Book Review: Once Upon A... What? by Katherine Henshaw

***BOOK REVIEW***

Once Upon A... What? by Katherine Henshaw (Once Upon A Trilogy #1)

I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW! I mean, yes I am a grown up with the ability to be patient… but seriously, give it to me NOW! Katherine Henshaw spins a tale of two best friends that are clearly best friends. They are connected on a level which you don’t often see authors being able to portray. The way they speak to each other, the way they act together, you can tell they are true friends and soul mates.

I also love that there is no clear description of the main characters, that their looks are not the focus. It is perfectly done for those of us that like to reader insert as we read as the MC can look how we want them to look, opening up the opportunity for more diverse heroines.

Speaking of diverse, I think it’s brilliant that the MC’s best friend is gay, and that through their journeys they meet a diverse range of people. The fact that this diverseness is barely dwelled on is a good message to the reader, that we shouldn’t dwell on it, that it is just a fact of life.

This could have been written in a way similar to Lord of the Rings, but thank god it wasn't. I appreciate the way the author detailed the people, the places, the situations. I liked that there was comprehensive enough descriptions that still allowed me to use my imagination. Like J.K. Rowling did with Harry Potter or Leigh Bardugo did with Six of Crows, in my opinion.

Once Upon A… What? Is diverse and witty and just this side of naughty and I love it. ★★★★★

See below for synopsis:

Summerview Manor was a house with secrets. The disappearance of the original owner Theodore Phillips the Third was basically town legend. But Tabitha and her best friend Scott didn’t care. They’d wanted a place they could call home for as long as they could remember. When they finally save up enough money to buy the old Victorian house, they thought the worst they’d have to deal with was roaches and sagging floorboards. They couldn’t have been more wrong. When a dusty gramophone turns a hard night of drinking into a quick slide through a portal into another realm, Tabitha thinks she might have solved the mystery of what happened to Theodore Phillips III. But will she and Scott be able to find their way home, or will their disappearance just become one more mystery for Summerview Manor? Once Upon a...What? is a wild adventure through a magical world where the creatures are fantastical and shenanigans ensue.