I had to be mindful that this book was written for younger audiences, so with that in mind. It's a pretty standard children's fantasy book.

One of my absolute favorite tropes is the lost heir or missing prince(ss), and this book covered that beautifully!

There were times when Ivy (the MC) did or said things that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. She doesn't necessarily treat her friends in the nicest way and there are no repercussions for this. Her behavior, speech, and actions don't translate to a 16-year-old very well. She seems younger than that.

It was interesting to see each student how their magic was different from the others, whether through stones or in other ways.

While I haven't read Harry Potter (shocker, I know) it did give off heavy similarities to the fandom. However, I would definitely recommend this book to my younger cousins and children in my life who are looking for fantasy and fun in their reading!

Thank you to the publisher - Daniela B and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions

I was so enchanted with this world.

I want books I get lost in, and this one absolutely absorbed me. I loved the fantacy kingdom of Croswald and all the descriptions of the beasts, characters, settings, and of course, the food!

This series starts off with an outsider who has no background story. Ivy Lovely has lived an existence nobody would envy. After a particularly bad day Ivy is catapulted into a new life and an exciting, dangerous adventure. As she continues over obstacles she makes new friends and uncovers secrets many would kill to keep forgotten.

I didn't want this book to end, and luckily it's just the first book in the series! I can't wait to share these stories with my nieces.

D.E. Night's The Crowns of Croswald is a wonderml world of whimsy! Set in an
immersive and richly detailed world, the story follows Iv Lovely, a former scaldrony maid, as she explore the secrets possibility of magical school, new friendships and a hidden past.

World building is D.E. Night's greatest strength. All of Croswald evokes strong imagery and we, as readers, ge to witness plenty of magical quirks. Night is committed to detailed descriptions, she works hard to ensure that
her readers can see her world as clearly as she can and to populate it with enough information for it to be believable. The result is a number of interestingly titled magic books and fascinating shops.

There are definite similarities between The Crowns of Croswald and some of the most popular children's fantasy books of our time. Fans of the early Harry Potter books, the Percy Jackson series, or even older-age-demographic Disney might enjoy The Crowns of Croswald.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
After all of the hype over how much this was like Harry Potter, I expected and hoped that I would enjoy this book, but it just didn't work for me. The world-building was stunning, but I just felt as if the characters didn't really stick with me, and it just ended up feeling kind of hard to read to me. I'm in the minority though, so it's probably just that it just didn't work with me.

I have to admit that I enjoyed this more than I expected to, since I'm not normally a reader of fantasy-type books but I was in the mood for something out of my comfort zone. In no time at all I was completely engrossed in the world of Croswald and the adventures of Ivy Lovely and her friends. I am definitely a new fan of Ivy, Croswald, and D.E. Night. My only "complaint", if you can call it that, is that I do wish we were able to learn more about the characters, especially Ivy and Fyn. Fortunately "Crowns of Croswald" is first in a series, so I am looking forward to spending a lot more time getting to know them. "The Crowns of Croswald" reminded me a bit of the Harry Potter and Miss Peregrine's series in all the best ways, but is still completely unique. If you enjoyed them, you will love The Croswald Series. Thank you so much to NetGalley, D.E. Night, and Stories Untold for offering me a copy of the book in return for my honest opinions.

This book is the fantasy story the school girl version of me was searching for what never found. It's a Harry Potter lovers delight, but a magic school and a hidden chosen one are all the tropes that are in common.
The magical world or Croswald is as multifaceted as are the Crown Stones of the Royals and the curiosity of the scrivenists.
The prologue plunges you into the world with no warning but a lot of foreboding, when I finally realised in Chapter 1 that it is Ivy who is the protagonist, I was thrilled.
The book is fast paced and ends on a satisfactory note yet has you curious for more. The division of labour in Croswald, between the magic practitioners and their studios archivists is so unique and amusing. The nerdy kids finally have a place of their own in the fantasy world.
The author creates wonderful friendships in Ivy's life, female friends, a mentor, a hidden helping hand, and a childhood guardian, all perfectly suited for their roles and compassionate in different ways.
This book will fill your imagination with wonderful sights, like you are in your own Glanagerie, read to know what that is!

