This started off really strong. It even had an “eerie thriller” vibe during the first few chapters they reeled me in. But somewhere in the middle I got a little lost. There’s many Narnia references and a profound love for Stevie Nicks. I felt like a lot of the plot was all squished together on the last 60% of the book. I didn’t fully connect with the story.I felt like there was something missing with Emilie and Skya. Maybe there will be more back story in a possible 2nd book? We’ll see.

I really liked The Wishing Game, but this one was a little underwhelming. I was entertained throughout some parts, but unfortunately I did not love it.

There’s mention of childhood trauma, neglect, grief, child abuse. Loved the queer representation.

Thank you Random House, Ballantine and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! I really enjoyed this book!
A interesting story about two men , Jeremy and Rafe, who disappeared for about six months when they were teenagers. They have been estranged since their return.
Jeremy now finds people who are lost and Rafe has become a recluse. A young woman, Emilie, is searching for her missing sister and asks for Jeremy’s help. They set off an adventure to find Emilie’s sister.
I’m a big fantasy reader so this book was right up my alley. I enjoyed the characters’ backstories and the world development. I would really enjoy reading more about these characters. All in all, a good read and I would definitely recommend it. Happy reading!

5/5
Absolutely well done story. Great for anybody who loved the Chronicles of Narnia series. A story of lost loves and found families and about people who lived in Narnia and had to leave.

This was inspired by C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. There were quirky, magical vibes that I enjoyed reading. I will say that overall, I didn't love the four main characters and their relationships to each other. I thought the book was trying to cram in so much in not enough time, despite it being well over 300 pages. I found myself bored at points and not in a rush to pick it back up after putting it down.

I enjoyed The Wishing Game and was expecting something similar - but thought this style was just much, much different. I never really connected with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When this book started off with the ambitious idea as essentially a homage to beloved Fairy Tales, I initially enjoyed it. The characters seemed witty and interesting and while trying to replicate a Narnia type of setting, the author made her own choices. That was fine until it became clear two of the main characters were fourteen year old boys in an intimate relationship in their other world. This is a not what fairy tales for young folks nor adults should be made of in my opinion. Even though the story mostly takes place when Rafe and Jeremy are fifteen years older, it is clear that once back in the magical realm that they had that kind of relationship. So as much as I enjoyed this author's first book and her writing style, I cannot recommend this story.

Jeremy and Rafe are the best of friends of mysteriously disappear one day in the forest near their home. 6 months later they miraculously show up again. Jeremey k led the truth while Rafe can’t remember anything. After being left in the dark about what happened, Rafe no longer speaks to Jeremy. That is until years later Jeremy seeks the help of Rafe to find another missing person. Emilie, asks Jeremy to help find her sister who also disappeared in the same woods the boys had all those years ago. It seems they all have no choice but to search for Emilie’s sister and now Rafe along with the rest of the world can discover the truth.
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I loved The Wishing Game by this author last year. I was looking forward to reading her latest installment. Even more so when I heard it was inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia. Sadly this one was a miss for me. I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters. I felt parts were really slow, and other parts of the story felt disjointed. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one as much as her debut.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books/Random House for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this story.

I absolutely loved Meg Shaffer’s debut novel, The Wishing Game, so when I saw that she had another novel coming out, I couldn’t wait to read it. I am happy to say that I loved this tale just as much!

Meg Shaffer has a talent for weaving an engrossing and beautiful tale. I love the magic that is incorporated into this story. It’s very unique from other books I have read, but is somehow nostalgic in that it feels like a book I read in my childhood. (It doesn’t feel childish though.) The characters are funny and interesting—I often found myself smiling or laughing as I read. There are vivid descriptions of the magical land that made it easy to imagine.

Be prepared to fall in love with this story (and don’t pass on reading The Wishing Game wither). I will be keeping my eyes open for Shaffer’s future work, as she’s quickly becoming a new favorite author.

I was so excited to read this book after reading Meg’s last book The Wishing Game. This was so magical, enchanting and wonderful. Meg Shaffer does such a wonderful job giving vivid descriptions which really allowed me to feel like I was in Shenandoah. I became so invested with the characters in this story. I adored the friendships that were made and the humor of their personalities all together. I found myself on multiple occasions up late reading this book not being able to put it down. I look forward to reading Meg Schaffer's next magical adventure.

BEAUTIFUL prose, heart wrenching story, and so well-developed characters. I really loved this!

Thank you so much for my e-ARC!

I loved this book, a whimsical, magical and adventurous read - 4.5 stars!

