I want to first thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for sending me an ARC of this novel! All opinions expressed are my own.

This book really refueled my love for fantasy and I just LOVE that it shone so much individually even though it was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia. The little fairy tale element also made it such an interesting read. The way Shaffer writes is honestly very addicting and easy to get lost in. I thought it got a little slow in some parts, but then I'd get sucked into the world building again.

It was very fun and whimsical, but I was also pleasantly surprised by the LGBTQ+ romance. (Also love that I just accidentally happened to read this during June.) In short, wonderful book, and I'm definitely keeping up with this author from now on since I hear glowing reviews about Shaffer's other works! And thank you, thank you, thank you for the well fleshed-out characters because I adore good characterization 🤍

Whomp Whomp. I was so excited when I got the ARC for this book off of NetGalley. I DEVOURED The Wishing Game just a few months ago and have had several people read it after me recommending it. When I say that this book is the farthest from her previous one is an understatement. Yes, it has elements of magic and whimsy, but that’s where the correlation ends.
Based off of Narnia-like world influences, this book follows two men in their 30s and a 20ish girl going to this land to reclaim Long lost sisters and memories. About 50% of the way in, things took a turn for me.
It basically turned into these two guys falling in love, or back in love, and living happily ever after. This book had so much potential but I could barely stomach to keep reading. This book didn’t have to have that in it and it ruined it. I will NOT be recommending this book due to my views on these topics.
The only reason why it has two stars is because it was a very engaging story and well thought out fantasy land.
But don’t recreate Narnia in a “woke” way. Come on.

I was such a fan of Meg’s first book, The Wishing Game, and was really looking forward to reading her future works. I’m so glad The Lost Story lived up to those expectations!

This novel was magical; Meg’s way of storytelling grabs a hold of you in the best way. I could not put this book down.

I would absolutely recommend this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of this novel; all opinions expressed are my own.

This book caught me off guard completely. I went in with no expectations but finished it absolutely delighted. The story started right off and I was intrigued by the characters immediately. This magical little love story had everything you would hope for. I finished this book in just 2 days and I am begging and hopeful that there is a second book coming and this will be a series because I miss these characters already.

I was immediately swept up in this closed-door gay romantasy fairytale from Meg Shaffer. Part Narnian fantasy, part second chance romance, all mystery, magic and adventure, it's a very hard book to put down. I had to know what could possibly happen next! It's about reunions, family drama, forgiveness and finding what's been lost. Chapters narrated by Rafe and Jeremy are broken up by the omniscient narrators' chapters breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the reader. It has a really good set up and premise but falls a little short for me in the plot.

Rafe and Jeremy disappear into the West Virginia woods in their teens and are found again six months later by hikers. Rafe has no memory of the last six months and is injured; Jeremy remembers everything but can't tell. Fifteen years later the estranged friends now have special abilities. Jeremy can find lost people and things. Rafe has serious bow and arrow skills and a mysterious connection with animals, (especially birds). When Emilie seeks out Jeremy to help her find her older sister Shannon who was kidnapped and lost in the same West Virginia woods, the adventure begins and the secret of what happened to the boys while they were lost in the woods begins to unravel. Rafe, Jeremy and Emilie team up to search for Shannon and end up getting a second chance at happiness, dealing with childhood trauma, forgiving their pasts and forging new futures.

The fantasy world adventures were kind of underwhelming and existed more to be a safe place for Rafe and Jeremy to be in love than as a world in need of saving. The "big bad" was obvious and wasn't a big enough villain to create a satisfying climax in the storyline. WAS that spider shoot the plot climax? I'm unsure. The descriptions of the ghost town reminded me of the "upside-down" in Stranger Things. Why did nobody want to help these poor souls? I guess it just didn't feel like the stakes were that high for the gay romance. It's 2024 and 3 out of four of their parents are dead. Who's to stop them? Let your freak flag fly, guys!

Shannon/Skya's character was interesting, but I felt like we didn't get enough interaction between her and the other characters to really care about her. It was like when you get together with a bunch of people who have history, and they tell anecdotes about all the fun things they used to get up to instead of talking about where they are in life now. There were so many anecdotal asides about these adventures they had 15 years ago, and I was like, "Who cares? Get back to the chase!" or whatever.