The Crowns of Croswald is a compelling story of a 16 year old girl named Ivy Lovely who thinks she’s a nobody, just a scaldrony maid in Castle Plum. (And mind you scaldron dragons are my new favorite, I absolutely adore Humboldt!)

We learn right from the start that Ivy is a talented artist, who has repetitive dreams of a castle she’s never been too, and sketches it in secret in the night with her secret dwarf friend, Rimbrick. Rather quickly Ivy finds herself tossed from Castle Plum and on her own, but with an odd note and a generous gift from the vanished Rimbrick.

Ivy finds herself thrown into the magical world of Croswald and the Halls of Ivy. Her curiosity leads her into many adventures and much trouble as she seeks to find the meaning of her dreams, and ultimately she ends up finding out who she is without realizing her journey was about herself.

This book was a slow build for me at first, there is a lot we learn about Croswald, the Halls of Ivy, the Selector, squinches/scrivinests, royals, the Dark Queen, how this world works, how magic works, who has magic and more. All of this is very interesting and very well done, it just took me a bit to get through. Ivy’s character is very well fleshed out and I have a strong sense of who her character is and how she responds to situations. We also learn a little about a Royal character named Rebecca, and another older sqwinch, Fyn. I’m hoping in the next book I get to see more from these characters as I really felt they didn’t get enough “page time”.

DE Night has done a wonderful job creating Croswald and its workings, and there is the perfect amount of magic, mystery and adventure. I’m also hoping in the next book(s) we get to see a little more romance!

I really enjoyed this read that was offered to me via NetGalley and I look forward to reading the next books in the series as well as recommending this book to anyone who loves a middle grade fantasy. I know it’s been said it’s great for readers of Harry Potter and the like, and that is true. There are similarities between the two, but Croswald is also so different and definitely worth the read!

I really wanted to love this story. I wanted to love it so much that although I struggled to read it over a period of 2 months, I still persisted in the hopes that it would get better or something about it would click for me. I'm really sad to say that it never happened and it was with a great resounding sigh of relief that I finally came to the last page of this book. I feel terrible leaving a low rating, especially when the author's team did reach out to me to read it, but I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and an honest review I shall give it. It does seem that I'm very much in the minority with my feelings about this book though so perhaps it just really wasn't for me! 2 stars.

One of the first things you'll notice about this book, whether it's when actually reading it or when reading reviews about it, is how much it's compared to Harry Potter. There are definitely a lot of similarities from our protagonist, Ivy, growing up mistreated and living in a cupboard, to being magically sought-out one day and receiving an invitation to a prestigious magic school, to various elements of the school itself and the teachers as well. But while there were similarities, I think there's still enough difference in the magic, world-building and plot for it to stand out on its own, and I personally didn't feel that it was *that* similar. Although I had some issues with the writing, I have to acknowledge that there was a lot of wondrous creativity that went into the world-building. I thought the concept of scrivenry was so unique and something that I've never seen before. I liked the use of gem stones to differentiate magical abilities, and I also thought the different abilities were cool, especially the shapeshifting. I thought the magical creatures like hairies, the scaldrony dragons, and the shorehorse, and magical contraptions like the cabbie was also a very unique aspect of the story and they're things that I've never seen in other fantasies (so far as I can recall).

There was actually a lot to enjoy about the world that Night introduces in The Crowns of Croswald but it was the execution that I felt was underwhelming.

We're introduced to this world as if we should already be familiar with it, such as with how the world is laid out, how the magic works, the societal structure, etc., and I found that initially quite confusing though I was willing to read on in the hopes that the world-building would eventually clear things up. And while we do get more information, it felt very patchy and this world never clearly formed in my mind, which didn't help me situate myself or really feel "into" the story as events unfold at a very fast pace. As I read on, there were many inconsistencies in both the plot and the characters that kept jarring me out of the story and it ended up becoming quite frustrating as it persisted until the end. Put plainly, I found myself feeling lost and confused through the majority of the book and couldn't really latch on to the plot or the direction it took. I really wish that we got more scenes with the scrivenry magic because although a large part of the story was about scrivenists and what they can do, we don't really get to see it in action.