Having read and loved The Wishing Game, by Meg Shaffer, I was very excited to dive into her newest book inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. The Lost Story is a fairy tale for grown-ups, a wonderful escape into the magical world of Shanandoah. It is about the beauty of childhood imaginations, the magic of far off lands, and relationships lost and found.

The main characters are Jeremy Cox, a privileged English boy, and Ralph ("Rafe) Howell, an artistic boy from the other side of the tracks. After a traumatizing event, they disappear in Red Crow State Park for six months, presumed dead. Then they mysteriously return, physically stronger, well-fed, and older, with no explanations. Upon their return, they lose touch, both struggling emotionally, especially Rafe who is suffering from PTSD and chooses to live in seclusion while Jeremy moves to England with his grandmother.

These long lost friends are brought back together when a lonely young woman named Emilie reaches out to Jeremy to help find her recently discovered sister who has been missing in Red Crow State Park for 20 years. The three find their way to the magical realm of Shanandoah, which is filled with mystical creatures as well as dangerous ones. What follows is an adventure fit for the most vivid childhood dreams. There is love, conflict, found family, friendship and forgiveness. It is a lovely read!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

As a huge fan of Meg’s book The Wishing Game, I could not wait to plunge into her latest novel. This whimsical adult fairy tale aims to refresh the imaginations of all of us who immersed ourselves as kids in the Chronicles of Narnia. It even starts with a quote from C.S. Lewis,”Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

It’s a weird mix up of 1) teens Jeremy and Rafe disappearing in the local West Virginia woods which leaves their parents and all adults in the community fearing the worst possible scenarios and forming urgent search parties until all hope has been lost and 2) the kids actually entering into a secret magical Eden with consuming adventures, the very best of friendships, and the very best of times.

This dichotomy of the seriousness of children disappearing, feared to have been kidnapped, molested, or killed sits uneasily juxtaposed to the cheerful whimsical world in which the children assume roles as royalty or knights, vanquish clearly evil enemies, play with magical animals, and luxuriate in a fabulous Medieval palace. For further contrast, a new threat has entered a section of the realm called Ghost Town- not the so-called Bright Boys who are up to no good and can be easily vanquished, but the true Ghost of Rafe’s dead abusive dad. Here, the whimsical and truly abusive starkly mash-up.

But then again, Shaffer is making the point that isn’t that true of all great fairy tales we inhaled as children where underlying the magical tale are deep threats, scarcely veiled evils and survival lessons to be learned?

Enhancing this is the truly hilarious Storyteller, who with a wink and a nudge in amusing asides, keeps showing us the fabric from which all fairy tales get woven.

Bravo for this ambitious and hugely imaginative undertaking. Next book, PLEASE!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Ballentine Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

This story was hard for me to get into. It took me several tries. While I liked the fantasy elements of this book, the rest of the story fell kind of flat for me. Check the trigger warnings for this book, because there are several, before you read this. All of this being said, I did find the ending of the story to bring me a few tears, it was bittersweet and happy at the same time.

This is my personal opinion of the novel. Thanks Net Galley for providing an advance copy. I struggled reading this book’s story’s plot. I was captivated reading the author’s earlier novel, “The Wishing Game” and so was hoping the next book would be as joyful a read. My favorite parts of “The Lost Story” were the Storyteller sections through the book. The storyteller was only voice that I connected with and helped unwind my confusion with the fairy tale story. I learned that I am not the best audience for fairy tales, although I completely loved reading the whole Harry Potter series. Also, since I am not a Narnia or CS Lewis fan, I was not familiar as needed to follow and fully appreciate this story. I hope the next book is more like “The Wishing Game” than this book. Found the dialogue corny in this book but found The Lost Story dialogue very funny.

The start of this book was incredibly strong. The initial characterizations were intriguing and subtle and the mystery was a great hook. However, as the book progressed, I found myself really struggling with writing style. All subtlety seemed to go out the door and the character dialogue seemed to be either surface level and cringey or the relationships jumped to points that felt very undeserved given the amount of time we’d spent with the characters and that the characters had spent with each other.

Overall, that was my biggest challenge with the entire plot. The decisions and actions of the characters felt unjustified. Because I didn’t feel like I understood or bought into anything the characters were doing, I really struggled to get into the story and enjoy it.

I also wasn’t a fan of the interspersed narrative where the ‘author’ spoke directly to the reader. It felt unnecessary and took me out of the story. I understand why it’s there, ‘The Lost Story’, but I wasn’t a fan of how it was executed and think it could have been carried out with much more subtlety and nuance that would have added more mystery and weight to the story as a whole.

