15 years after Jeremy and Rafe are found after disappearing in the woods of West Virginia for 6 months, Emilie comes seeking help for her kidnapped sister in those same woods. There are secrets to be found, friends to be rescued, and pasta to confront.

This was a love letter to all portal fantasies, & I completely adored it! There are several references throughout to well known portal fantasy stories, and it made me smile every time. Here was an author that knew how enticing the idea of a secret wardrobe or a land past an impenetrable desert is.

The world building was really interesting although not as deep as I would have liked. We get a sweet romance that doesn’t overwhelm the story, but still got me completely invested. & I loved every character we met! From Emilie and Fritz, to Jeremy and Rafe, to the Valkyries we only see for a few pages.

The pacing was a little wonky with the Storyteller’s Interludes. They felt unnecessary and brought the energy of the book to a crawl. But other than that, I loved this story!

I’m definitely going to be buying a physical copy of this, and I’ve already put a hold at the library on The Wishing Game.

Thank you to both NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC!

** spoiler alert ** Cute! A mix of "Magicians" and King's "Fairytale" (this one is far less dangerous and gruesome), this is a fun read for lovers of magical realism and alternative worlds.
I was really drawn in at the beginning but had a few chapters of "what is this" in the middle (the magical part with the questionable (too easy?) rescue in the Ghost Town and the following village celebrations, plus the whole ordeal of being directly addressed by the storyteller. It was all giving me a flashback of YA romantasy (I wish I still enjoyed it - it's like a switch turned off at 35, never to turn back on again). But then the origin of the magical world was explained, the romance stayed strictly PG-13, which was fitting for the book somehow, and the (somewhat) cliffhanger promise of another story was nice. This is an endearing story (they got their horses back!) with enough self-awareness and humor to appeal to many different audiences.
As a fellow B, I enjoyed the romance, the hints, the kisses. The t-shirt analogy made me cackle - did not expect that!
In the end, this is a book about a man accepting (too late) his queer son - with artsiness, English lover, and even superior archery skills. Lovely read.

Thank you, NetGalley, @MegShaffer, and Ballantine Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. The book is out on July 16.

A magical realm(Shanandoah)with a portal in the woods. This begins the story of two boys, Jeremy and Rafe who go missing for months. When they are returned home they are healthier, stronger and yet changed. Years pass after this mysterious event and the boys languish. But we know magic has rules….when a young woman, Emilie engages Jeremy to search for her missing sister it is the catalyst to begin their quest.
Only in returning to Shanandoah can these boys repair their lives.
4.5 ⭐️for this lovely story,I smiled every time I picked it up to read. With reminders of C S Lewis and Peter S Beagle it was cozy and enchanting. But don’t be fooled it is an adult fairy tale that tackles some heavy themes like child abuse and PTSD. Many thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read.

I honestly had no idea what this book was about when I started it. All I knew was that I loved The Wishing Game and so when I was offered the ARC for this, I downloaded it with no hesitation. Well, it's no surprise that I loved this one too. It's like a fairytale, fantasy, and romance all rolled into one. The descriptions had me right there in Shanandoah and while the happy ever after was left a little vague, I was still satisfied with the ending. Though I'd be extremely excited if Shaffer wrote a sequel! Delightful and full of whimsy!

Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC of The Lost Story! I loved The Wishing Game and was very excited for this. Meg did not disappoint in delivering a wonderful and whimsy fairytale for us adults. I don’t think there’s anything bad about this book. The characters are amazing, I love them all! (Well, minus one but that’s a given if you read this book (although they try and redeem themselves but still)) I loved the way the settings were written, it was beautiful. I could imagine myself in Shanandoah and I WANTED to be there with these characters! Meg did a great job including tough topics while making this still a light hearted book. I am officially making Meg an auto-buy author because she can do no wrong! All the stars! Thank you again for the ARC!

Loved loved loved! Meg Shaffer is a new favorite author and I will read anything she writes! This fairy tale story is full of magic, love and belonging. The characters are amazing and the interjections of the Story Teller were a fun way to make you feel like the story is being read to you. Meg's books remind me of the books I treasured as a kid, the books that made me love reading. Having some of that magic back as an adult is so special!

A masterful madness, is how I can define this story. When I started reading, I had been carried away by the comparison made to the Narnia books and I had already heard of the author's other book.

What an adventure I have had, here we have Jeremy and Rafe who disappear in a forest and no matter how hard they search for them, no clues are found, but it is not until 6 months later that they reappear completely unharmed and unable to explain where they were all that time.

