3.5⭐️

I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

Aliya (FMC) meets her favourite fictional book character who she finds injured in her home when she returns home from work.
This is definitely a very interesting concept, as I’m not sure I know a single reader who hasn’t fantasised about meeting their fictional boyfriend/s or girlfriend/s, or their favourite girl boss, etc.

While there were comedic portions of the book it was quite a fast paced book (over the space of 2 days) and it was a bit repetitive at times. I think it could have done with some expansion so we really got to know the characters, as well as the book that Crown Prince Enzo al’Deran came from.

The cliffhanger at the end of the book will leave you impatiently waiting for the new instalment!

Oh my god I loved this book so so much I just couldn't put it down.. Need to know the rest because that end is not okay... No no no.. Seriously the interactions between the characters were amazing and Enzo and Aliya made me laugh so much.

I was...not going to finish Akira Varma's <i>Only a Portal Away</i>.

About 29 pages in, I decided this book was very poorly written and therefore not worth my time. When I reach this point with a book, usually my first stop is to read the reviews, confirming to myself that it's not about to get better any time soon. And of the reviews I've read thus far, I genuinely do believe this was an accurate assessment.

That said, I also can't in good conscience rate this book a well deserved one-star if I DNF at 11%.

Let me just say that forcing myself to finish this was a chore; but I believe it was necessary because, if nothing else, I think this book does call for an in-depth explanation for why a reasonably good concept just isn't working out and potential readers deserve to know what they're getting themselves into...

<i>"No fictional character should know the extent you love them. Aliya pursed her lips. Her eyes widened at the thought of all the fanfiction that she had read of Enzo. Aliya bit her lip as her breath hitched. Trying to control her emotions was futile at the moment. Her mind raced with all the images from the times she'd imagined Enzo...

He wasn't supposed to know that!

No one was supposed to know that!

That was supposed to be between her and her grave!

He already teased her about the hearts around his name in the book series. What would he even think of her if he saw her browser history? The thought itself was daunting. No hole would be deep enough for Aliya to dive into to escape the embarrassment. He didn't need to know that.

And if she had any say in it, he wouldn't have known any of this.

But she didn't. And here she was, desperately hoping that the hearts around his name were the only thing that Enzo saw."</i>

When I say that the entire book is like this, an offhand and disjointed stream of consciousness that jumps from one thing to the next and then circles back to repeat itself all while never actually showing readers <i>anything</i>, I wish I were joking. This small excerpt alone literally repeats itself again with just a single paragraph in between that describes the her fictional crush looking at his hands. And then we get <i>pages</i> of her embarrassment because the author just can't help herself from describing all the things Aliya either owns or has done relating to this favorite character of hers. And then we get repeats of how good this guy looks.

I can't even begin with how many times I groaned at those repeats. My word, they <i>never</i> ended!

And this is without even bothering to get into the abject ridiculousness of assuming someone from a fantasy realm would understand anything about browser history.

<i>Only a Portal Away</i> desperately needs a team of editors to sit the author down and explain all of the cuts it needs to be functionally readable and then discuss how to add content that will move the story along without making it feel rushed. We didn't need to be in Aliya's head <i>this much</i>, rather we needed to <b>see</b> her reacting and learning. We needed to see how these characters might grow to actually feel for each other; Enzo, especially, but yes, even Aliya! There's so much you can do with a plot like this and at every turn Varma just failed.

I did not need to be getting direct thoughts from Aliya through the whole novel literally <i>telling</i> me what was going on in her head, I needed the author to <i>show</i> me. As it stands, with all the cuts I would have made due to ridiculous redundancy, this book should have been half as long as it ended up being. The problem with this, of course, is that you've got little more than an outline of your story's plot masquerading as the book as a result.

And this is precisely why the world building and character development felt so lacking—when you fill your novel with pages of useless fluff to meet the word count goals, you have precious little space for the actual story. There's no showing readers evolution of thought or character development when you've spent twelve paragraphs alternating between internal embarrassment and ogling the other character.

Let me put it this way: Enzo's realization of the realities of his situation should not have been something he reached in approximately nine sentences of his dialogue. Just like so much else in this book, <i>"What? [...] Uh, yes I am. Are you really sure that I'm fictional? What world is this? What even made you think I'm fictional? Who wrote this book? How do they know so much about this world? Do you know where the writer is? [...] Take me to her,"</i> should have taken pages to evolve, especially when a mere minute prior, Enzo had thought the book was a collected written history of a past war.