What also made it difficult for me to get into the story was the lack of connection to the characters. Ivy came across as much younger than 16 and I found most of the characters fell flat. I was disappointed that the one aspect I usually love in MG fantasy, which is the strong friendships, was sorely lacking in this one. Ivy grew up without friends and that individualist mentality persisted throughout the book so that she ended up doing a lot of things by herself, and that's totally understandable. However, there were times when her "friends" would show up at random, and they would act like they had a closer relationship to Ivy than what we've been shown. That disconnect would always throw me off because we don't really *know* these characters although the sudden closeness in their interaction makes it feel like we should. The author seemed to rely a lot on telling instead of showing and that also had a big impact on how connected I felt to everything--it was all just a little underwhelming.

Ultimately, it was the lack of investment in both the story and characters that made it such a struggle for me to get through this book. I was honestly surprised by how long it took me to read it and I'm quite sad that I didn't enjoy it more; but as mentioned, my opinion seems to be the minority so perhaps it's a case of "it's me and not the book". That said, I do believe that the target audience of young readers will surely delight in the magic and creativity of the world that Night created in The Crowns of Croswald!

Special thanks to the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be an Harry Potter-like-kinda book but I beg to say no. This book is a book of its own. I loved how it started in the beginning and how the story turned on Ivy, my favourite middle age character in a long while.

I hope this isn't a spoiler but I knew from the very beginning that there was something special about Ivy that she didn't know.

And I love how she got to meet amazing people who helped her in the journey of discovery.
If you need to read a book that keeps you hooked through the pages, a book filled with magic, scrivenist, scaldrons and cabbies.

#thecrownofcroswald is your best bet.

I’m a 4th grade teacher and was excited to dive in to this middle-grade fantasy! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for sharing this story with me!

Crowns of Croswald is full of magic and adventure. After looking at the author’s website (it’s amazing) for the series, I couldn’t wait to learn more about this magical world. While it was very fun to imagine, there were many times when I was confused and felt like a glossary and/or map would have been helpful. I had to do a lot of rereading to understand what was going on.

Ivy is a fun character that I enjoyed reading about, but I never felt connected to her. I kept picturing her as a 10 or 11 year old, but in reality her character is 16. The way she speaks and acts didn’t feel like a teenager to me which kept me from truly getting to know her.

At times this book was moving slowly and other times it was full of action so my opinions about this book kept wavering. I would recommend this series to experienced fantasy readers with great imaginations who can truly appreciate the creative and magical world of Croswald.

The Crowns of Croswald
3/5 ⭐️ to The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night

Thank you to the publisher for reaching out and giving me an egalley through NetGalley to review!

This is the first book to a fun, unique, and magical fantasy series that follows a young girl (Ivy Lovely) who is whisked away to a magic school after she turns 16 to become a scrivener (a recorder of magical history and discoveries). This by no means is a bad series, but it didn’t capture my attention and heart the way some YA and middle grade series have.

What I liked:
I really enjoyed the overall storyline, idea, and setting of the story. It was familiar enough with the idea of the magical school, which is a favourite trope in the genre, while being unique enough to be distinguishable as its own. I enjoyed the writing, which brought me right into the book with our characters to this wonderful magic school setting with all sorts of new & wonderful magical creatures. I thought the overall storyline fit the characters well, and it was familiar enough but with its own flavour. There was enough complexity to keep me interested, and the pacing made a lot of sense! I do have a different comment about our MC, but overall I loved getting to know her, and following her on these adventures. She learns a lot about herself, grows in confidence, and helps the people who she meets at the school who have helped her. So sweet!

