Really sweet (complimentary).
Draven (not the most euphonious name ever, but let that pass) lives in a literally magical world, only magic runs chronically low, and also niceness is socially enforced to the extent that I was reminded of the Southern "Bless your heart," in that there's a fair amount of anger and anxiety simmering not very far under the surface, as we see whenever D's mother wrings her hands over whether he and his lifelong friend Yvette are being too mean in their verbal play-fights, and, more significantly, whether D, who's sixteen and newly apprenticed, can manage to behave in sufficiently conformist ways.
Spoiler: he can't. Also, does his world's emphasis on niceness and conformity set off your Spidey-sense, by any chance? Yeah, mine too.
On our side of the magical/mundane divide, we have Niall, a shy, smart, skinny student who worries about his chest acne and has never had a boyfriend. I've forgotten how old he is or even if we find out exactly, so let's say he's in his late teens.
Draven discovers a portal between his world and ours, which he's able to use once a week, on Sunday afternoons. The portal exits in a quiet aisle of Niall's local library, where Niall spends a lot of his free time, and so he and Draven meet and fall in love, which does a lot to diminish Niall's self-doubt, besides which Draven's travels wind up giving him some insights into what's going on with the magic at home.
P.S.C. Willis's worldbuilding leans too hard on expository dialogue and inner monologue, but maybe that suits a novel about teenagers and best suited for those readers. The same goes for the moral and relationship lessons (speaking of which, Niall's buddy Ellen gets a big speech in which she sounds like every standard-issue fictional therapist ever and not like someone in her late teens). On the other hand, all the lessons are good ones and Niall and Draven are endearing both individually and as a couple. Having said that: I was happy to accept the in-universe existence of magic but I have a hard time believing in an HEA, rather than just an HFN, for characters this young no matter how much I like them. And as always I worry about logistics -- for example, how is Draven's legal existence to be established?
But! As noted above, a sweet story; appealing characters; exploration of some surprisingly serious issues for a book whose overall tone is low on serious angst; and solidly well-put-together writing that doesn't get in its own way. I'd recommend this to teenagers for sure,* and also to adults looking for something gentle but substantive to read.
Thanks to the author and BookSirens for the ARC.
*Niall and Draven never go past making out, which considering they're teenagers might be less realistic than the existence of magic. I can't help but think of Gregory Ashe's Colt and Ashley, with respect to whom Emery Hazard must exercise constant vigilance.