I think I have a new favorite puzzle, or if not that at least a top 3 puzzle. This is Underwater Library by Reverie Puzzles with the beautiful artwork by Lorena Cerqueira.
Lorena (known online as LorisArt) is a Portuguese freelance illustrator based in the UK. She primarily illustrates fairytale-like scenes with beautiful characters and vivid colors. She has created at least four different designs for Reverie, including one I most want to try, which is also the only 1500-piece design (as of now) that Reverie offers. Her art is absolutely worth checking out.
This gorgeous puzzle depicts the hall of a beautiful library under the sea. Beneath the stingrays and fish visible through a stunning glass ceiling and among its many books, swim mermaid patrons and librarians. This image contains many small but beautiful details, including the gorgeous patterns on the rug, the balcony railings, and the elegant detailing on the trim near the ceiling. My favorite detail in this puzzle is the book shelving turtles!
Let’s Talk Details
This puzzle is composed mostly of contrasting blues, yellows, and oranges, with accents in purple and cream. Though I loved the image from the very first time I saw it, I was initially worried that it would be difficult to puzzle all of the repeating oranges of the books and blues from the ceiling. I’m happy to report that while the ceiling was a touch tricky, the majority of the puzzle was not. This puzzle has an excellent amount of variation among the different elements. The mermaids have different hair and tail colors, the pattern on the rug has enough elements on top of it to break up what would be a challenging section and make it manageable. Similarly, among the books, there were different thicknesses and colors on the shelves, starfish, and even jellyfish tentacles floating in front of the books, which made it easier to distinguish where the pieces went.
The skylight—sea light?—was the trickiest section of the whole puzzle. I left this until the end, which I think was a good idea because it meant that I had more room to organize the remaining pieces. I started by sorting the pieces by shape, which is how I usually tackle tough sections, but it’s a fairly large part of the puzzle and therefore initially a little overwhelming. I had the idea to further sort each shape section by color, so I sorted each pile from light to dark. This was immensely helpful. The ceiling section actually has a slight gradient to it, and the stingrays are quite large dark areas. This meant that when I looked at a specific section, I could generally narrow down what style of piece I needed within one or two shape styles, and then I could look among those sections for the corresponding color.
Packaging
Reverie Puzzles come in a sturdy, plastic-sealed cream-colored box with the full puzzle image on the front, along with the brand logo, puzzle title, and piece count. The back has a brief description of the brand, warning details, and my favorite, a reasonably large bio of the artist Lorena Cerqueira, including how to find her on social media. I love when brands make it clear that the artwork was created by an actual artist and tell you about them and how to find them online.
Inside the box, the puzzle comes packaged in an unbranded reusable drawstring bag and includes a full-color printout of the puzzle. The print is just about the exact size of the box, so it doesn’t leave much room to get your fingers underneath it to remove it. I actually had a little trouble getting it out of the box and have some amusing video of me violently shaking the box to get it to fall out. While I appreciate the lack of plastic in the bag and the fact it’s unbranded so reusing it would be easier, it does make it harder to actually fit the puzzle back into the box when done.
Whenever a brand switches from a plastic bag to a heavier fabric bag, I wonder if the environmental impact is any better than a reusable plastic bag. On one hand, I love that it’s not another plastic bag that is immediately getting thrown away, but I do question how many resources it took to produce the canvas bag and how much impact the added weight has on shipping. Would a plastic reusable bag have been less impactful in the long run? In my mind, paper is still king for a more environmentally friendly puzzle containment method, and The Magic Puzzle Co’s paper envelopes are my favorite. Reverie’s puzzle bags certainly add a touch of elegance to the packaging, so I’m still a fan, but I wanted to touch on the environmental impact because I think that most people assume that non-plastic is immediately the best option when that’s not necessarily the case.
Quality
Regarding quality, Reverie Puzzles are among the best quality puzzles that I’ve worked with. They come on a cardboard backer with a smooth finish that is soft to the touch. The finish is matte enough that lighting and glare are generally not an issue (at least it wasn’t with my lighting setup). The piece cut is a varied ribbon cut, and I didn’t have a single false fit when putting this together. The fit is incredibly snug. I didn’t try it, but I think this puzzle could have easily handled a puzzle pickup, and you could probably fling it about like a pizza and still keep the pieces together. That’s probably the feature that makes Reverie’s quality stand out as one of the top puzzle brands to look out for.
If you’ve been following me and reading my reviews, you’ll know that the last time I worked on a Reverie Puzzle was also my first experience with the brand. I had an overall positive time but was shocked by how much puzzle dust was in the box (more than a Ravensburger). I’m happy to report that this time, while there was still a little dust, it was significantly less than before. It was barely enough dust to note and was most obvious once I disassembled the puzzle and put it back into its bag. I’m really glad that I purchased two Reverie’s so that I was able to check if the dust issue was consistent. I had been shocked as no one else had really mentioned the dust levels in any of the Reverie reviews that I had read, and I feel pretty confident now that my previous puzzle was likely just a one-off fluke.
Reverie Puzzles Comparison
When it comes down to it, this was a highly successful puzzle. The artwork was vivid and detailed in multiple ways, making it highly enjoyable to put the different sections together. When I compare this puzzle to the previous Reverie I put together, the Underwater Library image really pushes ahead of the Rainbow Library image in terms of enjoyability. Rainbow Library is, without a doubt, a gorgeous puzzle, but even with the rainbow of library books, it didn’t have a lot of different sections that were varied in color or had enough interest among the larger sections. The details in that puzzle were much smaller or not varied at all (little stickers on the cabinet, small repetitive lights on the ceiling, the repeating checkerboard pattern and the wood grain of the floor). Underwater Library, in contrast, is layered with details small and large (the starfish stuck to the shelves and lying on the floor, the bubbles and stars, the different colors of the mermaids’ hair and their varying hair and skin styles, the jellyfish tentacles that floated in front of the shelves, the rug, and the ceiling). Even the hardest section of the glass ceiling was actually manageable due to the varying shades of blue that the artist used. It probably would have been a touch more enjoyable if she had varied the colors on the fish from the stingrays a little more, but I actually liked having one section that was a little harder than the rest.
Read my full review of Rainbow Library and watch the time-lapse here.
Reverie’s puzzles range from their sale price of around $25 to full retail, which averages between $31-$41 for their 500 to 1500-piece puzzles and a heftier $50-$96 for their Holiday Advent Puzzles. It’s a higher price than a lot of puzzle brands but around the right range for small batch, and in my opinion, right on track given the high quality. The quality is definitely top-notch, although I’ll have to do a few more to get a good feel for how their quality control holds up. I think, as with all puzzles, image choice is the biggest factor in having an amazing experience with a Reverie Puzzle vs. having a not-so-great experience. They have some images which I think would be quite tough to get through and some that look like an absolute blast.
Conclusion
Underwater Library has become one of my favorite puzzles and I’ll be keeping my copy so that I can do it again one day. If you are looking for a really entertaining and beautiful puzzle, I would absolutely recommend consider purchasing one for yourself. It’s a fun and lovely choice and considering the high-quality, even purchasing brand new, I think it’s worth it.
Make sure to take a look at the Reverie website too, a new collection just launched with some really exciting and beautiful choices. I’m eyeing Adventures in the Wilderness and Spring Reading.👀
Which puzzle from their new collection would you want to do? Let me know in the comments!
Brand: Reverie Puzzles
Title: Underwater Library
Pieces: 1,000
Artist: Lorena Cerqueira (LorisArt)
Every Little Piece 
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