Review: Seasons Turning by Donaya Haymond

Hey all, Dani here.

I have written so many reviews lately, and I’m glad that I’m finally starting to make a tiny dent in my backlog. However, it’s a bit of a juggling act to balance backlist reviews with more recent reads. Thankfully, I’m doing plenty of reading right now as well, so it makes it easier for me to prep up a whole lot of reviews.

Today’s review is a little bit of a special one for me. It is a book that has been near and dear to my heart for years, and I’m now very happy to have a bound copy finally in my hands.

Let’s just jump into the review.

Summary

Kira lives in a world where the seasons are much more than a time of year, but realms separated by delicate barriers. One Season, Summer, has his eye on Kira, and his intentions are anything but pure. An act of self-defense does more than save Kira from unknown horrors, but upsets the balance, and causes the barriers between realms to break down.

Spring leaves her girlfriend Amber behind, starting a journey she believes will avert further disaster, and accidentally crosses over into our world instead. She latches onto Jared, a relatively ordinary young man, and braves the dire unknown to identify the source of their world’s imbalance.

Winter requires damage control, while Autumn seeks to point Kira, and her trusty shotgun, in the right direction. Chaos ensues, threatening to plunge all the realms into a destructive tailspin. To everything there is a season. To the Seasons, what happens next is everything. 

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

First things first, I should probably throw a disclaimer out there. Donaya Haymond is a friend of mine, but that has not affected my rating or review. Also, I bought this book myself…though I do have a couple previous drafts sitting in one of my Dropbox folders. Still, I was not asked to do a review for this book. I just want more people to hear about this book and hopefully be moved to pick up their own copy.

I met Donaya years and years ago, back in my early days on fictionpress. We started reading and commenting on each other’s story chapters, and a friendship formed from that.

This particular story has many moments that are just utterly whimsical, and I love it. Whimsy is just not something I’m particularly good at adding to my own stories. The way this parallel realm connects with ours is wildly fascinating to me, and it is interesting to see how the two worlds/realms interact with each other…even when they aren’t particularly aware of the interaction.

The characters are intriguing and diverse. I so enjoy seeing how Spring and Jared interact, and how Jared just accepts some of the chaos that sweeps into his life. But my favorite character is probably still Djones, but instead of telling you more about him, I’ll let you meet him when you pick up this book yourself. There are characters of all variety of race, religion, gender, and sexual identity. Their lives connect and intertwine and collide in sometimes seemingly random ways that are fully realized at later times.

I have been a fan of this book, through its many incarnations, for I don’t know…close to a decade now? And the characters and the story have just stuck with me the whole time. Am I necessarily a fan of the cover? Not really, but the story inside is definitely worth a read.

Where to Buy

You can pick up your own copy of Seasons Turning from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. Donaya is currently writing the sequel, and I’m sure I’ll have more news about that when it comes available.