The idea behind this was awesome and the story was filled with cool twists and turns. I definitely didn't see any of it coming! There's something missing that prevents me from rating it higher and I can't put my finger on it. It's kind of reminiscent of the 10th Kingdom and Thor with the whole realm thing. *I* thought it was unique and twisty, but maybe more experienced fantasy readers won't. Really cool premise, great characters, and an ending that makes me super eager for the next book! 
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 More thoughts: 
 I really liked this a lot! It took me a little while to get engaged with this for some reason; I think the beginning threw me off. After the first few chapters, I started getting really into it and was super curious about where it was heading. The synopsis says that Liv is in some way connected to the people who come in from the other realm, so I was wondering nonstop how all that was going to connect at some point. The basic idea behind the book is that a girl, Liv, finds these three people (Cedric, Kat, and Merek) who end up explaining that they came in from another land (Caelum) through a portal. I haven't read a lot of books like this, but it reminded me immediately of a cross between Thor and The 20th Kingdom (I'll admit I've only seen one episode, but the premise at least seems similar!). I became hooked soonafter. 
 I'm a bad judge of what a GOOD fantasy story is because I read so few of them. To me, this book was really unique and super interesting. As I said, I've never read a book involving realms and portals; I'd only seen it on the shows/movies. So yeah, I thought this book was unique and engaging for sure. Not sure how experienced fantasy readers will feel! 
 There were lots of twists and turns that I honestly didn't see coming, which was refreshing. Lately I've been on a kick where I'm too good at predicting what's going to happen in books. There were some interesting developments and I'm honestly not sure how she can make the next book twistier! 
 As for the characters, I was pretty invested in them. I hope to see more of their personalities in the upcoming books because there wasn't too much time for character development in this book. There was a lot of action and plan-making, but not much else with them. I DID ship Cedric and Liv, but again - there was a decent amount of chemistry but not as much as I would like. Romance is ~there~ kind of, but not at the forefront. It could have been better and more pronounced. I didn't trust a couple of people (especially as betrayals started happening), so I kind of kept my distance from the characters. I do that in mystery novels because I start suspecting everyone, but somehow that happened here too. 
 The ending! Lots of action and intrigue, in my opinion. There was sort of a cliffhanger but it doesn't have me absolutely itching for the next book. I'm okay with waiting for it, I think. The story itself was full of action and I loved how everything came together at the end. I'm reaaally looking forward to learning more about Caelum. 
 Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you're interested in multiple realms/portal-based fantasy without a complicated system of magic. There really wasn't MAGIC (yet?) aside from that aspect. It was easy and pretty quick to read. I can't wait to see where things go next.