I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I’m one of those people who don’t read the synopsis in the back of the book so I had no idea what to expect. This is the perfect middle grade fantasy for Harry Potter and Percy Jackson lovers alike. The author creates such a unique world full of whimsy, dragons, magic, and coming of age adventures. The book centers around Ivy Lovely as she is thrusted into a world of learning and wonder. It’s refreshing to read something clean and entertaining. Thank you to the publisher Stories Untold and the author for a copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

A fantastic start off to a fantasy series! In The Crowns of Croswald we follow Ivy on her journey to discover her past as well as her magic. She is able to enroll in a school to enhance her magic and learn what she is capable of. As the school year goes on she makes many discoveries as her powers grow. She also learns everything may not be as it seems. Ivy’s powers grow so large that she attracts the attention of the Dark Queen who has sworn to end her bloodline. The side characters who help Ivy along the way are a a wonderful addition to the story. The book includes Ivy’s schedule and I have never wanted to take classes so badly. They sounded like a wonderful experience. The author named one of the characters after themselves and I thought that was such a cute fun little touch. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series and see what other adventures await Ivy and her friends.

This is a fun fantasy that takes you away to a magical world. I would say this book reminds me of Harry Potter in the similarities that Ivy (The MC) grows up not knowing she had any magic to being taken away to a school to learn about magic. This would be a great book for children and middle school aged kids. I am not quite the target audience for this book but I still enjoyed reading it and know that my 13 year old self would have loved it.

*Thanks to the author, netgalley, and publisher for providing me a copy of this book to review*

Ivy Lovely is a teenage orphan working as a maid but dreams of something more. She soon discovers that her dreams are becoming a reality when she runs away and is invited to a prestigious school to work on honing her dormant magical powers. As she explores this school and meets some new friends, and adversaries, she discovers there is a deep dark secret that only she can uncover.

I absolutely love a good fantasy series but I have to admit I do not usually read many middle grade books - so my expectations were not too high. However, this book quickly drew me in. The author does an excellent job of creating a unique world with a fascinating magic system and fun characters - a perfect story for fantasy fans of any age. The story was fast paced and engaging throughout. The cliffhanger at the end of this book has me excited to continue the series.

The Crown’s of Croswald by DE Knight is a Middle Grade Fantasy book. I would compare it to Harry Potter. 4/5 ⭐️

In Croswald, the only thing more powerful than dark magic is one secret…

For sixteen years Ivy Lovely has been hidden behind an enchanted boundary that separates the mundane from the magical. When Ivy crosses the border, her powers awaken. Curiosity leads her crashing through a series of adventures at the Halls of Ivy, a school where students learn to master their magical blood and the power of Croswald’s mysterious gems. When Ivy’s magic—and her life—is threatened by the Dark Queen, she scrambles to unearth her history and save Croswald before the truth is swept away forever.

Thanks Netgalley for the arc

#childrensbooks #middleschool #fantasybooks #crownsofcroswald #deknight #netgalley

The crowns of Croswald
3⭐️
Ivy and Lionel gave me Hagrid and Harry vibes
Middle grade readers will really enjoy this. Magical world reminded me of Harry Potter but girl version.
It was interesting but didn’t keep me so engaged so it took me a while to finish . The magical world that has magical creatures & magical mysteries and new magical friends.
Great for kids who love Fantasy books they will really be engaged.

Thank you to the publisher & the writer for reaching out for me to read and give an honest review & allowing me to read this Via NetGalley

The Crowns of Croswald was an intriguing read, with beautiful world-building and a wonderful magic system. An MG appropriate story about building friendships and finding out who you are, with magic, adventure and a 'chosen one' storyline. As she reached her new home at the school, I sometimes longed Ivy to feel more curious about the strange incidents happening around her, but she soon put two and two together, and started figuring things out. The adventures rolled by non-stop then! It's fast-paced and fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and look forward to reading the sequel.

I've already recommended this to my MG daughter, and will recommend to the children where I work.

Congratulations D.E. Night on an exciting, magical fantasy with a strong FMC and brilliant side characters. I loved it.

As much as I enjoyed the character building and magical content of The Crowns of Croswald, I did find certain events and monologues cliche. It rings familiar with a few other magical good vs evil stories and I was a little disappointed there wasn’t as much character development or world building as I would like however what there was I did enjoy.

I really tried to get into this series, but I dnf because I lost interest. I loved the idea and the description just could not get into it! Maybe because it is advertised for a middle grade read. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it before it came out! I wish it caught my attention.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

This book is a great one for the middle grade fantasy lovers. I struggled to get into this one. It took me way longer to finish then it should have. I'm glad i finished it thought because the ending twists and Ivy Lovely's character development.

Ivy Lovely is a maid who discovers she has magical abilities. She is sent to a magical school. Where there is a major force trying to destroy information. Ivy Lovely must fight this and use her powers to restore information. She has help from amazing friends along the way. How does Ivy Lovely solve this problem?

Read if you like...
✨Magical worlds
📈 Coming of age stories
🧭Adventure
🥰Powerful and caring friends

I wanted to like this one so bad, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. Though, I appreciate new vocabulary for new worlds it a little too much for me. It started off slow and felt as though I was reading a Harry Potter spinoff. It was a cute read but not one I would do again.

I was given the chance of the publisher to read this book and to give my thoughts for it.