Other comments/what I might change:
The first thing that I felt was a little jarring and took me out of the story a bit was that there is an author/mystery person who our MC is trying to find and help, and this person has the same name as the author of the actual book. I realize that this was an intentional choice by the author and some younger readers may find that cool, but it didn’t work for me personally as a reader.
My other comment, not that this is a bad thing at all, but this book and our MC very much felt like a middle grade book even though Ivy is supposed to be 16. Again, this did not take away from my enjoyment of the story or our MC at all, but it was something I observed while reading.

Would I recommend this book? Definitely, if magic and magic schools are your thing and especially if you like MG/early YA fantasy stories! Will I continue with the series? Maybe. Thank you again to the publisher for this review copy!

Calling all Harry Potter and world of magic fans. The Crowns of Croswald is the first book in a four book series and is full of conjuring, creative creatures, and colorful characters. Book 2 and 3 are out now and Book 4 will be released this year (2021).

A novel that is a thoughtful, action-driven fantasy and will leave you clamoring to find out what happens next.

This is not my fav genre, but this was a cute YA about a girl who goes from being a scullery maid to having magical powers. Kind of a take off of Harry Potter. I enjoyed the details about her learning how to master her powers, but I think my fav parts were what her life was like as a maid-using dragons as ovens for example. I’m probably not the intended audience for this series, but I would definitely record it to fantasy lovers.

The mere moment I dipped into D.E. Night’s Crowns of Croswald, I was drawn into a timeless universe of magic I couldn’t wait to share and would read time and time again.

In a world unexplainable to the untrained eye by its magical characters of dwarfs, Scauldrons, Harries, handsome Scrivenists and the horrors of a haggled cook, I alongside ivy dreamed of becoming a scribe.

fantastical settings of mysterious caves, darkened shores, hidden staircases and partaking in sorcery studies from Ivy’s point of view, we unravel the mystery that is Darwin Edgar and how his and ivy’s past is intertwined.

D.E. Had me turning pages with every clue she gave, I was desperate to seek the answers given in Ivy’s daydreams, much inspired by Harry Potter a book any reader who seeks a magicial fantasy filled universe would find unique and stunningly captivating.

Along the journey we made friends with Rebecca and Fyn.

Rebecca was a gem to get to know, I was fascinated with her character and, her charming friendship with ivy held true throughout the book. I could always rely on Rebecca.

Fyn had me second guessing his character throughout the novel, up until his charm and sarcastic wit however had me hooked, his continued friendship with Ivy throughout the story will have the reader overjoyed and attached to every page of the book.

The imagery immerses throughout the book of things such as Boysenberry Bubbly (my new favorite name for a concoction), darkened shores, and pearl covered ballrooms captured on the essence of romance and underlining fear lingering in the halls.

The snarl of the Dark Queen her character although lengthily anticipated was so marvelously evil and compelling we had long awaited her reveal and her cruel powers did not disappoint.

Once the mystery was solved I was itching for more Croswald! I’m eager to see how Ivy enchants things in the town of....Read the continuation to find out!

My one honest tip for The Crowns of Croswald would be shoot for the stars! the books are made for a higher level reader, I felt more than once Crowns of Croswald with its immense vocabulary and characters belonged in a YA Genre and that’s a beautiful thing! I felt as though Ivy’s story was aimed at a Harry Potter middle level ground, which I loved but this mystical world belongs in a YA It allows the novel to expand on more in depth to the YA side.
I look forward to reading more of Croswald and exploring D.E's beautifully written expansive arts.

Sometimes it takes a catastrophe for a girl to realise her own strength.

The Crowns of Croswald is a story developed in Croswald, the land of scrievenists and royals. It creates a magical land with its own share of good and bad people. The protagonist Ivy is a simple maid before she is invited to the Halls of Ivy, a very prestigious institution meant for the people with magic in them. Little does she know that the dreams that have been plaguing her, will soon turn into a reality she cannot even fathom that she is a part of.

