Many thanks to NetGalley for an arc of The Lost Story and even more thanks to Shaffer for pulling me out of a reading slump! This one hooked me in quickly with its intriguing opening.

A sweet love story mixed in with magic and throw backs to my youth and Narnia days. I foresee this one doing well. The Lost Story is planned to drop to the public on 7/16/24. Definitely recommended!

I LOVED The Wishing Game, and was so excited to see a new title from Meg Shaffer - and with Narnia vibes?!

The Lost Story follows a missing persons investigator, who was lost himself as a boy, as he teams up with a young woman whose sister went missing years earlier. Their journey takes them from the forests of West Virginia to a separate realm of magical creatures and abilities - and more than a few surprises along the way.

This one is a bit more of a true fantasy rather than the magical realism of The Wishing Game, so do with that what you will. I also felt it was a little more…methodical, maybe? Formulaic?…than Shaffer’s debut. It just felt a bit more “they went here, did this, then there, did that“ - but the heart piece of her style was still there, and there were similar themes of found family, loyalty, escapism, and belonging.

I definitely enjoyed, and would recommend to others - especially those a little more fantasy-inclined than myself!

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book - fifteen years ago, two teenaged boys went missing in a state forest in West Virginia, only to randomly reappear six months later looking suspiciously healthy for two boys who were lost in the woods. Rafe Howell has no memory of their time away and has had significant mental health challenges in the time since they were missing. Jeremy Cox does remember but isn't allowed to tell anyone about the experience - especially Rafe. He also came out of those woods with an unusual talent for finding missing things and missing people. His notoriety draws the interest of Emilie Wendell, who wants him to find the sister that she only recently learned that she has, who went missing in that same state forest before Rafe and Jeremy did. The three of them go on a quest into the woods and end up in a magical world called Shannandoah, inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia and led by a queen who turns out to be Emilie's sister. In addition to their reunion, we also get to explore the relationship between Rafe and Jeremy, who had a romance in the magical world, which Rafe completely forgot. He slowly recovers his memories and starts to work through some of his past trauma. I really enjoyed this, and was impressed by Shaffer's ability to blend realism and fantasy in a way that felt pretty seamless to me. Content warnings for past violence against children (described on page), homophobia, and fantasy violence.

A book inspired by Chronicles of Narnia? Yes please! The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer follows Jeremy and Rafe. Two teenage boys who go missing for 6 months. We forward 15 years and see they’re at very different places in their lives. This was a very whimsical story full of magic, love and fairytale vibes. If you loved The Wishing Game by this author, you’ll love this one!

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy!

I chose to read The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer because it was promoted as being inspired by C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Given this comparison, I expected a similar style of creative writing with Christian themes. However, I found the book quite different and was disappointed by this mismatch.

Firstly, the comparison to C.S. Lewis feels misleading. Unlike Lewis's work, which is known for its rich narrative and deeper philosophical and theological undertones, The Lost Story contains lewd jokes and lacks the same level of literary quality. The writing did not meet the standards set by Shaffer's previous book, The Wishing Game, which I enjoyed.

The book seemed to target a young adult audience and is heavily dialogue-driven, making it difficult at times to follow who is speaking. The plot does not introduce the other world until about halfway through, which felt like a delayed entry into what should have been a central element of the story. The character Emilie joins the adventure abruptly, without sufficient development or background, and then fades in and out of the narrative.

Furthermore, the "Storyteller Corner" chapters, which appeared throughout the book, initially seemed whimsical but quickly became repetitive and felt like a shortcut for conveying important information, rather than integrating it naturally into the story.

In summary, if you're expecting a work similar to C.S. Lewis's style, you might find this book quite different. The Lost Story includes LGBTQ+ themes and offers its own unique approach, which may appeal to those looking for a fresh take on fantasy and inclusion. However, it does not capture the essence or quality of Lewis's beloved classics, and this comparison sets up unrealistic expectations that the book does not fulfill.

For fans of The Wishing Game, this magical book is for you! Right away you are swept into a world of imagination and one you never want to leave! I highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

A great read that pulls on your heart strings.

