spot when berserkers attacked and Aliya had a brief moment of heroism.

Errors
I completely understand this was an early copy that is expected to still include errors, so I didn't mind seeing typos here and there. What did affect my reading experience was that there were 5 instances where Enzo's family was named "Al'Deron" and 9 where it was "Al'Deran". Going by the frequency I'm guessing the second is correct but I'm still not sure which it is supposed to be.

Repetition
This one was really impactul for me. There are scenes where an idea or question is repeated so often, it became very noticeable and pulled me out of the story. One such example is when Kiana is revealed to be Sienna. It took Aliya 4 internal corrections to start using it as the default name. One might make sense, it tells me she knew this person by another name and is struggling to process the change, but using it correctly a couple of times then reverting 4 times in a row in the span of 2 pages was unnatural. This applied to certain words as well that felt overused, especially when used together, such as gash, gnarly, gnawing,

promising concept but very lackluster execution. i was initially intrigued by this bc of the local setting in my state but found the writing extremely disjointed & choppy, consistent repetition & over-explanation which made it so difficult to fully enjoy & be immersed by the story.

thank you to victory publishing for the opportunity to review an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest thoughts 💌

I truly wasn’t sure if I’d ever finish this book.

Aliya comes home to find her favorite fictional crown prince has broken into her house. Will she risk her life and future for someone who could be a figment for her imagination?

I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. I think that’s why it took me a very long time to get through this book. There were some twists and turns, nothing crazy. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. I was just hoping to make it through the book.

Thank you NetGalley, Akira and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC!

Hi, tall is an interesting read. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the plotting and the way the author develops the storyline. I've found that each character have their own reason to be in the story, but I also enjoyed how it was dark and twisty, but also kind of a light hearted fantasy romance. The main characters were well developed, and they had great story lines, but I found the over arching ark of the book to be what suck to be in the most.

This book was honestly the coolest book I've read in a while. The concept/premise of the book is so unique and entertaining, and I really enjoyed reading it. The premise of one day coming home to find your favorite character from a book series you love standing in the middle of your living room definitely drew my attention and led me to requesting the ARC of this book on NetGalley because who wouldn't love if this happened to them in real life? The author's writing really brought the characters to life in this story and the book made for a highly entertaining read; some parts of the book made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen. The ability for Enzo to be able to manipulate the portal in the story was particularly interesting to me and one of my favorite aspects of this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Only a Portal Away by Akira Varma starts with an intriguing premise and a strong opening that drew me in, especially in the first few chapters of the book. However, as the story progresses past this point, the dialogue tends to become repetitive, and you can tell the author is truly excited about their work and is trying to convince the reader as well. I think I would of enjoyed the story more without all the over-explaining of minor details. I truly think with some editing and more focus on character development/plot the story would be amazing and I can't wait to see what this turns into after it is published.

I had to DNF about a quarter of the way in. The repetition was sadly giving me a headache. Unfortunately this is just not written in a way that I truly can get into… thank you for the chance to read it, it is appreciated.

I was hoping for more romance from this book. I liked the characters and the overall plot but was expecting a romantasy

I found many issues with this book but what bothered me the most was:

1.Poor Communication

There are several instances where Enzo doesn’t understand what Aliya is talking about and instead of just asking what a certain word means or what an object does he simply does… nothing. He dismisses the problem telling himself and I quote “that’s a question for another time”. Please don’t? Ask her now and learn more about this new world you found yourself in!

There was plenty of time where both could have in depth conversations but that never happens. How are they supposed to get to know each other, build a friendship if the end goal is for them to fall in love? Their first trip to the author’s house takes hours, that entire chapter was a missed opportunity for Enzo’s character growth and for Aliya to explain to the readers her motivations and show more of her personality. Unfortunately we get none of that.


2. Enzo and Aliya’s relationship.

Enzo’s infatuation for Aliya just didn’t make sense to me. “He’d only known her for a couple days at most, but Aliya had already become one of the people he cared about the most” How? Why? His motivation was to return home, why the sudden change and affection for this person he only met a day ago? It felt forced and unrealistic.


This story reads as an early draft. I liked the premise, that’s why I decided to give it a chance and I 100% believe it could’ve been an excellent book. Sadly it didn’t meet my expectations.

This book had a good idea but did not follow through. I am not sure if I just wasn't in the right mind set for this book when I read it but I did not finish this book. I am usually very easy to please with books so I am open to trying this again in the future but for now it was a DNF.

I wasn't able to finish this before it expired but I was able to read some of it. I enjoyed what I was able to read and look forward to finding a copy of this book so that I can finish it.

2.5/5 ⭐️ So, here’s the thing. You can tell when an author is excited about their material and is trying hard to make you like and believe in it like they do. And that’s good! Unfortunately that’s pretty much the only good thing I can say about this one. Most of these reviews hit the nail on the head about the issues so I’ll try to be brief, but outline what stuck out to me.