Moving forward to the future, we have that Rafe has had a hard time not remembering those months of his life, while Jeremy has become popular for his work of finding missing people, and being the only one who remembers where they were those months but without wanting to reveal the truth to Rafe.

They are reunited by Emilie, who has recently learned that she has a sister who disappeared before them in the same woods, and wants their help in finding her.

Jeremy suspects that Emilie's sister is in this magical land where they were when they were teenagers, and now he does whatever he can to get back there and find her.

It is a story in which the fantastic and magical touches make it feel like a fairy tale that I enjoyed every moment of reading.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this wonderful ARC.

Review shared on Goodreads on 07/13/2024.

#TheLostStory #NetGalley

Meg Shaffer captured my attention with The Wishing Game and I made a point to look out for her future publications. I got my hands on an ARC of The Lost Story and now I’m pleased to say, Ms Shaffer has solidified herself as one of my favorite authors. This novel is a fantasy at heart, with just a touch of romance. The world was creative but had enough realism that it reads like a believable story.

*thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review*

This book felt like it was torn out of a corner of my soul and laid bare before me.

Meg Shaffer has crafted an absolutely masterful fairy tale-esque story. This book is for the dreamers, the kids who needed to escape, the adults who still believe in fairy tales. This book feels somehow brand new and nostalgic at the same time.

The way the characters in this book came alive from the start was so impressive. I really found myself rooting for Emilie within 2 chapters of knowing her. And once we knew Jeremy and Rafe I was rooting for them just as hard.

I also can’t believe I’m saying this but somehow, Shaffer made a very mundane West Virginia feel like a far away mysterious fairy tale land and now I want to go there lol.

This story is so whimsical, mysterious, full of yearning, includes found family, and also hits hard. There’s hope and despair, there’s uncertainty and confidence, courage and fear.

I knew within 10% of this book it was going to be a new favorite. Stunning work!! I can’t recommend it enough 🦄

So, yeah, I really loved this book! The premise had me from the start: two best friend teenage boys, Rafe and Jeremy, disappear in the woods in West Virginia on a field trip. After exhaustive searches, everyone assumes they've died. But 6 months later, they reappear, looking not only none the worst for wear, but actually pretty healthy. And this is the prologue!

15 years later is where the story really starts. What has happened to these boys (now young men) in the intervening years? Rafe has not had an easy time of things, in and out of mental institutions. He has no memories of the 6 months they were missing, and doctors cannot figure out why. Jeremy was spirited back to his mother's native England after he reappears, He now spends his days finding missing girls and women, and has something of a celebrity status.

Enter Emilie, a young girl whose adoptive mother has recently died. Emilie wants to find an older sister from before she was adopted. She has a name and some photos, but not much else. The sister, Shannon, herself was kidnapped years before and has never been found. But Emilie doesn't believe she is dead, so she asks Jeremy to help her find Shannon. And he agrees, because Jeremy remembers Shannon from his own time missing. But he needs Rafe to help him. He and Rafe haven't been in contact in those 15 years and it isn't exactly a warm welcome.

Okay, so that's the set up. I am classifying this as a cozy fantasy, because it just felt wonderful reading this book. Although there are comparisons to Narnia, it gave me that same sense of loveliness I get reading a T. J. Klune book. I won't give spoilers, but I think readers will find the ending satisfying. Sure, there are some things that happen to these characters that are difficult, but the story is really about Rafe and Jeremy finding their way back into each others' lives, and to healing their past trauma.

Also, I really loved the interjections from The Storyteller, a separate character in and of themselves who comments on the story periodically.

This is my first book by this author, but I really hope it's not my last.

I really enjoyed this story that melds the modern day world with a fairy tale. While on a school trip, Jeremy and Ralph disappeared in the Red Crow State Forest in West Virginia for six months before suddenly reappearing. Fifteen years later, Emilie is reeling from the recent death of her mother and the surprise news of discovering that she has a half sister after doing a genetic test. The catch is that her sister disappeared in the Red Crow five years before Jeremy and Ralph and has not been seen since then. Jeremy is now a finder of missing persons and when she learns that he will be making an appearance 2.5 hours away, Emilie rushes there to ask him to find her sister. What follows is a fairy tale adventure.

The author captivates you right away and transports you into such a unique and imaginative story. The more I progressed, the more questions and thoughts were provoked! I was engulfed into the characters and narrative before the book even entered a different place. The author has a way with words the reads smooth as silk…I knew I had to read this book after I read “The Wishing Game.”

Thank you Annabel Monaghan, Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for this ARC opportunity!