Two boys, Jeremy and Rafe, get lost in a West Virginia forest for six months to suddenly reappear one day with no explantation. Years later,
Emilie goes to Jeremy to help find her long lost sister who disappeared five years before him and rafe in the same forest. Off on a chronicles of narnia styled adventure they must discover what they have lost and what is still left to find.

As a girl who has always wanted to find myself in a fairytale world this was a 4.5 star read for me! Meg Shaffer has this wonderfully magical ability to just rip your heart out in such a beautiful way. It was a bit predictable but still very enjoyable.
If you enjoyed her other book, the wishing game, or grew up climbing into closets looking for hidden worlds this is right up your alley.

I'll be thinking about this book for a long time, finding the threads that bind it to CS Lewis's The Silver Chair, and considering the magical moments that sent goosebumps trailing up my arms.

This story is so full of sadness, and yet the sparks of joy and belonging keep it from feeling overly heavy.

The idea of a story being breathed I to life is always pure magic.

I feel like I could leave a list of trigger warnings a mile long: Far too many references to teenage sex, abduction, mild violence, child abuse, where a child is mistreated for being LGBTQIA. There were a lot of disturbing elements, and this book is definitely geared to adults.

I received an ARC from Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

“All books are magic. An object that can take you to another world without even leaving your room? A story written by a stranger and yet it seems they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.”

15 years ago Jeremy and Rafe were lost, and eventually found. They were never ever to explain how they survived, or where they were, but they seemed well taken care of. Now the two don’t speak. Safe has become a recluse while Jeremy is known for finding missing people. When Emilie finds Jeremy and asks him to help her find her sister, he knows he will need Rafe for this one…

After adoring The Wishing Game, I was beyond excited to dive into The Lost Story! Happy to report that Meg Shaffer did not let me down! The story started a bit slower, but quickly picked up to the point where I could not stop reading! I love books with the just the right amount of magical realism, and this one hit the nail on the head! I loved the back stories of all the characters…well, as much as you could love some of the bad stuff that had happened to them, but each of them were so well done that I just wanted to live the story with them. This book has so much love in it. It’s about friendships, love, grief, family, trauma, and so, so much more, but you will walk away with a smile on your face!

I will dive headfirst into any world that Meg Shaffer creates. I grew up reading and rereading The Chronicles of Narnia. The idea of a secret, magical world has been a piece of my heart my whole life. The Lost Story felt like coming home.
Jeremy, Rafe, and Emilie's stories captured my heart and made me feel like a child again. Thank you Netgalley, Meg Shaffer, and the publisher for this ARC. The Lost Story comes out July 16th, but while you're waiting, go read The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer.

4 1/2 stars
Two boys go missing in the West Virginia forest only to reappear unharmed months later. Years go by and the boys are men. One is a struggling artist and the other finds missing girls and together they will help a woman find the sister who went missing in the same area as a child. A dark thriller with a monster hiding in the woods? NO! Instead this is a magical ode to all the cherished childhood classics a secret land where a gentle knight saves the princess while secretly being in love with the prince and where a benevolent queen happily rules a land where adults don't belong. Once again, Meg Shaffer brings us back to our favorite childhood hideaways - Narnia, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, Dorothy and her little dog finding their way in OZ. She cleverly uses whimsey and a bit of fairy dust to shake off the adult and bring out the hopeful child. This is the perfect book to find a hammock or treehouse and get lost in. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sweet and earnest story, the characters are interesting and compelling. While it could be a bit cheesy/cringy at times, the story and characters more than made up for it. If you read the Raven Cycle and Summer Sons, I am sure you would like this story.

This book was... This book was cake, but it maybe should have been a meal? It was lovely, well-crafted, and appealing, but, by the midpoint, the reader is pretty sure all the wishes will be fulfilled. And on the one hand, I wanted them to! The characters are multidimensional and likable, and I wanted good things to happen to them. And I enjoyed not feeling like I needed to brace myself against the inevitable tragedy, but the stakes could have been a smidge higher. Everything turned out so perfectly that there were no hooks left for the story to get stuck in my brain. The trick to a good portal fantasy is creating a world the reader can continually return to in their own imagination. Shanandoah doesn't quite get there.