Shaffer leaves it open for a sequel, but I don't think one is needed. I think THIS is the sequel and Shaffer just never wrote the first book because it wouldn't have the happy ending all fairytales need.

Thank you to #Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC!

What a magical journey this was! If you’ve ever dreamed of a different world where magic shimmers in the air, apples are full of sunlight, and your closet is full of clothes that fit just right, this was written for you.

5/5 ⭐️
I don’t know if I have the words to explain how much I loved this story. It was so lovely and magical. It’s my favorite kind of fantasy realism/portal fantasy where I can convince myself I can find this world too. This feeling wasn’t helped when a red bird kept flying past when I was reading.
The first half reminded me of Adrienne Young’s adult stories with her world of magical realism and mystery mixed with Kate Alice Marshall’s thrillers that also has something other sprinkled within. But the second half was Narnia and the Never Ending Story. This was my favorite kind of story where reality and magic blurred and you questioned and believed both. I loved that they brought the real world pain and contextualized it with the fantasy.
I loved all the characters and all the relationships. I loved Emilie. She’s so realistic and relatable in the little moments. I’ve been Emilie. I’ve known Emilies. I loved Rafe. I loved how he was this juxtaposition. I enjoyed watching him face the ghosts still haunting him. I loved Jeremy and the fact he was the only one that knew everything and drove me crazy whenever he gave us just crumbs but was so loving and charming. I loved all their relationships. I especially enjoyed the romance and how sweet it was, even if it made me tear up a handful of times.
I enjoyed this story so much. It was like a siren song for my specific soul. I highlighted so many lines. It was haunting and dark at times but filled with so much love and hope. To me, it was perfect.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

This book is so whimsical and fun and I can’t wait for everyone to read it! It is inspired by the chronicles of narnia in the best of ways but also is entirely its own story. I loved the queer love story, adventurous storyline, and whimsical world so much. This book did take me a bit longer to get into than I was hoping for. It has a pretty slow start and I struggled with the first half but the second half makes it so worth it! This author’s debut book was one of my favorite reads last year so she is certainly an auto read author for me now!

Ok… I loved this!! I was literally hooked from the prologue! This story just flows. I loved the way the author wrote this, it really felt like a fairytale. The story keeps you guessing and interested.

The map in the front of this book made me squeal with delight!! I love a good fairy tale and this book was organized so well into chapters while also throwing in “storyteller corners,” where we get insight from a narrator.

This is the story of two men who were once lost boys. Jeremy and Rafe had disappeared 15 years ago and presumed dead. Only to return with many unanswered questions about where they had been and how they stayed alive and looked so healthy upon return. The boys went their separate ways as adults for many reasons and in present day reconnect to help Emilie search for her long lost sister. It is now we travel through the forest into the magical town of Shanandoah. I wanted to live there. We have magical creatures, princesses, princes, knights and a beloved Queen along with many more fantastical characters. There was friendship, love and magic in all of the best ways. I smiled so much throughout this book.

This book was so well written. It is the second book from this author and I have loved both. I really adored this book! This was a 4.5 for me!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this wonderful story.

This is my second Meg Shaffer book and I really enjoyed it, almost as much as The Wishing Game! It definitely feels like a fantasy book where the other felt more realistic. The Lost Story was a wonderful blend of several fairytale, fantasy type books. It always feels like Meg's books are a love story to books and reading. They help remind me why I love reading and how books can transport us. I couldn't wait to see where this story went and if the characters would get their HEA. They did in a way, but I'm hoping for a sequel!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine Books for the advance copy of The Lost Story in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is magical. Best friends Jeremy and Rafe went missing when they were boys. They were gone six months and came back changed. Fifteen years later, they haven’t spoken since their return. Rafe is a reclusive artist and Jeremy is a missing persons investigator. Jeremy’s newest client, Emilie Wendell, is trying to find her sister, who went missing in the same forest as the boys. Rafe and Jeremy have to work together again to reunite Emilie and her sister. The boys will have to face their past, no matter how traumatic. This book is beautiful and ripped my heart out. I loved every second of it. The world they travel to is so delightful. I was hooked from the first page. The love story is endearing. No notes. I adored this journey. I laughed and cried. Perfectly written. There is room for this story to continue but it is wrapped up enough that we don’t have to have a sequel. This does a wonderful job of exploring family relationships and how they affect us. 5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me access to an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publication date July 16th, 2024. This review will be found on Instagram and Goodreads indefinitely.
Instagram book reviews @CandaceOnline

I really enjoyed this story. The author has a way to weave a story that is real yet adds a little bit of "magic".

