The Faraway Inn
As seen:
By Sarah Beth Durst
avg rating
1 review
- YA BESTSELLER!**
Get cosy at The Faraway Inn, the YA fantasy from bestselling author of The Spellshop, Sarah Beth Durst.
When Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s bed and breakfast for the summer, she’s shocked to find it run down rather than cosy. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn . . . even though she clearly needs the help.
To convince her great-aunt to keep her around, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundkeeper’s (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the surer she is that there’s something strange about the B&B – and its residents. Something almost . . . otherworldly.
The inn is hiding a magical secret – but secrets are like doors. Once Calisa opens this one, she won’t be able to go back . . .
‘Filled with magical mysteries, whimsical surprises, and a dash of sweet romance, The Faraway Inn is the perfect cosy read’ – Axie Oh, author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Netgalley readers fell in love with The Faraway Inn!
‘heartwarming, magical, and uplifting’
‘delightful’
‘you will feel like you are a guest at the Inn yourself and you will not want to check out’
‘so cosy and cute’
‘the perfect escape from real life, this might just be my favourite Sarah Beth Durst book yet’
‘whimsical and captivating’
‘feels like a warm hug’
Reviews
Grateful to MacMillan Audio and Net Galley UK for a copy of the audio book.
The Faraway Inn is a charming, magical tale equally suited to adults and young adults. As an audio book, it works extremely well as a cosy, bedtime adventure. The inn itself is a haven for escapism and is the parental summer months recommendation for the protagonist, the pre-college brokenhearted Calista from Brooklyn, who has just ended a relationship with double crossing Ethan. The residence is the abode of her Great Aunt Zee, a mysterious woman, who on account of her age, has allowed the inn to deteriorate. This was not what Calista had expected of rural Vermont.
Damaging further the dilapidated porch on arrival, Calista befriends inn employee, Jack, who struggles to maintain the place unaided. Calista subsequently encounters a pitiful handful of guests, whose appearance and behaviour are peculiar. Otherworldly Mulligan has turned his companion, Zef, into a stone gargoyle accidentally and seeks a potion to reverse the spell. Melidor, a dryad, yearns for safe sanctuary from her supernatural home before being compelled to nurture her young seedlings, the next dryad generation. Sea witch, Kendra, uncontrollably releases seawater during her sojourn at the inn.
With Jack’s caretaker father missing since an expedition to the Night Market to replenish hostelry supplies several years ago, it is feared that something untoward has happened to Zee when she too disappears unexpectedly. Are these cryptic absences linked in any way to the inn’s enchanted portals? Even the broom closet is not as innocuous as it seems. Will Calista dare to open the doors, push the boundaries and embrace the unknown?
If Calista can cope with a living statue in the grounds of the inn, a self brewing tea service, a sarcastic messaging mirror and a spontaneously kindling fire in her own realm, what can possibly unnerve her beyond? Will the relatives be reunited or are they all ultimately doomed? What will become of the rickety inn, its denizens and its powers? And what exactly is the score with that enigmatic, sleepy white cat? Prepare to be mesmerised …
