This book was incredibly detailed and relaxing. I found it easy to follow and to have lovely world building. The first few pages started off a little slow but the building up for me happened around 30% of the way in.

Harry Potter meets Alice in Wonderland.

This was such a fun, cute, and entertaining Middle Grade read! It had total Harry Potter vibes with like a touch of Alice in Wonderland. Was it Harry Potter? No. But it was so cute and charming in its own way. The characters were so much fun to adventure with, and the magic system is unique to others I have read. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, clean Middle Grade read with a lot of Fantasy themes in it!

Thank you to Untold Press, Daniela (publicist) and D.E.Night for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. Please check out my Instagram @lifeonasofa for more content.

I was SUPER excited for this book. The description sounded like something I definitely would’ve picked up as a teen. I really enjoyed a Night’s Instagram, it made the world very magical before I started. Also, the trailer for the first book was clever and again, made me excited to start.

This is sold as a middle grade read (8-12) which I can say this definitely caters to. A lot of adults will also really enjoy this series as it’s just so light, magical and reminiscent of other books I read as a young girl.

The start was a little slow, I was a little confused but did enjoy all the new terms and world building straight from the start. It really picked up for me around chapter 4/5 which things became more magical and we were introduced to everyone and everything.

I REALLY enjoyed everything up until about Chapter 13 actually. There was a lot of really brilliant world building. I could really picture the castle and the streets. I LOVED Rebecca, probably more than Ivy actually. All the creatures were my favourite part, they were so well thought out. Especially the Scauldrons. Adorable.

I think where the book dipped a bit for me, was when the timings all got thrown off, and I understand it’s INCREDIBLY hard to fit a full school year and all the info we need into one book. But around half way, we all of a sudden get told we’re half way through the year, but she’s only had her second lunch?

Then there was a bit of action, which again, I did enjoy. I didn’t quite understand all the teachers and their intentions, I think that’s part of the mystery though. I did like the unraveling the truth but I think Night had so many grand ideas that all got thrown in at the same time and I was left a little lost. I do think the target audience would struggle with the sheer amount of hidden story line being thrown on the pages.

Fyn was introduced early but played more of a part here. I still can’t believe that he’s not a bad guy, I hope they expand on his character because he’s a red flag still for me. Again the descriptions of the locations and the action were fab!

Then after a bit of here there and everywhere…there wasn’t much going on (because Ivy had to keep quiet) and before you knew it, the end of the year. Low and behold, everything hits the fan. I did enjoy it, it kinda felt like it came out of nowhere and was unexplained but it was fast paced which I like.

The reason I think this dropped to a 3 star review is down to the last few chapters really. I felt like it was just pages of Night explaining everything to us because otherwise we defo wouldn’t connect all the dots. I understand doing that to an extent, but I like to make connections myself too, and I couldn’t really have made any without the longggg explanation from D.E.N at the end.

I dare say that Night had some very complex and interesting ideas, they were probably edited down heavily which isn’t necessarily her fault. It just all felt very forced and wordy at the end. I closed the book with a minor headache because it was just a lot. Brilliant, but definitely needed spreading out a bit, or narrowing down throughout the series.

Overall, brilliant magical world. Very unique (I personally didn’t compare it to other magical books). Brilliant world building and creatures. A couple of interesting characters. So many extravagant ideas but just not executed in an easy to read/follow way.

This book started out with an orphan living in bad conditions, doing chores to get to eat. To rephrase: it sounded very familiar. However- that whole familiarity really went away when she broke into her own school? Which- one: amazing. And two: she got away with it? (Granted she was only a few hours early but you learn that later on).

Here are some of the things I really loved:
-The sprite lanterns! In this story they're called hairies and I love them so much. Imagine having to convince your lightbulb that you really need them now.
-The quills versus crowns magic system. The fact that royalty does get their own magic (and it's less rare) doesn't erase the fact that ordinary people have magic in their blood too. And them having to go to school together is just a little bit of flavour that helps put royalty in their place, which is great.
-The special teas students get! Dormdaze, Studysesh, etc they are so cool and I want them.
-The Forgotten Room. It's so smart? Clearly not foolproof but so smart
-You can just casually bring a dragon to school
-Last but not least: the absolute power move that it was to SUMMON THAT PIRATE SHIP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CASTLE

Here are some things I think could've been better:
-I don't know how this world works but contracts signed by a minor are not legally binding so maybe you shouldn't let them sign their privacy away
-Ivy didn't plan ahead at all- which, as someone with ADHD, I get- but when you're in a strict magic school maybe you'd consider things a bit more
-No magic in your room? How are you supposed to practice?
-There's a lot the readers know (or can put together) that just doesn't go through Ivy's mind so now does she know these things or not

In short I want a hairie lantern really bad and magic tea, this was very interesting to read.

This is a great middle grade book - a little bit young for my liking, but I think young teens would love this.

It did remind me a little bit of Harry Potter - I haven't read the books, just seen the movies.

I loved the whole setting for this story and the creatures in it like the Hairies sounded really fun. I enjoyed the story but I knew from the very start of the book what would happen to the main character, but that may be because of my age, Kids maybe wouldn't click on straight away.

