ARC Review: Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on April 2, 2024
Genres: YA Fantasy, YA LGBTQ, YA Paranormal Romance
Pages: 352
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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Blurb:

A skeptic and a supernatural being make a crossroads deal to achieve their own ends only to get more than they bargained for in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Spell Bound and So This Is Ever After .

Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.

Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.

Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.

My Review

I have been a fan of this author with all the books so far. So I was very excited when the publisher offered to send me a copy. While the story was good, I didn’t like it as much as I’ve liked the other books by this author. Not sure if it is just that it didn’t hit me right at this moment or what. I mean it was a perfect read for winter time with the world that they were in being kind of stuck in a permanent winter for the last 5 years of the story.

There was a lot of interesting takes on fantasy and supernatural, some reminiscent of one of my favorite tv shows, Supernatural. I liked finding all the different creatures that Knox kind of new from past times he’d been on Earth doing what he was made to do, be a familiar. But some of the takes were a little confusing and didn’t always make sense for me exactly. I think that is one of the things that I had issues with in my reading.

While I totally understood Ellery’s introvertedness, at times their indecision and decisions even made a bit annoyed. I think I just didn’t fall in love with their character as much as I did with similar or main characters in the other books by this author. And then there was Knox. I liked him, but at times with as forgetful or the way he was with losing his memory didn’t quite square up with how much more knowledgeable he was about things compared to Ellery.

I think if you’ve liked Lukens’ other books you will enjoy this one. But I would suggest starting with one of the others first, in case this one doesn’t grab you like the others did for me. I could be crazy though, I see lots of great reviews from people who loved this one on Goodreads, so it may just have been that I wasn’t in the right mood/mind-frame for this one when I read it.