I loved this book! The fantasy land created was so magical and very simple to understand and love. Reading the book, I felt as if I was a part of the land! The narration was lucid and the story was enrapturing. The language was not very simple but not very sophisticated either. In fact, it was just right to give a good intrigue to the reader. The events did seem a little disjointed in the beginning but it all came together in the end :) The number of characters was pertaining to the story which was well structured and beautifully written. At some points, I found it very similar to the Harry Potter world though.

Loved the nameplay with the author's name too :) Definitely looking forward to reading the next book!

If you loved Harry Potter or Percy Jackson and the worlds they created you will definitely love this book :).

[ Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher, Stories Untold, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ]

I would like to first point out that if you’re a big Harry Potter fan and you loved the magical storytelling then you may like this book and the ones that follow. I think that’s one of the things I enjoyed about it being a big HP Fan myself, I love magical adventures and fun magic systems.

Though I wish I could connect with the MC, she is 16 but it was very hard to connect with her on any level because at some points it felt like she was acting a little younger than 16, but I do enjoy a character acting closer to their age some YA do differentiate from the age represented but something about her I just couldn’t connect with.

Overall the story was a good in a storytelling point, and the adventure but the character I just wasn’t vibing with her. Ending up giving this book a solid 3 star review.

Thank you Stories untold and NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m going to start with the cons first. Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with the main character at all. It’s stated that she’s 16 years of age, but on a maturity level she acts much younger.

On a better note, the writing was really lovely. I enjoyed the magical atmosphere provided in its world building. It reminded me of Harry Potter in many ways. So if you’re a Potter fan, chances are you’ll probably enjoy this book too.

Interesting, Unique and a book I will be collecting for my forever shelf I have found this one hard to put down and have been completely captivated.
I adore the writing style, plot and characters. A great book!

If you’re a big fan of HP and magic filled stories like it, then you’ll enjoy this middle grade fantasy novel by DE Night!

Synopsis: Ivy, who has never left the wall of Castle Plum, is just your average 16 year old who has known nothing but hard work in her short life. She works as a poorly treated scullery maid for a wealthy family, but ends up being cast out after a mishap in the kitchens. What seems like the end of the world for Ivy is just the beginning, and she is thrust into a new world full of magical creatures, evil queens, and adventure. Ivy learns that she’s not so ordinary after all, and that not everyone in this world has her best interests in mind...

Thoughts: The Crowns of Croswald is a fun and imaginative coming of age story with wonderful world building and interesting characters. While it is meant for younger readers, it’s a good fantasy story for all ages. I did get a little flustered with how confusing the story gets towards the end, but I understand that is the first book and all the questions I’m left with will be answered in the other books. Overall not bad!

Sixteen year-old and scaldrony maid Ivy Lovely can usually be found either lost in her sketching or helping out horrific Helga Hoff in the kitchen of Castle Plum. Her dear friend Rimbrick, an ancient woods dwarf, knows that there's magic in Ivy. She is ultimately thrusted into the Halls of Ivy as a student where she can finally put her interests in scrivenry (magic) into action while her pet dragon, Humboldt, accompanies her along the way. By the end of the story, Ivy has learned much more than she ever thought she would about her magical bloodline and how much of an impact she really has on the future of Croswald.

While I really loved the fantasy and adventure components the story offered, this reminded me too much of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It also had a bit of a Cinderella vibe to it as well which I didn’t hate and made it a little bit more of a unique storyline. It was great to be a part of Ivy's story and seeing a strong female character as the lead, but if I'm being honest I just could not stop thinking of Harry Potter as I kept going. Even the artwork that headed each chapter was a little reminiscent of the artwork found within each chapter of Harry Potter although I know it wasn’t intentionally done to resemble this. There was just so many similarities I noted. I tried giving it a chance and I'm not regretful that I did since I felt like I needed a break between the monotony of the typical genres I've been gravitating towards as of late (i.e. rom-coms and women's fiction). If you're looking for something very similar to the Harry Potter series with a little bit of a Cinderella-esque twist, I would recommend picking this one up. It was not terrible by any means, it just wasn’t it for me.