I think a lot of people are going to love this book. I am not one of those people. There is a lot to love here: Meg Shaffer does a great job writing a modern fairytale that transports you back to childhood, and I think if you are someone who doesn’t typically read the fantasy genre you can still really enjoy this. My main issue with this is her dialogue and characters. I had the same problem with The Wishing Game, but found it to be way worse in this book. Everything is for lack of a better word: cringey. Her main character felt very “trying hard to be quirky” and literally the entire time I kept thinking, no one acts like this or speaks like this. Half the time it wasn’t even normal conversations, it just felt like weird, performative banter. I wish someone else besides Meg Shaffer was writing her books because she has great stories with badly written characters and dialogue.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

OH MY GOODNESS! MEG SHAFFER DOES NOT DISAPPOINT!

This was everything I didn’t know I needed, a cozy magical fairytale like story with some romance and found family. I adored this story, yet another five star read. With The Wishing Game being a favorite read from 2023, I was so excited for this release and lucky enough to get an early copy from NetGalley and the publisher. I am so glad I did, because this definitely was everything I wanted in a story!

A charming, adult fairy tale that warmed my heart and gave new life to the unyielding belief in magic that we all seem to lose sight of once we are no longer children. Set in West Virginia, this story starts off in the real world and eventually transitions into a fantasy kingdom hidden deep within Red Crow Forest. It's somewhat of a slow and secretive start, but this did NOT deter my interest. The story picked up rather quickly and I found myself racing towards the end. I loved the characters and their interactions. They were like big kids trapped inside of grown-up bodies. I also really enjoyed the Storyteller's narrations. They were a great addition and humorous at times. Thank you, Meg Shaffer, for creating this magical world full of beauty, light, and love and for making me feel like a kid again! I highly recommend this book to all the "big" kids out there!

Thank you to the author, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!

I adored The Wishing Game so I was a little bit nervous to read Meg Shaffer's new novel. Luckily this was charming and quirky and delightful. If you're a lover of fairy tales and other worlds, this is for you.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, Meg Shaffer became one of my top three favorite authors after I read The Wishing Game. This story is a bit different but has the fairy tale charm I love. A character who loves Stevie Nicks, has a pet rat and prefers female authors? Yes to all of those! I found myself writing quite a bit in my reading journal including the C. S. Lewis quote I love at the beginning: “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” But if you are like me, you never stopped. Keep them coming Meg!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC copy of The Lost Story.

I am a huge fan of "children who find doors" stories so I was excited to read this one. I loved the Narnia series as a child, and appreciated the nods to it in this story, as well as the absence of all the religious undertones in the original.
I did not care for the romance aspect, it didn't feel compelling or natural and took away from the child-like magic of the book. I loved "The Wishing Game" and although I liked "The Lost Story" I can't say that I loved it.

“Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.” Meg Shaffer does it again with The Lost Story. She has the ability to transport you back to your childhood while reading. I loved the “lost children” concept, and the relationships between the characters. While this novel is not as strong as The Wishing Game, it still brought me back to reading fantasy novels as a child and wanting to jump into the stories. I also love the omniscient narrator that pops up throughout the story. I recommend this book to anyone who loved reading the Narnia books. Rafe, Emilie, and Jeremy take you on an epic adventure you won’t soon forget! Thank you, Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this story before it hits the shelves!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
What a cool novel! I loved Narnia as a kid and really enjoyed being out back into a similar world from a different angle. I’ll have to check out more of this author’s work

I absolutely loved The Wishing Game and was thrilled for the opportunity to read this ARC. Thank you Meg Shaffer and NetGalley. I absolutely loved this book. Definitely not one to miss.

The lost story. Meg Shaffer does it again. She takes us on another adventure. This time there are unicorns and red crows. There is a queen ,a princess, a prince and a knight, and don’t forget a rat that is a duke. There are evil bright boys and ghost town. This is a book for your dreams

Fairy Tales. A simple recipe really – a Queen, a prince, a knight, a fairy godmother, a lost princess, an epic adventure/quest, and a villain or 3. Oh and a LOT of Stevie Nicks.

And this is a fairy tale. Right?

In an Achillean Chronicles of Narnia retelling, Jeremy and Ralph are reunited after 15 years apart to help Emilie find her long missing sister.

Jeremy and Ralph know a thing or two about missing people – having disappeared for 6 months themselves as teenagers.

The integration of “the storyteller” chapters really helped move the plot along and gave the book a more magical feel.

In a tale fit for a Queen - we find Jeremy, Ralph, and Emilie on the quest to find what each of them is missing. Emilie - her sister, Ralph - the memory of what happened 15 years ago, and Jeremy - true love.

The world building in this book is absolutely magical. Meg Shaffer does an outstanding job creating characters and the world into which they fit.

I’m going to spend the next few months screaming for everyone to pre-order this one. I was hooked from the start.

Meg Shaffer wins the whimsy award for this book. She is great at capturing that almost fantasy, but not quite feel of a book. When the description gives inspired by Chronicles of Narnia, it's a lot to live up to but I think Meg takes hold of that and makes it her own.
Without giving too much away or making my review into a spoiler edition - I'm excited to see where this story goes.
It felt like a buildable world in which each character could have a story here. Hands down, my favorite parts were the intermissions where the "story teller" cuts in!