For my personal taste, the story also suffered for being a children's tale masquerading as one for adults. Or, maybe wanting to be a book for adults that captures the remembered feelings of the stories that enchanted you as a child. At that, it succeeds masterfully, actually. But I was hoping to be transported in a story that would bear the weight of who I am now. Nothing happens that explores the depth and nuance of adult consciousness, but instead settles for redemption on a silver platter. I also completely bounced off the 'Storyteller Corner' interludes, but that is purely a matter of opinion over a style choice.

Overall, my feelings are extremely mixed, leaning toward positive.

Nobody does nostalgic reads like Shaffer! I absolutely loved how The Wishing Game made me feel like a kid again and The Lost Story didn’t disappoint! This took me back to being a kid and reading Narnia!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for my review!

The Lost Story is a fantastical, whimsical story about getting lost then found again. Reading this felt like being in a fairytale. I felt like I was falling down the hole in the tree and into Shanandoah with Emilee, Rafe and Jeremy.

Giving this thriller meets realistic fantasy a 4.5 out of 5. Thank you Ballantine Books for inviting me to read this story and NetGalley for the ARC.

At first, The Lost Story would not be the first book I grab off the shelf and while reading it I feared I would be proved correct. But boy was I wrong. The first half of the story reads like a mystery/thriller, where Jeremy, an infamous lost boy in Kentucky, finds lost persons across the globe. However, about halfway through the CS Lewis style fantasy and whimsey comes into play and I was here for every second of it. Calling the romance subplot "romance" feels like a misnomer because the pining between the two is so bittersweet (I won't spoil more).

My only critique is that the ending felt a bit abrupt. I'm not unhappy with how it ended, and in a lot of ways found it satisfying from character development point of view, but I feel like it could have been expanded on a bit.

Overall loved this book and can't wait to recommend it!

4.5 - I truly loved this book! Inspired by C.S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Naria, this adult fairytale was so encapsulating that I forgot about reality. The story was whimsical, unique, and filled with magic and mystery.

Fifteen years ago Jeremy and Rafe go missing in the forest of West Virginia only to reappear six months later better off than when they disappeared. Since their reappearance, Rafe has stuck to being a recluse and Jeremy has taken on a career of finding missing people. Longing to find her sister who went missing twenty years ago, Emilie tracks down Jeremy to help. The only problem is, Jeremy must convince Rafe to help find Emilie’s sister seeing as she went missing in the same forest they did all those years ago. From there, we go on a journey through the forest and into a magical world where the lost are found.

I could not put this book down! Meg Shaffer is now an auto-buy author for me and I couldn’t be happier to support a local author!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review!

I wanna take a moment to think NetGalley as well as the publishers for providing me with a copy of this book and exchange for an honest review.

If you like books that have mystery to them as well as some magic then I would definitely recommend picking up this book. I really like the difference between the two characters as well as how they coped with how things happened in their past that they could not explain. So if you are looking for a book with mystery and suspense that I definitely think you should pick this one up.

3.5 stars! I really wanted to love this more. This was a creative premise, but an ambitious story to tell in 352 pages, which resulted in parts of the plot feeling rushed, characters remaining underdeveloped, and the overall world-building simply lacking at times. As with Meg’s previous novel, The Wishing Game, there were themes of abandonment and trauma stemming from abusive parents, with the trauma lasting into adulthood. I found the characters themselves to be somewhat juvenile and naive for being in their early 30s.

Aside from those critiques, what I loved and was most invested in, was the relationship between Rafe and Jeremy. I hope that Meg one day writes a romance novel, as this is where I think her strength as a writer shines. Although this isn’t a YA novel, I can see this story resonating with youth who are questioning themselves and their sexuality. Lastly, I'm not sure why, but the person I pictured as Jeremy in my head the entire book was Jacob Elordi... I wasn't mad at it!

“And fairy tales also begin with, “Once upon a time . . .” and end with “They all lived happily ever after.” And of course, fairy tales are fiction. Always. Well, except for this one.”

If you liked The Wishing Game or you are a fan of Narnia, Bridge to Terabithia, you will love this book.

This book is full of whimsical happenings, deep relationship struggles, and enough mystery to keep you guessing.

I particularly loved the role of the storyteller in this story. Their viewpoint encouraged readers never to get too comfortable with what they are being told, that there is always something more than what they are being told.

This book is sweet, sorrowful, and so easy to fall in love with.

I highly recommend this book.