Book Review: Haven by A.R. Ivanovich

ASIN: B019EJ00VQ
Published: January 5th, 2016 (first published May 26th, 2011)
Publisher: Alloy Entertainment
Read from January 1st to 11th, 2016
Synopsis from Goodreads:

From missing socks to missing people, nothing could remain hidden from seventeen year-old Katelyn Kestrel for long, but after locating a forbidden passage out of her isolated country, Haven, she discovers for the first time that there are some things that should never be found. Outside the safety of her homeland's borders, Katelyn meets Rune, a young soldier who will die without her immediate aid. She never considered that helping him would lead to her capture. While being held prisoner by the handsome Lord Dylan Axton, she learns that the outside world is rife with war and controlled by people with extraordinary powers. It becomes clear that there was a very good reason the founders of Haven locked their people away from the rest of the world. The depth of her peril reaches a fever pitch when a ruthless Commander wants Katelyn dead. Her only hope is to return to Haven, but can she survive long enough to find her home?

Review:

I started off my reading year with Haven, and I'm so glad I did. I talked about this quite a bit in my end of year survey, but 2015 wasn't the greatest reading year for me as far as fiction goes. Aside from a couple of really great books, most of what I read I seemed to either hate or just find okay. I can think of about three fiction books that I really enjoyed. I wound up enjoying the nonfiction I read much more, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I was really hoping this year would be better as far as fiction goes.

Which is why starting off my year with Haven was such a great idea. I wound up loving it (and the book I read next thankfully), and I'm so glad that I already have the rest of the series. I'm pretty sure I also mentioned in my end of year survey that my goal was to finish some of the million series I'm reading, not start anymore. Clearly, I broke that first thing, but I don't feel too bad about it largely because Haven was excellent and I already have all the books.

Haven was an excellent start to the series. I found all of the characters compelling. The book takes place across two worlds, neither of which is our own. I knew the book was labelled as dystopian going in, but I wasn't expecting to wonder just which world was the dystopia as I was reading. After reading, I'm still not sure about one of the worlds. I have so many questions in the best possible way.

I'm fascinated with the world of this story. All of its rules and how it was laid out and the characters within it. The romance too was a great part of the book. Romance, I think, was one of the areas that really felt blah to me last year, so I was delighted to love the romance in Haven as much as I did. The whole book had me on the edge of my seat as I tried to figure everything out, and I never quite knew what was going to come next.

If you're looking for a great fantasy book, I would recommend this one. I can't wait to get to the next in the series.

(Also, unrelated to the story itself, but I'm in love with the cover. I don't say that all that often, but this happens to be the second book recently where the cover struck me.)

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.