The Beholder: A YA Historical Fantasy Romance About a High-Stakes Voyage for Love Across the Atlantic

Beautifully crafted story that is an interesting mix of a coming of age story, a fairy tale, and alternate history. You find yourself rooting for Selah instantly, hoping she can find a way out of her stepmothers intricate scheme. With beautiful settings, interesting characters and an engaging storyline, this book will suck you in quickly. I can’t wait for the next one! I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys intrigue, romance and a spunky heroine!

***This review originally posted on What A Nerd Girl Says*** I’ll admit it straight out – this book only appeared on my radar because it was on BookBub and I haven’t been able to read in a book in ages and so I thought, hey, the cover is pretty so why not. I’m definitely glad that I took the chance. I will say that the book started off very slowly to me only because things happened so quickly that it was hard to really figure out what was going on and why I cared. It seemed one minute that Selah was proposing to Peter and then she was on a boat and she was very upset about it and I was like, what on earth just happened. The meat of the story is her journey and I think to get there had to be done quickly and I understand it but it definitely did not hook me right away. I think I read up until Selah leaves and then I stopped and came back to it a day or two later. There’s also one teensy little thing that was really hard for me and that was the name of all the countries and leaders and stuff. I feel like its OUR world but in an alternate history but there were times where they were a ton of words I just didn’t understand and it felt incredibly distracting and it took me out of the story because I felt like I was missing something. That aside, I did truly enjoy this book. I really liked Selah as a character, this sort of mousy, easily tricked character that is so unsure all of the time who blossoms into so much more. The first place that Selah visits is England and to me, everything just felt so wrong. It seemed like Anna was building this forbidden romance that we were supposed to root for but there was just something in my gut that made me feel like it wasn’t right and I didn’t feel like Selah was truly being the person I knew she could be. It just all felt so wrong. It felt like there was this one-dimensional goal but there was stuff behind the scenes that I needed to get to and I just wasn’t yet and I just kept wanting to be like, Selah, move on! England ain’t it! But when Selah reaches her second destination, that’s when the book just really stands out, honestly. First off, all the characters that come into play here are just…so interesting and colorful and I love them. I love Torden – there was just something so incredibly genuine about him and I really adored him. I liked him better than the suitor in England – I’ve seen reviews where people are genuinely torn between the two but I was immediately sold on Torden. I also absolutely adored his family and I think that endeared me to this part of the book as well. I’m the oldest of six children and I know the chaos that is being part of a big family and how no one is perfect but you still love them anyway because you’re so close and you grew up in the same space as them. I really felt Selah come into her own in this part of the novel and I was here for it. This felt like the story beginning and I was at the edge of my seat wondering how on earth things were going to work. There’s an underlining story revealed toward the end, the one I was itching at while Selah was in England, and I’m 100000% here for it, but I do wish it had come in a little earlier. It felt like an add on and almost like the main story could have held its own but then this was thrown at me and I was like, oh, okay, there’s a bigger picture here. Didn’t see that coming…But I’m interested in seeing how the second book will both wrap up Selah’s main story and this story that involves…way more people. The second and FINAL (so excited, I don’t think I could handle 3 books right now) comes out in June and I’m counting down the days.

First I'll start by saying I've left maybe two reviews of a book before, and they were not good. BUT HOO BOY ok listen. I HAD to leave a review. It's a bit rough at first because there are so many random strange names. But once you get used to that you are thrust into a strange, fascinating world. The names are clever and the writing us clever AND the fairytales interwoven with some actual history and Norse mythology is so fun and interesting. And Torden OH my gosh TORDEN. I didn't like or dislike Selah but by the end Torden helped her realize the qualities within her. We stan a man who helps personal growth. 5 stars for the world that was built, quality characters and making me feel what they feel.

It's hard to rate this one because there were some things I enjoyed and some things I hated. Leaving it at a middling 3 stars right now, but it may drop lower. The world building was so confusing. There world initially appears to be set on an alternate earth where the British empire withdrew from the US due to uprisings in a country I'm assuming was India (which in real life occurred in 1857). Our story takes place a few generations after that, when the US has divided into miniature kingdoms ruled differently and named after some cities/areas/landmarks I guess? (There is a New York and a Savannah based in the US, Selah is from Potomac which I'm assuming is based around the D. C. area). Note that most of this is based off of knowledge of world geography because no map exists, and random names are switched or made into something based off of native languages. Potomac seems kind of fantasy based - buildings are made of the roots and trunks of trees that grow, and the technology seems pretty typical of fantasy (more old-timey) - Selah mentions using a plow. This makes it all the more jarring when in this world with minimal technology, Selah just whips a portable radio out of a book binding which apparently her Godmother can use for trans-Atlantic communication???? When she finds the radio, she doesn't even know what it is or how to use it, but apparently the technology exists and is developed enough to be able to cross the Atlantic (which in real life occurred for the first time in 1901 after extensive research an discoveries in physics). Even though Selah has no idea what a radio is, apparently random radio towers exist in other countries that will allow her to talk to her godmother? I don't know, but that was the most jarring and out of place thing about me in the story and I obviously am having trouble getting over it. I would have rather had some fantasy/magic-powered device used for communication than a random piece of real technology just thrown into an otherwise fantasy and myth-based world. Another thing: the insta love. Given two weeks to meet and fall in love with someone seems very short, but maybe a little bit plausible. Falling in love with two different boys to the point you're considering marrying them in three weeks is a little much for me though. I did enjoy the plethora of myths and such that the places and the boys/courts were based off of. Again, seeing these classic stories come on the page was a bit odd with the random technology thrown in, but I digress. I probably won't read the sequel because I'm not invested enough.

Wonderful story with an intriguing premise, lush scenery, fascinating characters, dazzling romance. The cover alone deserves many shiny stars! I can't wait to see the conclusion to Selah's journey.

das ist eine sehr interessante Story und ich hoffe, dass die Autorin die Fortsetzung nicht ruiniert ... die Charaktere sind lebhaft und gut beschrieben. die Protagonistin unglaublich naiv, aber dafür tapfer. für zwischendurch etwas schönes.

Read it in a day- can’t wait for the sequel!

My book arrived very damaged, I will write a full book reviewed once read but very unhappy with the condition that the book was in when it arrived