It took me some time to actually get hooked to this book, even though I love fantasy books. It took me a month to finish it but I'm glad I did end up reading it.

Now, when I first read the few chapters it really gave me a familiar feel to it, the story was closely similar to HP and any fans of the series would be able to tell quickly. It was like a spin off of HP.

Though it might have been inspired of the series, I still found that The Crowns of Croswald had its own magical aspects that even at times made me want to stop reading, it also had its own magical world that I'm sure some other readers may want to read. I really liked that every aspect of the world was magical from scaldrons to lamps to quills. Still an enjoyable book for me.

This book totally brought me back to my childhood. It reminded me of all my fav magical childhood movies. This was a super fun read. Ivy was such a great character. From start to finish this book had me hooked waiting to see what happened! I will be reading the rest of this series asap!

So if you like:
Magic &
Fun reads….

This book is for you!

Wow. I could not put this book down. It's a middle grade fantasy that follows a girl named Ivy Lovely on her journey of discovering who she really is and it made me feel so nostalgic even though it was my first read. Thank you to Netgalley, DE Night, Daniela, and the publisher Stories Untold for allowing me to read this whimsical book. I NEED MORE. The magic system was so realistic and I enjoyed the concept of the academic point of view as well. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This was a fun youthful dive into a new world of magic, and who can resist a good coming-of-age story. I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a young adult book because the tone was definitely more geared toward children.

The writing starts off a little slow, but it did eventually pick up.

One thing I didn't really like was how similar this work was to Harry Potter. I think there are ways to create whimsical worlds without drawing so much creative inspiration from Rowling's creation.

Over all, it was a pleasant read, but not earth shattering.

The Crowns Of Croswald by D.E. Night. 2/5

I’m really bummed to say this was a 2 star read for me. I know authors don’t have it easy all the time when reading feedback from their audience, so I’ll always try to keep my reviews as kind as possible.

I received a digital copy of The Crowns Of Croswald for free in exchange for an honest review. This is a YA fantasy fiction in a magical setting, with our main character Ivy skeptically arriving to magic school without a warning or a why. With every turn of the page there’s a new surprise and obstacle for Ivy to tackle, all the while trying to figure out why she belongs at Halls of Ivy. Friendship is found in a royal shapeshifter, Rebecca, and class leader, Fyn, who take turns accompanying Ivy on her whimsical endeavors.

My issue with this book is that it felt like I was reading a rushed version of Harry Potter. I noticed an overwhelming amount of similarities to Rowling’s work, sometimes almost exact traits. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say I have 16 highlights that were just dedicated to similarities to Harry Potter. The world has its intricacies and adventures, and I loved the scaldrons and hairies! Many clever uses for magical creatures and a fair amount of detail put into character development. I would say, if you haven’t read Harry Potter, you might love this book. However, I had a hard time staying engaged and overall the story wasn’t particularly “my type”.

I appreciate the generosity provided by the PR team to reach out to me in regard to this novel, and I hope this review offers helpful insight.

Ivy Lovely is a girl who hadn't been living in the magic world, but eventually is able to. She gets to go to school for magical powers. This reminded me a lot of Harry Potter, because it is a similar premise, but it was different as well. My daughter is 11 and she and I read this book together. We took turns reading the chapters. She is very much into wizards and magic and loved this story. She liked that the main character was a strong female character. I liked that there was magic all throughout the book, the author really took you into the magic. I wish we lived in the same world. We both loved the cute creatures, the Hairies. I like this this is a series because we want to continue reading it together.

Fun and cute! A nice read and introduction to the series for Mid-Grade readers! While not up my current alley, it definitley would have been something I reach for when I myself was a kid-grade reader!

This magical tale is of a scaldrony maid that is anything but ordinary, and her journey is finding out who she really is, whilst also discovering the powerful magic inside her that’s been lying dormant for way too long.
Ivy Lovely spends her days tending the scaldron dragons that heat the food for the royal family in The House of Plum castle, under the watchful eye of the moody Helga. It’s hard work but all she has ever known and expects nothing more out of life. In her free time she likes to sketch a mysterious castle she can’t seem to stop dreaming of while talking with the friendly dwarf Rimbrick. But Rimbrick has a dark secret that will change Ivy forever. Suddenly everything changes the day Helga throws both Ivy and a sickly scaldron dragon out warning them to never return. Suddenly she finds herself and the scaldron dragon she has affectionately named Humboldt on her way to The Halls of Ivy a school of magic where she has been accepted to study. She is to study to be a scrivinist, a person with magical abilities assigned to assist royal families.
She soon finds out that all is not as it seems and she is more than a mere scrivinist. Her magical abilities are much greater than she ever dreamt possible and she is more connected to the Halls of Ivy than she ever imagined. This story has it all from pirates and Dark Queens to magical quills and dragons. It’s is a tale of finding your destiny while making lifelong friends along the way.
The one thing I will say is the story moves a bit too swiftly for my taste which makes it hard to keep up, especially considering this is a book intended for middle school aged children. There were quotes I highlighted (which will be shared in another post) not necessarily because they were great but because they explained key aspects that easily got lost as the story continues. It could have been a wonderful book had the author not rushed through key parts, making some things nearly impossible to understand. I had to read and re-read a few passages to try to figure out what exactly was happening. That said I will not be continuing this series and do not necessarily recommend this book.

Not really my cup of tea. I found the fantasy level too high and found it difficult to keep track of characters.