And I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that this entire exchange, including the questions in verbatim, repeats several times in the subsequent pages.

I do genuinely believe that this had potential...but for the love of literature, if an author is going to self-publish, they need to spring for a team of good editors. Traditional publishing has them for a reason!

This book had such a promising premise (like who hadn't dreamt of their favourite fantasy book bf suddenly turning up at their house?), but unfortunately, the execution felt very poor. So much lost potential.

The plot wasn't very fleshed out, many things felt forced, like the insta love Enzo had for Aliya or how ready she is to sacrifice herself after knowing him for only one day.
The writing also could have been better. The story was more told than shown and I couldn't have cared less about the history and the many wars. It lacked at lot of development of the world and the characters. Many things weren't explained good enough for the reader to keep up. At times it felt a lot like a movie script for a rushed YA film (I immediately had to think about Abduction or Percy Jackson). Some things were quite unrealistic, like how fast Aliya found out the home address of an author who couldn't have been more private and hidden. There were also too many plot holes and mistakes.

2 ☆ stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review :)

This was an amazing concept but horribly written. I was drawn to this story by the blurb because it was so unique. Your favorite book boyfriend suddenly appears in your living room, which starts a quest to get him back to his world? Come on- that should be an instant five star read. Unfortunately, this read like a really bad fan fiction.

The writing was clipped and disjointed. I’ve never been so upset with the line writing in a story. I understand that what I was given an eARC, but there’s no way the entire book would be so heavily edited by release that every sentence that started with a conjunction would be fixed. Her writing was very repetitive. She’d mention the same thing in the same paragraph, but worded it differently. The author tends to focus on useless things, such as constant back cracking and a whole page about struggling with grocery bags.

The prologue was pointless and confusing. Nothing from the prologue is ever eluded to again.

The characters had so much potential but lacked suitable development. Aliya had the least amount of development. All I know about her is that she’s an engineering student at UGA who lacks the intelligence to understand that what she says to Enzo makes no sense because he is literally from another world. Enzo and Sienna had a decent amount of character building, but Enzo did not come across as likable. There’s even a POV from the villain. I understand him more than I understand the female main character.

I really enjoyed the concept but holy moly, the writing made it an absolute struggle to finish.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

I really loved this book, except for the ending. I NEED a book two immediately. I really liked the switching point of views, and the switching between our reality and a different world. The storyline and plot was amazing, and this book is the kind of book that will keep you awake till 3 AM. An amazing fantasy and just all in all perfect

Only a Portal Away by Akira Varma is a fun filled, action packed with magic and romance.
I enjoyed it tremendously!
I was sucked in by the first page and I thought the flow of the book was perfect, and it made for an easy read.
The world-building was nicely done. It was easy to understand and there was no info-dump, which was nice. The story was fast-paced, held me captive the entire time, and wrapped up nicely.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Goodreads review 5/19

Thank you netgalley and Victory Editing for the arc of Only a Portal Away

2.5/5 ⭐️

I really liked the idea behind this book and I think most readers have imagined their favorite character coming to life like this story. I did have to dnf this book though. The world building and plot line needs some work and I think it could use a few more rounds of revisions. There were just certain aspects that kept me from being able to finish this book but I think it definitely has potential and I'm sure there are others who will love the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Akira Varma for providing me with a free ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

The idea for this book is so fun - what would happen if you found your favorite character from your favorite fantasy series standing in your living room and in need of help? It was a book description that immediately caught my attention.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy most of this book. There are significant spelling and punctuation errors,the characters are not loveable, and the writing is repetitive and redundant. I wish I could give this book a better review, but it was a struggle to read.

If you like the description of the book, you might still enjoy the story, but I couldn't overlook the errors and redundancy. I hope others enjoy this more than I did.

Wow. What a wild ride. All action and adventure with some funny banter mixed in. I was hooked pretty early on with this book.
What happens when your favorite fictional character from your favorite book series shows up in your living room? A whole lot of crazy that's for sure!
I loved Aliya and Enzo's initial dialogues and internal musings. I was smiling the entire time she was explaining things like cars & airplanes and how it would only take a couple hours to go 100 miles.
I enjoyed the multiple POVs and the overlapping timelines had me so intrigued!
There was some repetitiveness in order to get to those overlapping timelines but ultimately, they didn't bother me.
I am definitely super invested and want to know what happens next!
If you like fun, easy to read, action packed fantasy books check it out!