**I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review**

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the copy of The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer. The Wishing Game was one of my favorite books of 2023, so I jumped at the chance to read a new book by Shaffer, and what a wonderful book it was! Jeremy and Rafe were wonderful characters. They were lost in the forest as teens and returned mysteriously six months later. Rafe didn't have any memory about where they had been and Jeremy refused to talk about it. Jeremy, who has a knack for finding lost girls and women, is approached by Emilie. She asks him to help find her stepsister who had disappeared in the same forest as the boys. What follows is an intriguing, emotional fairy tale of what happens when Jeremy, Rafe and Emilie go to the forest to search for Emilie’s sister. A little fantasy, a little romance, and a lot of imagination make this book soar. You will not want to put it down until you find out if the fairy tale ends happily ever after.

2⭐️

One of my top books for 2024 but sadly this one didn't work for me. I loved the premise of the book (fairytales, Narnia vibes) but the plot, backstory and dialogue was a mess. The story had no consistency or flow which hurt the romance between the two MMC. I do not recommend this one.

Unfortunately this one didn't work for me. I loved the premise of the book (fairytales, Narnia vibes) but it was a jumbled mess. The story did not flow at all and that ultimately hurt the romance between the two MMC. Sadly, I do not recommend this one.

I was granted the e-ARC of this book for my honest review.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer follows three main characters: Emilie, Jeremy (Jay) and Rafe (Ralph). After Jeremy and Rafe’s sudden reappearance after disappearing for several months, time stops. Rafe has no idea what happened in the months they were gone, and Jeremy is sticking to his story.

15 years go by and Jeremy and Rafe lose touch. However, when Emilie seeks their help finding her lost sister Shannon, they join forces once again to help bring these sisters together, reentering the woods where they went missing.

In a tale of adventure, loss, heartbreak and love, The Lost Story is the definition of found family.

I was absolutely enthralled by these characters. The pain, loss, and struggles these three show throughout the story make it so easy to connect to these characters — you can find a little piece of your own story in each of them.

Shanandoah was such an exciting land and I loved seeing the world evolve as the characters explored it. I wish we spent more time there, exploring all its intricacies.

I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars). I fell in love with these characters and their stories. This was such a feel good story and the characters made me feel like a member of the group. For all the people who feel like they don’t fit in or have a place in their world — this book is for you. I had several moments of my life like that when I was growing up, and reliving that was so nostalgic and helped me connect to these characters.

I absolutely loved the breaks from The Storyteller throughout the book. That was the cutest way to give background context to things going on in the book. It provided a major storybook vibe from our favorite childhood stories.

This book is so much emotion and strong relationships. I expected more action and adventure, but I loved how deeply personal the characters were with one another. The connections they had and formed was magical.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for people who love connecting to the storybook fantasy books. While it is still a tale of action and adventure, it also deeply discusses many serious topics of loss, suicide, LGBTQ+ relationships, adoption, and more. It was such a heartwarming story and cements Meg Shaffer as one of my favorite authors.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer was a great story that kept me up all night. I couldn’t put it down.

Jeremy, Emily, and Rafe drew me in with their well developed characters and I want more of them! An adult Narnia that isn’t all fun, but oh, so intriguing! I’m not giving any plot points away because I don’t want to ruin anything. Just read this!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Wow. What a complete delight this book was. I had high hopes after loving The Wishing Game so dearly and Meg did not disappoint.

This story was such a ride, bridging a very gritty real world and all its problems with a totally fantastical fairy tale. There were so many layers of love that had me squealing with delight and made my eyes misty at times.

And as someone who married into a West Virginia mountaineer family, that tie in was a fun surprise.

Meg Shaffer proved herself as a magnificent writer of magical places with enchanting details in “The Wishing Game.” After blessing us with Clock Island, we now have Shanandoah, and the book is following the “recipe for a fairy tale,” which include the rule of threes, a princess, a hero, villains, oddball creatures, and must begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “They all lived happily ever after.” There’s also a Storyteller willing to interrupt for wise quips, backstories, and deeper context. The book is obviously influenced by C.S.Lewis and the Narnia chronicles, but as a grown-up romantasy.

Knowing that there *should* be a happy ending, it’s easy to dive into the narrative even though it starts outside a mystical fairy tale setting with an account of two lost boys, Jeremy and Rafe, in the Red Crow State Forest of West Virginia who reappear mysteriously six months later. Fifteen years later, a young woman named Emilie approaches one of those now grown boys, asking for help with finding her missing half-sister, Shannon, who disappeared into the same woods they did twenty years ago, but never reappeared.

And so a thrilling adventure begins to return to the forest amid fifteen year old memories to find Emilie’s sister. All the thrilling fairy tale components are here including sword fights, evil boys, and herds of unicorns. At its heart is a delicate romance that reminded me of TJ Klune’s sweet “The House on the Cerulean Sea.”

Meg Shaffer has done it again — if you loved “The Wishing Game” you’ll definitely love “The Lost Story” as well. 5 stars!

P.S. I loved that the author’s Storyteller shares my opinion that anyone who has watched an animated Disney movie knows: “When you read fairy tales, you’ll learn fast there are only two types of mothers you’ll meet in those stories. One—good and dead. Two—bad and alive.”

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Jeremy’s hazel eyes contain green and gold, and there’s a mermaid with bright green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Anything goes in magical enchanted forests, including red crows.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to like this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

I thought the way that the story was told was very unique. Having the storyteller break in throughout to provide context or clarity was a fun idea in theory, but it became jarring after awhile because the writing style between the two was wildly different.

Also, it felt like this book was just trying a little too hard at the beginning to convince me it was a fairytale when it did not feel like one. Did it eventually fall into that category? Yes. But not until 50% of the way through the book.

Now, when it did become like a fairytale, it felt like a COMPLETELY different book from the first half. Tone changed, writing changed, characters kind of changed - which again was a bit jarring

The story itself was a great concept, and I liked the idea of an adult Chronicles of Narnia but this just fell short for me.

(And for awareness, this is an achillean story.)