Ah, don’t you just love when a book takes you by surprise? I had no idea what to expect going into this. I added this ARC on Netgalley because it was offered, and I had heard some good reviews about Shaffer’s The Wishing Game.

I think it’s better to go in blind so I’ll try to be brief…The plot may be slow to some people, but if you love a character driven story with a touch of whimsy and magic, you’ll enjoy this. I loved the storytelling and the way the mysterious past slowly revealed itself. But the book was actually less about the magic (although wonderful) and more about human relationships, longing, loss, and courage. And as Fleabag would say, “This is a love story.”

This is a fairytale for adults. I really didn't know what to expect. It started out with a really good story based in the "normal" world. I was really into that story of the man, Jeremy, who is able to find missing people. Then the story took a turn to the past and two boys, Rafe and Jeremy, were in a place of magic and intense danger. They are gone from their normal lives long enough for searches for them to be stopped. Years later, they meet Emilie who is searching for her missing sister and they join together to go find her back in the magical land.

To be honest, magical realism isn't usually my cup of tea. However, this was so well written that there was no way not to like it. The relationships the boys/men had with their families and each other played a big part of making this work for me. The story came down to the choices we make for love. Ahh...love. You got me there, Ms. Shaffer.

Thanks to Random Hose-Ballantine for the copy of this e-book. All thoughts are my own.

✨available July 16,2024

West - by God - Virginia!

I fell in love with this fairytale. The writing, the magic, the characters, the storyteller. Everything. This book was magic and I hope to get to read more of this world. Thank you netgalley, Meg Shaffer, Randomhouse-Ballantine Books for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

“You looked for missing children. You mourned the lost ones”

“No one wants to admit their lost”

“Scared is a feeling not an excuse”

“Books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.”

I find myself very torn writing this review. I enjoyed most parts of the book. I liked the beginning with the boys going missing and the introduction of the characters, the search for the sister, and the resolution was well done.

The battle in the middle was not for me. It felt very rushed and should have been connected to the final conflict.

Rafe and Jeremy are best friends who go missing in a vast forest in West Virginia. They reappear six months later, in near-perfect health, with little to no recollection of where they were and how they survived. Now, 15 years later, a woman named Emilie approaches Jeremy, asking for help locating her missing sister - in the same woods where Rafe and Jeremy disappeared.

I thought this book was such a beautiful story of love and friendship. When you are young and living in an environment that does not accept who you are or the things you find interesting, you can only dream of eventually finding places of comfort and people who will make you feel whole. This book had so much personal growth for every main character encountered. One scene in particular towards the end of the book resonated with me where Rafe has to stand up to someone who makes him feel small and childlike again, even though he is now a grown adult. I also really loved the relationship between Rafe and Jeremy. They both lost so much; watching them rediscover it all and return to each other was very emotional.

Thank you to author Meg Shaffer, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of The Lost Story in exchange for my review.

Please also check out Meg Shaffer’s other book – The Wishing Game. It was one of my favorites in 2023, and I still think about it often.

"Fair warning: if you've never believed any impossible things before, now is a good time to start."

I absolutely ADORED this book! A beautiful, magical escape. The writing, characters, and world building were all exquisite. The romance element included LGBTQ rep, second chance, and friends to lovers, but this book is much more than a romance. Meg Shaffer is officially a must read author for me.

"A good story, yes, but not a fairy tale. They didn't have fairy tales in West Virginia. They were lucky to have a Target."

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC! Publishing 7/16! ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

I loved this book so so much. It was magical, fairytale, found family, romantic perfection. If gave me all the feels and it gets all the stars.

Meg Shaffer knows how to transport the reader to magical lands in such a way that are vivid and beautiful without being overly wordy. I want to go hang out in Shanandoah for a little while. I absolutely adored the characters in this book. Their bravery and resilience, their humor and snark, their love, loyalty, bonds, and friendship were all so heartwarming. I am a sucker for a found family story and this delivered in such a *magical* way.

This book feels like a genre mashup of fantasy and magical realism, contemporary fiction, with a dash of romance. It’s a story that will appeal to a variety of readers and I will be shouting from the rooftops telling everyone to read it.

If Meg Shaffer writes it, I will read it 🩵

This book felt rushed. It didn’t feel like a completed book and the pacing was way off.

It took entirely too long to get to the other world. To compare it to CS Lewis who throws you into the other world right away, I felt like, okay, come on. The beginning part just dragged on and on.

I also struggled not connecting with the characters. I liked Emilie, but didn’t really care for the whole “Jeremy can’t tell Rafe anything storyline.”

All in all, I was hoping for another wishing game but this one fell short. It needed at least a few more rounds of editing and rewriting.