Such a cosy heartwarming, whimsical story, distantly reminiscent of Sarah Beth Durst's novels!
For all his pompousness, arrogance and bad attitude Ainsworth is an adorable cinnamon roll of a character who goes through a lot of growth as the novel progresses, out of reach of his estranged lover who let's just say was my least favourite character of all of them - and we don't even meet him properly until much further in the story! All of my anger towards him (and, come to think of it, his friends) stems mostly from Ainsworth's recounts of his life back in the city and the events that preceded his journey to the Inn. Ainsworth, though? I love him- I just want to wrap him up in a warm blanket and put a mug of his favourite hot drink in his hands, or just wrap him in a big hug :).
The Inn's residents are a colourful bunch from different walks of life and parts of the storyscape's world, and have found a home at the Inn, and all have refreshingly varying personalities and magical differences. I found Ashe particularly interesting and rather amusing at times, and Honey - I adored Honey's character almost as much as I loved Ainsworth; she was very mysterious which made her quite intriguing.
Chiara Bullen's writing style is beautifully whimsical and pulled me in through her descriptions of the novel's landscapes and people, in the way she wrote certain characters' dialogues and showed the relationships between the Inn's residents and guests through their interactions rather than telling the reader. While I did correctly guess the big reveal that was coming at the end, I was still surprised by a number of the twists and mysterious occurrences throughout.
Although it is an adult novel, it gave me the warm fuzzy feelings I have gotten in the past from middle grade novels such as Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle, and would also make an amazing film animated or otherwise.
I had so much fun with this book, and very much look forward to seeing what Chiara Bullen comes out with in the future.