2 teenage boys go missing for 6 months & when they return, there's no explanation as to where they were, who they were with & how they just reappeared.

Story moves ahead 15 years & Emilie is a young woman who is on a search for a missing sister she has never met & she turns to a man who has way with finding missing people. He happens to be one of teenage boys who went missing 15 years before.

There's 2 parts to this story & I hate to give too much away but one part is current & the other part is also current but in a magical, fairy tale like land.

The book moved along quickly but at times I had to make sure I was totally focused. It wasn't all sweet & sugary nice, but it was a delightful story about people finding themselves, looking for lost love & accepting who they are.

God I love Meg Shaffers books. I didn’t think it was possible but I think I even prefer this to the wishing game (but don’t hold me to that). I have never read anything like this book. So filled with magic and whimsy and humor and fairytales so uniquely told. Highly highly recommend if you like stories with magical realism,wit, heart, humor, queer rep and a story that will make you feel everything.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Rating: ⭐️

When they were teenagers Jeremy and Rafe got lost in the woods and reappeared 6 months later. No one knows what happened to them or where they went but once they return the once inseparable duo go their separate ways.
Years later Jeremy, who now helps find missing people around the world, is approached by Emilie who wants his help finding her sister who went missing in the same forest as Jeremy and Rafe. Soon enough the three of them come together to go back to that forest and maybe even to another world.

Yeah I don’t know what to say about this book, it seems like a lot of people are liking it so take what I say with a grain of salt haha. The first half of this book I enjoyed well enough. While the writing style wasn’t completely working for me, I was intrigued by the story and was excited to get to the more “fantasy” section of the book. However that is the section that things really started to fall apart for me.
Once we hit the half way point it suddenly felt like the pace was all over the place and things were just randomly happening. I also felt like instead of creating a unique fantasy world, the author just threw in every fantasy element you would normally find in a kids fairy tale. Which leads me one of the big things I struggled with. This book is labeled as Adult Fiction but it very much reads as middle grade if you were to just take out some of the adult language and topics. This really took me out of it and for me made the characters feel juvenile. These characters are meant to be late twenties to mid thirties yet sometime feel like they are acting like children.
Overall this book just didn’t work for me but if the plot sounds interesting I still recommend giving it a try yourself, as I said I feel like I’m a bit of an outlier in my opinion of it.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this arc in return for my honest review!

Check out The Lost Story on July 16th!

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of publication! Since the book didn't hit the spot for me, I will not post my review on my blog, review sites (Goodreads, etc), and Instagram until 7/24/24.

Review:

Have you ever wondered what stepping through a doorway and into a magical world would be like? When I was a kid, I used to crawl into my grandmother's very small wardrobe, close the door, and wait, certain that eventually, the back would reveal a magical world for me to explore. Those dreams may have died out as I grew older, but Meg Shaffer's "The Lost Story" takes a similar concept and spins it into a tale of mystery, adventure, and friendship, focusing on three adults who find their way into a magical world.

The story follows best friends Jeremy and Rafe, who disappeared for six months as children in a West Virginia state forest. Mysteriously enough, Rafe has no memory of his time away, and Jeremy claims to have no memory but remembers more than he lets on. Fifteen years later, Jeremy and Rafe aren't on speaking terms. Rafe prefers solitude while Jeremy spends his time assisting with missing persons cases, but when a young woman named Emilie enlists Jeremy's help in finding her missing sister, who vanished in the same forest years earlier, the two will be forced back together to aid Emilie in her cause.

What follows is an unbelievable journey through a magical realm filled with beauty and danger as Jeremy, Rafe, and Emilie uncover the truth behind the disappearances and confront the traumas of their shared past. As they navigate the twists and turns of the enchanted world, they must also confront their inner demons and face the secrets they have buried for so long.

The characters were the best part of the book. They are richly developed, each with individual flaws and strengths that make them feel like real, relatable people. Jeremy's mysterious past and uncanny abilities, Rafe's struggles with his scars and memories, and Emilie's determination and vulnerability all combine to create a dynamic trio you can't help but root for.

