Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of ” The Lost Story” in exchange for my honest opinion. I wasn’t sure if this was the book for me considering it is fantasy and that is not what I normally read. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got into the story. I shouldn’t have been surprised since I enjoyed her other novel, “The Wishing Game”, which was a five star read for me. This book brings you in quickly with good character, development, suspense, and setting. By the time the fantasy part became the main plot. I was already invested in the characters. Overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to other readers. As the author states, “All books are magic…..Loving or hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest there is.”

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a gorgeous fairy tale for adults. Two boys, lost in the woods for six months, turn out not to have been lost at all, but to have slipped through a magical, Narnia-like opening into another world inhabited by magic trees, unicorns, Valkyrie warriors, and ghostly demons.

The book starts with the boys returning to their own world, in the West Virginia forest. The story of their "real lives" is actually quite interesting, but things get weird and wonderful when circumstances compel them to return to the magical world of Shanandoah.

This reminded me of The House in The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, and of course of the C.S. Lewis Narnia stories.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I featured this book in a new release video prior to publication and was very excited to read a Narnia retelling! I adore a portal fantasy, and to have this one also so set in real life is wonderful. I love the mystery aspect to this story as well. Will update when final review posts, but I'm expecting 5 stars!

I loved this fairy tale with a gay romance. It surprised me. I recommend this book for anyone who likes fantasy or adventure. I hope to see more from this delightful author.

I had such high hopes for this book. The Wishing Game was one of my top books of 2023, so I couldn't wait to read this one. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The premise sounds great-Rafe and Jeremy went missing for 6 months when they were teenagers with no explanation of where they'd been. Now, 15 years later, Jeremy has been hired by Emilie to find out what happened to her half-sister, who went missing in the same area Jeremy and Rafe did many years ago. This story held so much promise but it just didn't work for me. It took too long to get to the heart of the story and was very predictable. To be honest, I skimmed the last 1/3 of the book because I just wanted to be finished.

This was a like and not a love for me, which is disappointing because I really enjoyed Wishing Game! It didn’t bother me that it felt like two different books - the transition from the first to second half moved smoothly enough. What did bother me was that the back half felt almost YA?? And then there were some dirty jokes to balance it out, like see this book is for adults, heh heh! It didn’t work for me. The book was extremely formulaic to the point that it felt like certain things were included because they were supposed to be, rather than because they belonged. I didn't feel swept up in the magic the way I wanted to. It was close! But just far enough that it felt discordant rather than harmonious. Ahhh I’m disappointed. Also, Rafe and Jeremy weren’t different enough for me to easily keep track of them. I kept switching them in my mind and every time one of them would say or do something I would have to think so hard to determine which one they were that eventually I just gave up. Emilie was quite a stand out, her personality was really unique so that was something positive.

2.5 rounded up because it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me.

Cute. I’d read the sequel if one is written. 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

There was a lot to love about this modern take on fairy tales. I loved the blending of fantasy and magical realism, and I thought the queer representation worked perfectly here. There's also a lot of sensitivity surrounding trauma and domestic abuse, which is woven into the story pretty seamlessly. However, there was something missing from this book that kept me from rating it 5 stars, and I'm not even entirely clear what it was. Perhaps it was the fact that the dialogue didn't always work in some places, and although that's a minor thing, I think it might have prevented me from becoming completely entrenched in the story. Overall, I do think Shaffer is a talented writer, and I'm excited to read "Wishing Game" now.

This book was so good. I loved “The Wishing Game”, so I was really looking forward to this. It’s Chronicles of Narnia with a pet rat, found family (in more ways than one), and a love story. I didn’t want it to end. I could’ve read another 500 pages of this story.

This book was so good. I loved “The Wishing Game”, so I was really looking forward to this. It’s Chronicles of Narnia with a pet rat, found family (in more ways than one), and a love story. I didn’t want it to end. I could’ve read another 500 pages of this story.

I loved Meg Shaffer's first book, The Wishing Game, and was eager to read her second. And in this latest book, Shaffer's ability to write whimsical tales filled with heart and lovable characters continues to shine. Though The Lost Story begins slowly and it took me a bit to get into the story, it is a wonderful story inspired by Narnia. I enjoyed the fresh take on the tale and how I didn't know exactly how the book would end. I would recommend this to those interested in a story filled with adventure, found family vibes, and heart.

This was definitely interesting. The story didn’t go where I thought it was going to with them going back into the fantasy world but I liked the reminiscence to Narnia . There didn’t seem to be as much of a connection between the sisters even when they found her. This wasn’t as good to me as The Wishing Game but I think it was still a good fantasy read.

