Once A Queen

By Sarah Arthur

When fourteen-year-old American Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she’s never met, she soon discovers that her family, the manor staff, and even the house itself are hiding secrets.

With odd things happening in the gardens at night, Eva embarks on a search for answers. Astonishingly, she learns that the Hall’s staff believe portals to other worlds exist—though hidden and steadily disappearing—and that Eva’s grandmother was once a queen in one of those worlds. But her grandmother’s heart is closed to the beauty and pain of the past.

Now it’s up to Eva to discover what really happened—and to decide if it’s possible that her favorite childhood fairy tales are true. As she starts unraveling the dangerous secrets around the grandmother who is more than she appears, Eva begins to wonder if she, too, is more than she understood herself to be.

My Thoughts: This is the coziest fantasy I’ve ever read. It was written in the styles of authors like Alcott and Nesbit, both authors of my childhood, while also containing similar elements to Narnia. Once A Queen is the perfect read for sitting on the porch swing in spring or hanging out in a tree branch in summer!

★ ★ ★(Story: 3/5)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★(Worldview: 5/5)