Great book for kids and I've heard the second book is even better

3/5 stars for me

This was an exciting youth fantasy. I loved that we followed a strong independent girl figure out things about herself and this new world she's in. I did feel that there were a few too many new words and concepts that weren't fully explained, but our main character was learning with us so it did often feel that it was intentional to not fully know. A great book for fans of Harry potter, to grow their vocabulary and stretch their inferring skills.

Fairies, dragons, magical schools and evil queens, what more can you ask for!!!

The Crowns of Croswald was such a fast paced story. We are introduced to our protagonist Ivy Lovely as she goes about her days as a simple servant. Always dreaming of becoming something more and living adventures of her own.

We meet Ivy's best friend Rimbrick, an ancient woods dwarf, who educates her and prepares her for what will be a chain of events that will change her life forever. Soon enough Ivy is catapulted into a world with magical schools, buried secrets waiting to be revealed and finding who she really is in the process.


The story was so lush and lyrical, I was transported into the City of Crosswald and its enchantments and swept away. I really enjoyed reading about the world building and it's creatures, and especially about Ivy. She's shy but very sure of herself and very adventurous.

Fans of magical schools, dragons, fairies and dark secrets will definitely enjoy this wonderful tale. The book had me gasping in the end with all the twist and turns.

I’m not much of a fantasy reader typically but when I got the chance to give this book a read, I jumped at it. If you love otherworldly creatures, magic, and fantasy this is an awesome read. It tells the story of Ivy Lovely, a bright girl who one day realizes she is far more magical than she ever knew (think Harry Potter, but not a wizard).

I felt like the book didn’t give a lot of background information into specifics of the characters and the plot. It throws you into this other world with mystical creatures and you kind of have to surmise a lot of what they are and what they do. But I thought the story was sweet, the characters enchanting, and the topic unique and fun. Perfect for young readers looking for an escape.

A great start to a new series!
I really enjoyed this book,was a nice easy read, though it did feel like it was setting up the rest of the series.
At the beginning I couldn't help but compare it slightly to Harry Potter! An orphan who doesn't know she has magical powers being invited to a magical school, being given a list of magical things she can get in magical shops. Though Ivy knows magic exists and has often dreamt of being invited to study to be a scrivinist. And on her 16th birthday this comes true! Though it seems that Ivy is destined to be more than just a scrivinist!
There's secrets and mystery Ivy seems to have a knack for getting into trouble (though if someone told her what was going on she wouldn't be running off trying to find out what's happening, but also the book wouldn't be as fun!
I liked Ivy's friend Rebecca and hope to see more of there friendship! I enjoyed the ending and Ivy wasn't who she thought she would be! I'll definitely read the rest of the series as it's a nice easy read and I want to find out more about who Ivy is and if she can beat the evil Queen!

The Crowns Of Croswald
By D.E. Night

I was reached out by the publisher, stories untold press for a copy of this book in return an honest review.

This book has it all, hidden passageways in a ancient library, a faraway castle filled with magic and many mysteries,
shorehorses that live in calm mist-covered waters, oh and that wonderfully placed plotline that makes it hard to put down.
(Ivy Lovely) is kicked out of her workplace as a scaldrony maid at the plum castle, the events that follow with the help of (Liond Ohlander Lugg) an admissioner who has been looking for her, Ivy ends up at Raven Shollow, where she will learn how to use magic as a scrivenists.
Ivy makes friends with a Princess named (Rebecca) who can turn into any animal, and a scrivenists in training called (Fyn), the class facilitator of sqwinches.
With an evil queen looming from afar, Ivy needs to try and piece together the clues left behind by Derwin Edgar Night without getting court by the selector.

This book left me with goosebumps; I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fantastic fantasy books.

Can I just.. live in this world? This was such a fun read and really dove in with my imagination and took me on an adventure. I love how this story involved princesses and dragons and magic! Fantastic fantasy story! Every single part of this book was really delightful! Can it be a movie!? Highly recommend!

I was reached out by the publisher, Stories Untold Press, if I would like a copy of this novel for a honest review. All opinions and comments are that of my own.

Review: When I was reached out by the publisher (Stories Untold Press) if I wanted to review this novel, there was no second guessing on my end. Although I do prefer mystery/crime novels, I also have been enjoy middle grade novels recently and nothing makes me feel cherished than an author/publisher reaching out to review their novel.

Therefore, I immediately jumped on to Goodreads to get a more in depth knowledge of this book and to see what other readers had to say. The common comment I saw was how this novel was a rip off of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. This kind of irritated me because it seems that any novel that is based on a magical school and has wizards in it is automatically subjected to criticism of it being a Harry Potter rip off. Were there some similarities to Harry Potter? Maybe (example: making a student confess). BUT the author took the time to create the characters and a beautiful world. You know how difficult that is?!? And D.E. Night did an excellent job at that - as well as the ability to create a world inside a world (inception, much?).

We as readers should stop comparing authors and pointing fingers of “copying”. You do know that stories are based off other stories, just rewritten to someone else’s likeness. Just enjoy the book (or not) but don’t bash the author.

