“Hello? Is anyone home?”

I imagine this is how visitors to my site feel scrolling through my blog for the first time. Nearly three months have passed since my last post. Not that I expect people to be knocking on my theoretical door, but I do try to be consistent with posting.

To give an idea of what my life has looked like this year—are we really halfway through 2024 already?—here are some highlights:

✨ I’ve been a vendor at 3 craft fairs throughout Tucson and Phoenix

✨ I attended a family ministry conference in Seattle and visited the Redemption Press bookstore

✨ I participated in a writer’s conference through Redemption Press and met some AMAZING authors

✨ I started building a community both on Instagram and TikTok in addition to Facebook and my Lore Keepers

✨ I’ve been slowly working my way through the first draft of Holly’s Portent

✨ I planned and completed a 6 week fundraising campaign for Lily’s Passage

✨ I committed to another round of edits for Lily’s Passage

✨ I bought and moved into my very first home

Many of these highlights are ongoing and continue to fill my time. Needless to say, I haven’t been blogging or finishing very many books lately. Let this be a sign that The Queen and the Shadow Witch is a story worth reading! (There is actually a book review in this post, I promise.) Though reading this book took me over a month, I finished late into the night because the ending had me turning pages. Before I talk more about Leanna Rapier’s debut novel, I wanted to share about the idea of home.

Since my life has been focused on uprooting and planting, simplifying and weeding out, home has become a personal topic. We often don’t appreciate home until we’ve been away. In my case, I feel as if I have a fresh start. Our new home is a blank canvas for me to make my own. Paint colors. Dishes. Furniture arrangement. These things are cozy, but they’re not as important as the other elements of home—expectations, habits, and culture that shape our everyday living.

I’m thankful to have my own place to call home. But I also realize that home is an attitude as much as it is a place. So it’s amusing that such a theme was a prevalent part of The Queen and the Shadow Witch.

The story begins with Michelle, a burnt-out homeschool mom whose husband’s deployment has taxed the whole family. Michelle was a writer before she had kids, but gave up on those “useless” dreams after too many rejections for her work. Now, she projects her failure onto her children, whose lives follow a rigid schedule of “real learning” and life lessons.

But one day, her daughter Sammie accidentally writes herself and her mom into Michelle’s fictional world of Kalpania, and the two must use all their wits to find the way home and save a world dying for hope.

This story hooked me with the intriguing concept, but I stayed for the themes woven into the fabric of the plot. I generally enjoyed the characters, and there were parts that made me feel emotion—good, bad, or ugly.

For some reason, I went into this book thinking it would be a lighthearted young reader’s tale. I was mistaken. Though whimsical and bubbly on the surface, the themes running through the story hit deeper chords than I expected to find within its pages.

Things I appreciate about the book:

• The banter about writing craft (and poking fun at obvious tropes)
• I don’t particularly like the main character at the start
• An unconventional main character (homeschool mom/military wife)
• Mentions of details like plumbing which feel so natural given the nature of the story
• The intriguing concept of a world maturing quite apart from the original author (almost like Narnia)
• Some creative worldbuilding elements, such as a unique take on merfolk
• Themes of light and darkness, creativity versus lack of imagination, hope in spite of hopeless circumstances

Michelle’s narration style wasn’t my favorite, partly because she has a very modern voice in a medieval style fantasy world. But I think this disconnect was intentional due to the nature of portal fantasies, and within the story itself she comments on her use of modern slang. I also felt like her character arc was a bit inconsistent at times. She starts with lots of room for growth, and sometimes she learns from past mistakes. But other times she responds to similar situations as the “old Michelle” and not the one who experienced growth. This doesn’t affect my rating or enjoyment of the book, however. If anything, Rapier’s depiction of her protagonist speaks to the nature of humans and how difficult it is for us to change.

If you enjoy faith-filled portal fantasies, mother-daughter stories, plots with no romance elements, or quests to save the world, add this book to your list!

Throughout her journey to get home, Michelle realizes just how much she can change in her life through a mindset shift and the power of creativity. And she reconnects with her faith along the way, which inspires me that nobody is too far gone for the Gospel. As I settle into my new home, I’m thankful to embark on a new journey of blooming in the soil I’ve been planted in.

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