Overall, I think this novel will be a fun, easy read for some readers. For me, the story concept and characters had so much potential, but the book just didn’t deliver.

After reading and loving The Wishing Game, I was incredibly excited to see The Lost Story coming out. After wishing that more of the magic in her last book was real, the synopsis of this novel had me hooked and raring to get my hands on it. Chronicles of Narnia style fantasy? Count me in. I was ready for an adventure, and an adventure was delivered.
While the premise of the novel sung, and many of the elements, including memorable characters to root for, did as well, there were a few things that kept it from being everything I dreamed it would. The first, and major issue for my reading tastes was the pacing of the novel - it seemed like it took forever for the novel to get going, and when it finally did, there was not nearly enough words left in the story to cover everything I expected or looked for. The Narnia-style world promised took a long time to appear, and felt emptier than I wanted it to when it finally did - a factor that may have come from the limited time spent inside it, or from the way the characters lost some of their realness to me inside it.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to love here - if you ever spent time as a child using your imagination to escape the real world, you'll find some kindred spirits here. Rafe is a character that will live in my head for a long time, and the emotional core of the story, linked so heavily to him, delivers in many satisfying ways. This book will find its readers, even if it wasn't perfect for me!

review to be posted on Instagram @madthoreads (https://www.instagram.com/madthoreads/) on July 2nd, 2024

This book hooked me from the back cover which mentioned it took inspiration from Chronicles of Narnia. I loved those books as a kid! This one was very true to the themes of Narnia - with perhaps a more modern twist of romance. The characters were well developed, endearing, and had realistic flaws. I really enjoyed the allusions to Narnia, and the ability of the author to weave back in details she had mentioned earlier.

Content Warnings: Child Abuse

Thanks to #NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing an advanced copy of #TheLostStory! These opinions are my own

Meg Shaffer does it again! This is a moving story of 4 Appalachians impacted by loss, abuse, and alcohol addiction. It's also a story of a magical land where all things seem possible. It's a story of sibling love and romantic love. I really enjoy the way Meg Shaffer tells stories, especially the way I feel warm, hopeful, and comforted by the time it ends. This is a beautiful story.

Posted to GoodReads

This is such a love letter to people who love stories and fairy tales, especially as adults. The description of this book says it was inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia, and there are so many lovely nods to that series. If you still dream of getting your Hogwarts letter or discovering a whole world in the back of a wardrobe, you'll love this book.

I really enjoyed the mythical, whimsical vibes of The Wishing Game, and Shaffer brings that back with this book. It's basically about the healing power of stories, as two young men who get lost in a fantasy world grow up to find their way back to that world and deal with the things they were trying to escape from in the first place. It's like if you rolled Hook, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Starless Sea into one.

Meg Shaffer is 2-for-2 in writing books that I can picture vividly in my mind and would absolutely love to see come to life on screen.

Jeremy and Rafe were two teenaged boys when they went missing in a West Virginia forest only to return six months later with no explanation of how they survived. 15 years later, they haven’t spoken since their return. Jeremy has a special skill that allows him to find missing women and girls that leads Emilie to his doorstep. She’s looking for a sister she never knew she had, long missing from the same forest Jeremy and Rafe had once disappeared in. So sets off a tale of a magic and mystique, long held secrets being revealed, and escape into a world of fairy tales.

Meg Shaffer has an incredible imagination that creates worlds full of wonder and intrigue while upholding the reality of flawed characters and all the challenges that life can throw at a person. This story is as tender of a love story, both romantic and found familial love, as it is a whimsical fantasy, but its characters also have to face their fair share of darkness to find their way to the light. It examines loyalties, atrocities, different forms of bravery, and the importance books and stories can hold when the world gets to be too much to face sometimes.

The character dynamics are as nuanced and intricate as the fantasy in how they are crafted. Each character has their own past, present, and potential future, and they’re so well established without overdoing the detail or exposition on any of it. There is also so much witty banter and genuine connection between them to believe in the strength of their bonds forming quickly and withstanding anything thrown at them.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read this one. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had such high hopes for this book after completely falling in love with the authors debut novel, The Wishing Game, which was such a whimsical and refreshing read. Her second book, The Lost Story, was definitely a full fledge fantasy novel inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia.

I finished this book a bit disappointed. The storyline and characters felt a bit juvenile and the overall vibe of the book felt like it was written for a young audience. Overall, it wasn’t a book for me but I can see others really enjoying it.

Thank you, Net Gallery, for an advanced reader copy of this book!