With that said, I am definitely putting the series on my TBR pile (I just HAVE to know what happens to Ivy and the Dark Queen!).

Really nice world building - I didn't manage to finish the book, it was not the right time for it when I started reading it, but I think it might be a really nice book. I will give it another chance, because I liked the main character and the whole idea of the book sounded so amazing. I bet it's good.

I loved this book and the world it painted for me! The atmosphere was like nothing I’ve ever witnessed or read before. DE Night did a great job at making me feel like I was a part of the story! Not just a book for middle grade but for people of all ages.

Thank you to D E Night and Netgalley for a review copy of The Crowns of Croswald.

At the start of the novel Ivy Lovely, aged almost 16 is an orphan working as a kitchen drudge at Castle Plum. Employing a pretty unique method of cookery.... baking pies in the mouths of small kitchen dragons. Being a baker and a chef, I loved this wacky idea of dragons being used as ovens. Ivy is facing a future of kitchen drudgery, constantly berated by the awful woman who runs the kitchen when she is mysteriously choosen to attend a magical boarding school.

This book is mostly set at the boarding school which is in a Castle. The school is filled with wacky professors, magical creatures, an amazing library. Ivy is constantly getting into sticky situations, mostly through no fault of her own.


Croswald is ruled by the mysterious Dark Queen who no one seems to have ever seen in person and her creepy hench men.

There is something really strange going on. The images in the paintings on the walls keep changing. People keep forgetting things and for some reason Ivy is the only one who doesn't forget.

There is some big reveals towards the end and a fairly dramatic school ball and I'm looking forward to reading book two & finding out what happens next with Ivy and her friends.

This story is more middle grade than Young adult despite most of the characters being 16 & one character being 19 ish.

Let's talk DNF's!
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And for the sake of being honest, I could not finish this book. I try to avoid DNF'ing, but I just couldn't get into this one. That being said, I still believe this book needs some love.

This book reminded me of A Deadly Education. While I did not enjoy that book either, I know that a lot of people did! So while I did not finish this one, I believe that fans of A Deadly Education should give this book a go!

And can we talk about how beautiful this cover is?? 😍

The book starts with somewhat of a short teaser about a key player then quickly moves on to main character Ivy who leads a rather miserable life as a hand in a rather boring castle. She escapes her misery through activities such as sketching, & listening to stories from her only friend, a dwarf. After an argument with her employer she wonders off on her own. In a magical turn of events she finds herself with an invitation to wizard school. She shops for her supplies in a small area of town that will provide her with her needs for school. She makes a few friends and has a special mentor at school. She goes on some adventures throughout and towards the end she finds out that she is in fact a pretty important person in the wizarding community.

Does any of this sound familiar? I am not a huge HP fan, but I did read the books. I found the plot and even some of the characters way too similar for comfort here.

DE Night did paint a pretty good setting, and some of her fantastical creations were well done (I loved the hairies, the shorehorse).
Character development wasn’t super deep, could have been better.

As a middle grade fantasy, I would recommend this to a kid that has not read HP. It’s fun, its quirky, I never lost track of what was going on, and again for a kids book it did keep my attention.

3.5 stars

I always find difficult to write reviews about books that I really love, because it’s hard to put into words that magic that you feel inside after reading a very special book… and that’s exactly the case of The Crowns of Croswald!

This book is book 1 from a middle grade series that introduces us to Ivy Lovely, the main character, and leads us into her journey from a scaldrony maid to an aspiring scrivenist.
All her life (Ivy is 16 years old), Ivy had lived in Castle Plum, behind slurry fields that kept her magic hidden. Until one day, a series of events takes Ivy away from this castle and into the Halls of Ivy, “the prestigious school of Magic where young royals learned to wield the magical stones in their crowns and young sqwinches practiced for the day when they would receive their own quills as full-fledged scrivenists.”
The plot is unraveled like a puzzle that Ivy keeps on assembling through her findings, until the great final reveal!
The world building is wonderfully detailed, from the magical creatures to the school subjects, and the story is well paced.
I only wished I had read it sooner! I’m picking up book 2, The Girl with the Whispering Shadow, right away! This is Magic at its best!

Ivy Lovely can’t have magic, and for sixteen years she grew up in a slurry field as a maid; but one night, she gets a letter from an old friend that reveals there’s more to her unknown past than she knows. Then being suddenly whisked away to a magical school, Ivy gets herself into all sorts of trouble and adventures. But the world isn’t all good magic; and Ivy searches for a way to stop the Dark Queen, and find more about her past along the way.

I really loved this book; such a fun, quick read. I am very much over the middle grade age limit, but reading this was still so magical for me as a reader.
D.E. Night creates this gorgeous world of Croswald – the quirky shops, creatures and characters were a delight – and that was so nice to read. The two magic systems were so unique, and I’m very curious to see how they expand on those in future books.

This book was a magical adventure. Ivy doesn’t know who she really is and is slumming away in a station that is not meant for her. Not really.
Throughout the book Ivy constantly gets herself into sticky situations and it is great to read how she gets herself out of them.

It’s a great book for young adults from ages 12 upwards. Give it a read and you will enjoy it.