Thank you netgalley for the arc of lost story in exchange for my honest review. Jeremy and Ralph go missing in the woods and no one can find them. Eventually they come back but mysteriously they dont look starved and they have both grown. Ralph cant remember a thing and Jeremy is left with the gift of finding missing people. He then helps people find their missing family members. The story from there gets magical and unbelievable with unicorns and lost boys. Three stars

This is an interesting Chronicles of Narnia-esc story, with a door to a fantasy world hidden within a large tree in the Red Crow State Forest within West Virginia.

Emilie Wendell sequesters the help of Jeremy Cox a famous missing persons investigator and Ralph(Rafe) Howell to search the Red Crow State Forest for the remains of her sister who was kidnapped 20 years prior. Jeremy and Rafe themselves went missing around age 15 in Red Crow State Forest 5 years after Emilie's sister, and were found after six months in the same forest as healthy and fit (if not more so) than when they went missing.

It's a compelling story, and overall well written, though there were a few things that bothered me. First, after every chapter or two there would be a brief chapter maybe a paragraph in length called "Storyteller Corner" where the author would speak directly to the reader about things that just happened or were about to happen. At first I found Storyteller Corner strange and unwelcome breaking my immersion to provide commentary I felt was unnecessary, I quickly grew used to it and didn't mind it much. As the story progressed and things got interesting I found myself irritated as storyteller corner continued popping up with exposition I didn't want or need when I just wanted to continue on with the story.

The second issue I had (some decent spoilers here so if you don't want those skip to the next paragraph), it turns out the entire story was written and forgotten about by Emilie's sister Shannon before she went missing. Shannon's story didn't come to life plucking her out of her world because she was special or some fey creature took an interest and decided to make her fantasies a reality, but because of a certain apparently magical pencil she had written it with. It's just weird and in my opinion doesn't read very well.

Overall it's not a bad book, an easy read with a sort of redeeming action taken by the antagonist near the end. If you enjoy expeditions into other worlds, things like The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, etcetera, you will likely enjoy this book or at least a chunk of it.

Thank you for the gifted copy of this book.

I didn't think I would like this one as much as The Wishing Game, but I think I might have liked it even more!! I was hooked from. the first page, and I'm still thinking about this book a week after finishing it.,

I absolutely loved the three main characters and how their stories were divulged and intertwined more and more as I read. Yes, you have to really step outside of reality but that's the whole point of fantasy/magical realism, isn't it?

The more I read, the more I fell in love with Emilie, Jeremy, and Rafe, and the whole world of Shenandoah. I can't imagine how hard it was for Jeremy to keep everything from Rafe over the years, and for Rafe to know something was missing but not what. I love how it all played out in the end, and the last couple of chapters had me speed reading to find out how everything turns out.

So well done - and now I'll be anxiously awaiting her next book!

I was so excited for this one. Right away, after just a few chapters, I knew this was the type of story I'd have to read out loud. Every now and then they come along, books that it's not enough to just read or listen to. I need to be surrounded by the book, hearing and reading and saying each word.

I loved the voice, and the way that story was told. I was disappointed in the world building though. There was so much potential, and mentions here and there, but we got to see and experience so little of it.

There was a big conflict that resolved surprisingly early, and I felt like this could have been drawn out more. Ultimately, I enjoyed this, but I wanted so much more from it.

I love Meg Shaffer and anything she writes. Anyone who loved The Chronicles of Narnia will love this book and the chance to feel like a kid reading a fairytale again. Highly recommend!

I wanted to like this book but unfortunately this one fell flat for me. The premise sounded excellent, but the execution just wasn't there. I felt like I couldn't get to know the characters as well as I wanted to and that this story needed a few more chapters to come together. Meg Shaffer shows a lot of promise as an author, but just needs a little bit more to end up with some true masterpieces.

The Lost Story is a tale of 2 boys that go missing in the Red Crow Forest and stumble upon another world. I enjoyed the stories of Jeremy, Rafe, Emilie, and Skya. I didn’t love how fairytale Shanandoah was. It had me feeling like this was a children’s book not an adult novel. Overall I would recommend this book.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a little dose of comfort in a book. It was a sweet, heart whelming story of fantasy and self discovery and I really, really enjoyed it. The description describes it as being inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia which I can definitely see what with the magical door to another world and how the characters truly find themselves on the other side.

I thought the cast of characters were very interesting and well fleshed out. I liked the descriptions of the other world and the fantastical elements. I liked how it was a story within a story and played off of the tropes in a way that made things a little funny sometimes. But in the end I'd just really say the story was cozy.

I would suggest this book to people who enjoy light and cozy fantasy books or things like The House in the Cerulean Sea.