You know those type of books where you’re like “oh this is literally what I’d want to do”? Abandoned Things is definitely one of those books. It’s sort of like the adult version of Inkheart (Cornelia Funke), and as someone who reread the Inkworld trilogy quite a bit as a kid – this was a very fun read.
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc through the publisher and Book Sirens in exchange for a free and honest review. The book cover and details are taken from Goodreads and/or The Storygraph and the content warnings are taken from The Storygraph; from me reading the book, or from others’ reviews. I try my absolute best to find the cover art/designer but unfortunately I am not always able to do so. The page numbers/audio hours are taken from the version that I’m reading from (if an e-arc, the digital version then). The featured image is my own. All opinions expressed are my own. This is a spoiler-free review with slight references towards the spoilers, be they plot or characters.
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Title: Abandoned Things
Author: Chani Lynn Feener
Number of Pages: 432
Year Published: 2023
Publisher: Independently Published
Cover Art/Designer: Created using images purchased from depositphotos
Age Demographic: Adult
Genre: Fantasy ~ Romance ~ Action and Adventure
Rep: Pansexual main character + pansexual love interest. Bisexual side character.
Stars: 
Links: Goodreads || The Storygraph
Copy: E-arc (BookSirens)
CW/TW: (Taken from The Storygraph) Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence. Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders.
Frankie is a fifth-year college student with a secret. He’s the writer and creator of the popular web novel Gold and Silver. At least, he thought he was the creator of it.
That belief is tested when one night Rook, the book’s fan-favorite anti-hero, shows up outside Frankie’s apartment, alive and very much real. Frankie isn’t supposed to pick a favorite, but the wayward demon prince has always been his. Now that they’ve actually met, however, he finds keeping up with Rook’s capricious nature exhausting at best and infuriating at worst. When he demands that Frankie rewrite the upcoming ending of the series, Frankie tries to resist, but Rook is known for getting his way, and he’ll do anything and everything in his power to make sure Frankie complies with his wishes.
Rook Dalibor is the demon prince of the Bronze Kingdom, known for being clever and calculating. At least . . . That’s who he’s always thought he was. After dying to protect someone, Rook wakes up in a strange land with even stranger people in it. There, he discovers Visera, his world, and everything in it is actually just part of an elaborate story written in a book. After reading the first two volumes, he’s livid to discover that not only may he be the creation of some random writer, but he’s also not even the main character.
Determined to correct his story and prevent his untimely end, Rook sets out to force the writer’s hand. What starts out as a tumultuous relationship quickly turns into something else when they discover that Rook isn’t the only character from the book that’s entered the real world. Neko, one of the secondary villains has also found a way through the gateway, and he’s brought his shadow monsters with him. Setting their differences aside, Rook and Frankie form a tentative truce to deal with Neko as they try to figure out how the gateways came to be and what the rules for traveling between realms entail.
Along the way, Rook starts to realize the two of them may have more in common than he initially believed. But just as he starts to acknowledge he may have feelings for the writer, Sage, the main character in Frankie’s story, suddenly appears. Rook wants his happy ending, but what if he’ll only be happy if he ends up with Frankie? Can he convince the writer to forget about the fact they started out as enemies and win him over, or will he forever be destined to play the part of the second male lead?
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! It’s fun, an easy read where you sit down to read a chapter or two and whoops 5 or 10 chapters have just flown by. And I love it when I do that with books! Where I don’t even realise I’ve read 8 or even like 12 chapters because I’m so focused on reading the book. I’ve just started Feener’s other book now and I think it’ll be an easy read too as I think her books and writing are that easy and quick to read.
Abandoned Things tells a very interesting story about Frankie, a famous writer of a very popular web novel, who doesn’t realise the fictional world and the characters he’s so famous for (even though he writes under a pen name) is actually real. Not until some of the characters come into his world, our world as well.
It’s a thrilling ride of action and adventure, love and passion (regarding writing and romance). The characters drew me in and the story kept me wanting to read until the very end. It’s definitely something I also enjoyed and now makes me want to read more of the author’s other books.
As much as I enjoyed reading about Frankie, Rook definitely took the prize of the favourite character – he’s a bad boy, come on! Of course I’m going to root for him. He was sarcastic, romantic (which are two things that I do love a lot 😄). That type of character you can’t help but love because he makes you smirk at his antics or grin when he’s doing something romantic. And of course, he’s a good bad boy (as opposed to boring or supposed bad boys but all they do is like ride a motorcycle (wow!) or wear a lot of black (so bad!).
Frankie and Rook had great banter and I liked seeing them in scenes together. It was an easy banter which turned into a relationship I could see – which I like to see in books. And this was the case here. I’ve probably said this before but I do always enjoy when the banter and the relationship attached to that banter are both easy ones that I can see working out. Nothing I dislike more than relationships with no chemistry, or there’s ‘chemistry’ but it’s more platonic than romantic – you get my gist.
Then there was Sage, who’s one of the main characters in the web novel, who sort of becomes Frankie’s other love interest. I say sort of because it was obvious who Frankie would end up with. Not that I minded the lead up to that, definitely not. I like d what we got of him; and I definitely wouldn’t say no to Feener possibily writing Gold and Silver – Frankie’s series.
The plot and action that went along with that was both written quite well. I could tell that the author knew how to write action scenes well – either from reading a lot of fantasy books or from writing all of her other books- which she has quite a backlist of! That’s another thing I really enjoy being able to see when I read books – how much the author enjoys writing in the genre.
The easy way Feener wrote the plot also meant that it was an easy book to read – another point of the book that I liked. I’ve already started another book of hers and I think I’ll like it too! I can tell that I’ll like it too and probably/mostly other books of hers that I get around to read.
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If you’re looking for a fun and easy book with characters you’ll love almost immediately and an action-filled plot, I recommend Abandoned Things! It’s literally what I want all the time – for my writing to become real 😂
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