Romantasy

Review: Beyond the Aching Door by Victoria Mier

June 21, 2026

Synopsis:

A mortal journalist. A mysterious series of drownings. An exiled Fey king. A forgotten Fatesong. A single, desperate chance to save magic from extinction.

All Raegan Maeve Overhill wants is to survive another October. It’s the anniversary of the worst thing that ever happened to the unsolved disappearance of her father nearly two decades ago. But when mysterious drownings grip the city of Philadelphia, Raegan sets her mourning rituals aside for a career-making opportunity to lead her newspaper’s investigation.

Her hunt for answers takes her to the city’s shadowy places where magical beings appear in puddles, the Fair Folk offer bargains, and magic is very, very real. When Raegan uncovers a startling connection to her father’s disappearance, she knows she can’t just return to her normal life without finding the truth. To get it, though, she’ll need to make a deal with the dark, deadly and alluring Unseelie Fae King—and do her best to ignore their dangerous attraction to one another.

Review:

The beginning of the book was a bit different from what I expected. We follow a journalist investigating a drowning – but how can someone drown in a puddle of water? Consider me intrigued 🙂
Raegan is eager to find out what really happened. It becomes clear early on that there is more to the story, and as her investigation deepens, she discovers that magic is real and that the stories her father told her when she was younger were more than just stories. And this is when the real fun begins 🙂

Her obsession with finding her father was very dominant. When she learned that he had kept things hidden from her to protect her, her decision to ignore all warnings was a clear sign that this could only end with her being put in dangerous situations. Discovering that there is a whole different world out there that she never knew about leads Raegan to leave her life behind and go on a dangerous mission.
This sets her on a course where she meets a handsome fae, which was one of my highlights. His grumpy attitude, combined with the clear attraction between the two of them, made me smile more than once.
And let’s not forget my personal highlight: Rainer. He was such a special character, and I wanted more of him.

The storytelling felt mature, and having more grown-up characters was refreshing to me. The book could have benefited from being slightly more condensed, as some parts felt a bit dragged out. Overall, I really enjoyed the start to the duology.

🌙 Recension: Beyond the Aching Door (The Fatebound Duology #1) by Victoria Mier
📚 Genre: Romantasy
📅 Release Date: March 26, 2024
📖 Publisher: ‎Bowker
📗 available in various formats
📱 Read as: Physical
💸 Bought
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 532
⭐️ 3/5