When Aliya's favourite book character shows up in the real world, she must help him find his way back to his own world.
[DNF} I think this just wasn't the book for me - the premise sounded fun but I was hoping for a bit more adventure and worldbuilding but I found it a little slow and focused more on the relationship between the main characters. It felt a little insta-lovey which is well-founded on her side since he's her favourite character (I would be the same way!) but we didn't get much reasoning for his side. This, combined with the fact that it felt very unfinished even for an ARC (lots of repetition and grammatical issues), meant that I decided to DNF.

I will start by saying I really enjoyed this book. Thank you for letting me get an ARC of this book. I loved the changing timeline. I will say the cliffhanger has me wondering when book 2 will be released.

Personally, the faster the plot, the better. I feel like this book literally carries you away at 100mph! Slow burn romance, magic, FAE! I am so grateful for this genre/trope..there are so many people who are now book lovers for this alone! Action, adventure, love, magic..its all there!
Devour this book!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this book as it was something I haven’t seen or read anywhere yet. I enjoyed the fact that it was a book written about a book.

Some plot twists were not expected and it made the story quite interesting.

I didn’t find myself being pulled in as much as I would liked.

We shall see what the second book brings

I loved loved loved this book and am not going to give any spoilers for this story but you have to go out and read it. You feel for the characters the story pulls you in and you can’t wait to continue reading it. I just couldn’t put it down.

I liked the premise, I always have adored Disney's Enchanted and was excited to read this and dive into a fantasy version of this book. The intro totally pulled me in, and hooked me. I enjoyed the slow burn and watching the relationship develop. Thanks for the free arc and the opportunity to read it!

I enjoyed many things about this book: the multiple POVs, the jumping timelines, the world building, and the battles. There were also things that didn’t work for me: the pacing (everything happens in 2 days??), the repetitive writing style, lack of character development/depth, and the plot holes. After the entire story, I feel like I still don’t really know Aliya or her motivations.

I also would have liked to know more about the story that Enzo falls out of so we can understand him and his motivations more as well.

Overall, very interesting idea, just wasn’t executed to the best of its capabilities.

Overall, I would give this book 3.5 stars. It had a really interesting premise that I couldn’t wait to dive into! I mean, who doesn’t dream about falling in love with their favorite fictional character? And while the overall plot line is intriguing, the book fell flat for me.

A lot of the writing seems kind of clunky. I know I received this as an ARC and there is still more editing to go, but the phrasing and repetition of phrases was a bit much for me.

I would have liked to see more chemistry built between the two main characters, but it is the first book so I can understand that. But the miscommunication between the two at all times felt a little exhausting. Especially considering they didn’t build any kind of rapport before they started assuming what the other was thinking.

An interesting idea with questionable execution.

“Only a Portal Away” finds your average girl Aliya face to face with her favorite fictional character and while they try to make sense of what could make something like that possible they realize he may not be the only thing that’s jumped off the page.

Here’s the thing I think any of us who find enjoyment reading have dreamt of a scenario where our favorite characters end up in our world and feel a connection to us that’s just as strong as the one who feel to them but unlike this version of that fantasy I would have way more questions.

The characters in this are fine with more than a few sharing names to that of The Vampire Diaries but maybe that’s just a coincidence? There’s a lot of repetition in not only plot elements but also character quirks and dialogue which makes it a bit clunky overall.

I agree with some other readers that one of the biggest struggles is that we know next to nothing about the original book series Prince Enzo falls out of so the impact of her meeting him and the rules of the world that’s now bleeding into our reality makes little sense as to why it would be a favorite at all.

I had high hopes for this one but I do hope other readers find enjoyment with the series!

*special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

Imagine you get home after a hard day of work or uni and your favorite fictional character is standing in your living room...
That is exactly what happens to Aliya.
Crowns Prince Enzo of Ravendore is standing in her living room and her life will never be the same!

This book contains:
- Fae
- Magic portals
- Kingdoms at war
- Slow burn
- Adventure

This book just had me squealing and giggling the whole time.
The banter between them is amazing and him just being flabbergasted by her world is just too cute.
Also how Aliya is just so embarassed by all the fanart and little knick- knacks she has laying around is hilarious.

The book is really fast paced and i could not put it down! I mean, we all imagined at some point what it would be like
to meet our favorite fictional character so to read a book like that was amazing!
I loved every single second of it and immediately had to look up when the next one was coming out, cause i
need to know how the story continues!

I highly recommend this book to anyone that always wondered, what it would be like, to meet your favorite fictional character!