The Lost Story is proof that you’re never too old for a good fairy tale. This grown-up nod to Narnia had just enough magic, mystery, and whimsy to keep me reading straight through from start to finish.

Thank you Meg Shaffer, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely loved this book. I was so attached to the characters. Meg Shaffer has a way of writing that once you finish you're forlorn at returning to the real world. I definitely want a sequel to this one.

I love a portal fantasy! I like the juxtaposition of the fantastical and mundane, and I think there’s a lot of room in the genre to write the kind of story you like. Shaffer wrote the kind of story I like.

The characters were great - I like the number of the platonic relationships developed through the book, and I really loved the storytelling framework. By the end of the book I had cried real tears and laughed real laughs.

It did start… quite slow. I almost DNFed at 30% - by 40% I was in it and so glad I stuck it out.

This was an interesting and unique novel that kept my attention. I really enjoyed the characters and how much they cared about one another.

5 enchanting stars for this one. I immediately became completely enraptured by the magic that this book is. It took hold of me and did not let go until long after I was finished. It was one of those books that will stick with me and I will think about the characters for a long time. I highly recommend!

I loved this book. It was an adventurous, imaginative and sweet story about two best friends who get lost in the woods as kids and how they come back together in adulthood. I felt like I was escaping life during this read and it had a nostalgic quality that reminded me of my childhood favorite, "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". Highly recommend for someone who wants something emotional and escapist.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House-Ballantine Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I was so excited to dive into this, I mean look at that cover, it's swoon worthy! I had heard so many amazing things about Meg's debut, so I was pumped to receive this ARC. I immediately was drawn into the story of two boys who have gone missing, only to return 6 months later healthy and unharmed. Years pass without them speaking, one boy knowing the full extent of their time "lost", while the other has no memories from that time.

I could not wait for them to return to where they were "lost" and discover what really occurred, but that is where the book lost me. I wanted magic and all the forest feels, but got none of that. I felt the dialog was a tad childish (these characters are adults when they return to this magical world) and the story was more telling vs. showing. There were chapters with a storyteller filling you in what had happened rather then reading about the characters experiences. That took me out of the story and made it feel flat.

While I wanted more of the magical feels and world building, I did love the romance storyline of this book. It's what kept me reading to the end.

Delightful fun but the pacing was all over the place and it felt unfinished (which may have been the point). Parts of it were fully fleshed out and others were half assed ideas pinned on at random. I wish it were more focused narratively, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

I loved this so much I will be getting the hardcover. For grown ups that love Narnia and wanting their own magical story, and finding out what happens when you return to a magical world.

I found this book to drag on. I felt a lack of connection to the characters and felt lost with the style of storytelling. The little breaks from the story teller just took me out. I was overall not a fan.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Quick summary: Jeremy and Rafe went missing in the forest 15 years ago under unusual circumstances, and they reappeared in the forest 6 months later under even more unusual circumstances. Now present day, Emilie enlists their help to find her missing sister that disappeared in the same forest as them many years ago.

I’ll be honest and say this book did not hit as well as The Wishing Game for me. I went into this book with high expectation because of how much I loved Shaffer’s first book, but I was underwhelmed. For starters, I usually prefer a more dialogue heavy book. This one had a lot more “telling” of what happened than “showing,” and I felt like I couldn’t connect with the characters, settings, or events very well. The characters didn’t feel like the ages they were supposed to be (felt more like teens), and the relationships felt forced instead of natural.

The beginning started out fun and mysterious, but as we got closer and closer to the midway point I started to lose focus. The world building wasn’t super clear to me so I struggled with setting the scenes in my head. This book took me a lot longer than usual to read because I could only read it in short sittings. The build up in the beginning was long and drawn out, the action and resolution were over in a blink, and then the ending left me a little underwhelmed.

I thought the storyteller moments were a fun way to remind the reader that this is supposed to be an adult version of a fairytale. I really wanted to enjoy it as much as The Wishing Game, but it just didn’t wow me the same. And the Wishing Game was a 5 star read for me, so maybe my expectations were just too high for this one, who knows. I look forward to trying Meg Shaffer’s next novel and I hope I enjoy it.

The first half had me fully engaged and on the edge of my seat as a woman is in search of her missing sister. It reads like a thriller with hints of fears fantasy. This primed me to expect that tone and pacing to carry throughout the book. However about halfway through the book, the mood and pace completely changed to what felt like an entirely different book, and even genre. The intrigue and suspense dropped off causing me to have to force myself to continue.

I think if the author would have kept a consistent tone throughout the book or even paced and plotted the book in a way that gave the reader more time to adjust, it could have been a favorite of the year. But unfortunately I couldn’t get past the stark contrast and it took away from my enjoyment.

Meg Schaffer delivered another magical and heartwarming tale full of magic and adventure. A fairytale for adults, full of love and heartbreak.

“As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.

Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.“

Ostensibly a fairy tale but nowhere near as traumatic as the ones Grim wrote. This is the story of two teens who vanished in the woods one fine day then returned home six months later irrevocably changed. One gains a magical ability to find lost people and things. The other a magical ability to get birds to do as he says. Fifteen years later, they choose to intentionally get lost in those same woods again and therein lies the tale. Part quest, part self-discovery, they find each other again, unafraid of what lies between them and committed to facing the world at each other’s side.

A cute story that was not necessarily for me. It took a long time to get into, but I can see strengths that others will like.

I was fully expecting to love this story. It’s an adult fairy tale inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia. There were some parts of it that I found had a magical quality to them, but overall, I was confused by the tone of the story.

The main characters were all adults but the parts of the story when they were in the magic realm felt childish. I had to remind myself that these characters weren’t teenagers. I didn’t feel any attachment to the characters in particular because they felt quite young while some of the themes were more mature.

I enjoyed the magical elements and felt like this had great potential. I need the world to be fleshed out more. The story line and magic reminded me more of Peter Pan than Narnia.

This book contains scattered mild profanity, queer relationships, kissing and implied intimacy between two men.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book! “The Wishing Game” was one of, if not my favorite, read of 2023 so I could not wait to get my hands on this book! As a child who grew up on CS Lewis, this is a tale I thoroughly enjoyed for its modern (and Wild and Wonderful West Virginia) take on “The Chronicles of Narnia”. My lower star rating is only due to unexpected themes throughout. I do love Meg Shaffer’s writing style and references to “back home”.

I recently read Meg Shaffer's other novel and enjoyed it, so I requested this. I had heard incredible things about it from a bookish friend or two. I do find her books a little lighter than the kinds of books I most often tend to read, but I do enjoy her stories.

I absolutely loved this book. This story was so immersive and unlike anything I’ve ever read. I finished it in a day!

3.5 ⭐️

Meg Shaffer is the queen of enchanting and magical stories and this one is no different. I loved this story and how quickly I was transported into the world of Shenandoah.

I loved Jeremy and Rafe but found Emilie to be annoying at times and not even really part of the plot, if that makes sense?

Would recommend this book if you love magical realism, found family, and a touch of romance!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an arc!