I enjoyed the exploration of friendship and the bonds that tie us together. Jeremy and Rafe's deep connection, tempered by years of silence and secrets, adds a layer of complexity to the story that elevates it beyond a simple fantasy adventure. I loved learning about their history and special relationship as all the pieces fell into place. As they come to terms with their past and rediscover the magic they once knew, their journey becomes not just a quest for answers but a journey of self-discovery, healing, and reconnection.

While I really liked the characters, I struggled with the story as a whole. I was fully invested initially, but then I felt like there was a lot of setup, and it took too long to get to Shanandoah. Once the characters got to Shanandoah, it was easy to settle into the world, and I really liked the concept of the villainous "Bright Boys," but the story tried to be too many things and lacked direction. A side quest kicked off the adventure in Shanandoah, but it went by very quickly and didn't have as much of an emotional impact as it could have. After that wrapped up, several more minor things transpired, but again, none were fleshed out enough to have a real impact, nor did they offer the sense of adventure that I had expected. I honestly felt like I was reading the Cliff Notes version of a fantasy series. I also felt the interjections by the "storyteller" between chapters offered little value to the story as a whole and could have been cut.

Overall, this had a great premise, and I really liked the characters; I just wasn't invested in the story. The author had a lot of great ideas, but the execution was lacking in that too many things were crammed into the pages that were only briefly touched on when they should have been fleshed out more. I never felt a sense of adventure. A more focused and detailed approach would have offered a more engaging story.

Enjoyed. It was entertaining and magical and a fun mix of unique and familiar. I did find the tone a little hard to put my finger on though. At times it felt juvenile an cutesy, then it would abruptly shift to serious and rather dark. This didn't feel like a creative decision, but more like an inconsistent vision/execution. The plot was stilted at times and the dialogue didn't flow well for me. Perhaps I'm being a little harsh here, it was overall an enjoyable read, I just feel like it could have been so much better!

Wow. I truly have no idea how I received this ARC, and I feel incredibly grateful! My only thought is maybe sharing a last name with a main character helped a little? :)

If you are a lover of The Chronicles of Narnia, you have found your next great read! As children, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell go missing in a West Virginia state forest, mysteriously reappearing six months later with no explanation for where they had been or how they survived. Fifteen years later, Jeremy has become a famous missing person investigator. Enter Emilie Wendell, who is determined to find her sister who vanished in the same forest as Jeremy and Rafe.

I have not read the authors first novel, The Wishing Game (even though it is on my ever growing TBR). Other readers are saying reading The Wishing Game first set up some unmet expectations, so I am glad I went in "blind". This book made me feel like fairy tales are real again without seeming like a childrens book, a hard balance to strike.

The LGBTQ love story was unexpected and so lovely.

My fave quote from the book: "Scared is a feeling, not an excuse".

Wish I could give half stars, 4.5 stars from me!

As teenagers, Jeremy and Rafe were best friends who told each other everything.. until they got lost in the woods and mysteriously found 6 months later. On their return, Jeremy moved away with his family, while Rafe stayed in the same town and hated how infamous he had become as one of the former “lost boys”. 

15 years later Jeremy has become famous for finding lost girls, while Rafe has secluded himself in a cabin in the woods. They only speak again after Emilie approaches Jeremy for help finding her sister, who was lost in the same woods as he had been. Emilie and Jeremy need Rafe’s help to find her.

I loved this story and finished it in a day. You could see the worlds being built and imagine the pain the characters felt. There is enough action and twists in the story that really moved it along quickly.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and fell in love with the characters created.

4⭐️

I love Meg Schaffer's writing style so much. She does an amazing job writing flawed but loveable characters. She knows also how to pull on the heart strings in the most beautiful of ways.

This story follows three main characters. There is Jeremy and Rafe that went missing for 6 months as teens to mysteriously show up in the woods that they went missing in. Then 15 a years Jeremy and Rafe are no longer friends. Rafe doesn't remember any of their time missing and Jeremy won't tell him anything. Then enters Emelie and their story starts there.

I really enjoyed character interactions. They were sweet and funny at times. The first half was an easy engaging read. I did find however the middle dragged some and I some of my interest in the story.

I will continue to read anything Meg Shaffer writes. The Wishing Game continues to be one of my favorite books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.