1. Crazy repetitive. This was the first thing I noticed and it made it almost impossible to read, from the dialogue to how many times the author repeated the FMCS name, especially in the beginning. It drove me crazy, I’m sorry to say, and made me genuinely surprised this wasn’t the authors debut.
2. Poorly written characters. The insta love was too sudden to be believable or captivating. No way the MMC went through all he did and somehow fell in love with some girl with a creepy shrine to him immediately? He just gave in to the whole situation so soon it was unrealistic and made it hard to care at all about their relationship. Side note: the constant harping on how obsessed she was with him was not only realistic (we all have fictional boyfriends but her thing was just too much tbh) and cringey. Wouldn’t she care about any of the other elements of the book that much, any other character, or just this side character prince?
3. Flashbacks. I honestly feel bad about this but I found them so incredibly boring it was hard to read. They should have been so much more interesting and gripping for what they were and it just… wasn’t.
4. Unrealistic. I’m not talking about the portal jumping stuff. I mean the details. How can you discuss for so long how an author is incredibly reclusive & hard to find, and then the next morning you’ve suddenly found BOTH her home addresses without any explanation? Not even a sentence for how this hard to find author was found by an amateur sleuth on google? Lol.


Overall, hard to read and not enjoyable. Apologies if this comes off as harsh, but I truly believe with some better editing and feedback this author could give us something quite good. Until then, I’m not impressed.

—Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

I was really excited to dive into "Only a Portal Away" with its cool premise, but it just didn't deliver for me. The idea of a fictional character showing up in the real world had so much potential, but the execution was pretty disappointing.

The dialogue was a major letdown. It felt so forced and awkward that I found myself cringing more often than not. The interactions between Aliya and Enzo, which should've been engaging, just didn't feel natural. It was hard to connect with them because their conversations felt so stiff.

The plot also fell into a lot of clichés. While the story had some imaginative elements, the twists and turns were pretty predictable and lacked originality. There were moments that were supposed to be dramatic or emotional, but they just ended up feeling over the top and unconvincing.

I understand that this book has still not gone through its bouts of editing yet but for the sentences to be so repetitive it’s actually quite impressive. E.g ‘enzo lit the candle. Aliyah could finally see as the candle was lit by enzo’ over and over again. This made it quite hard to read and stay engaged with the story.

In my opinion, the plot and characters weren’t very credible. I feel like writing about a character that is based on the book’s reader takes away from the magic of a fantasy book. Perhaps the lack of escapism wasn’t for me but I couldn’t get lost in this at all.


Characters

Aliyah and enzo - their connection felt very forced to me due to the insta-love trope. The problem here is that the book takes place in a very short span (2 days I believe?) and that is in no way enough time for two characters to build trust and speak about one another as though they’ve known each other for a long time (or even at all!)

Sierra seemed mysterious at first glance but then quickly turned into a one dimensional character like the rest. I think there’s a lot of potential there to add personality to her in the future.

Aliyah’s character was very YA-damsel-in-distress. Always gasping and clutching her pearls and personally I think her fear could’ve been conveyed a bit better. Not every character has to be strong and fearless, especially when they don’t have that kind of background, but it gets annoying for the readers to read as we’ve seen this many times in this genre.

Lovely book cover design though. Unfortunately the plot and writing just weren’t for me, and that’s okay.

The Codex of Indresal. Ravendoore. War Torn Kingdoms. Fae. Ancient Elves. Magical Worlds.

This book takes the bookworm's dream: taking the reader's favorite character from their favorite novel, ripping them from their ink and paper world into the real world? He is wounded, dumbfounded. Aliya is a Junior at Georgia University. The favorite character: Crown Prince Enzo al'Deran of Ravendore.

Aliya wants to believe that the Prince came from her fantastical, magical, beautiful fictional world. To prove she isn't losing her mind, Enzo creates a portal to prove that the magic he weilds is real, that he is flesh and blood.

The Prince asks for Aliya's help. Enzo wants to take his reader into the world of Indresal. No pressure, along with learning of the fact that Enzo is being chased by the villain; and the villain is now in the real, tangible world.

Aliya must decide if she is willing to risk her life in order to save Indresal and the Crown Prince. She could either be going crazy, or she must save her favorite beloved fictional world. I needed this fun light-hearted read. There is so much fun whimsy.

There are dark moments, like when Crown Prince contends with terrible nightmares of the war. Blood, war, anger, screams, cries. The banter is witty and sweet. The silliness of Enzo slowly learning of Aliya's world is humorous and adorable.

I do believe this novel could have done much more with the plot, with more developed character arcs. The elements I loved were: the slow burn romance, a romantasy, and elves. Who doesn't love Elves. However, I still am not a fan of dual POVs. Also, I am just not a fan of the timeline constantly shifting back and forth between storylines. Overall, a good read. I would give the next book a chance to see where the adorable, whimsy couple does next in their fictional adventures 🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

What happens when you come home to find your favourite character from a book is in the middle of your living room.
This had a good premise and an interesting start. I did however find it difficult to like the characters. Perhaps it was the pacing of the story, which I found to be rather fast. Also the character development could have had more time devoted to it. We had lots of chasing and insta attraction which with the other points lead to a bit of a superficial story. Not my favourite.

What would you do if you met your favourite character?

Such a great premise and a great start, I thoroughly enjoyed the first 30% of the book.
At around the 30% mark I found a lot of dialogue became repetitive and sometimes over explaining, getting bogged down in minor details, while not delving deep into character development.

A quick revision and removing some details while fleshing out more and this book would be a winner, I was totally invested in the premise, the stories and Indresal.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this ARC.