Pardon me, I just finished this book 5 minutes ago and I'm still drying my eyes.
Meg Shaffer is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine, I love how she writes books for people who loves books. She writes books that remind you of the magic of books.
The Lost Story is about 2 boys who find a fairy tale world and then have to come back. The Lost Story is about a girl looking for her missing sister. The Lost Story is about where you go when you're lost.
This was a beautiful story and I loved it.

Go read this book. And if you haven't read The Wishing Game, go read that book!

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine books for an early copy for review.

SIX STARS! The Lost Story is a beautifully written fairytale about friendship, lost love, reunions and forgiveness! I ate up every word.

A fantastical fairy tale about two boys who were lost in a West Virginia forest for 6 months as teenagers. The story meets them 15 years later when they return to not just any old forest, but a portal to another world.

Meg Shaffer’s writing is such a delight. Her story was detailed without being verbose. I could taste the Golden Apples and hear the mermaids whisper. I want to catch falling stars and watch the sunrise over the Blue River. If there will be additional books in this series, I will absolutely read them. And if there won’t be, I will happily imagine the fairy tales Skya will write with her unicorn-erasered pencil.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Meg Shaffer for the ARC of The Lost Story.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is an enchanting journey into an adult fairytale realm that gripped me from the very beginning. Shaffer's fabulous writing weaves a beautiful narrative, bringing artfully crafted & lovable characters to life. The love story, the concept of found family, & the magical setting of Shenandoah make this book an absolute gem – a perfect escape into a world of wonder.

For fans of The Wishing Game, The Lost Story is a MUST read, showcasing Meg Shaffer's storytelling prowess once again. Highly recommended to anyone seeking a magical getaway within the pages of a book.

I extend my heartfelt thanks to #NetGalley, #TheLostStory, and @meg_shaffer for the captivating ARC experience. These opinions are voluntary and entirely my own.

I will post to other social media sites closer to the publication date 7/16/24.

A pair of best friends disappear in a state forest in West Virginia for several months when they are young teens, emerging unscathed physically but changed forever emotionally and mentally. Years later, as adults, the friends reconnect to help a young woman whose only sister was lost in that forest at the same time and who never returned. The three travel through a portal in the forest to a magical land that looks like a child dreamed it up.

Maybe they did...

I flat-out LOVED this book, loved the magical realism, loved the relationships and the friendships. I am not a fan of high fantasy or books that require maps and genealogy charts. I prefer my alt-universes to be ones that mimic just enough of the real world to make sense, but I also appreciate innovation, whimsy, and magic.

For the magical realist neophytes, this is a good gateway tale, one with a narrator who pops up now and then to nudge the reader along the journey and explain things that might be contradictory or unusual...or to muck things up entirely. That's the charm of an omniscient narrator.

As soon as I finished this book, I went in search of Meg Shaffer's first novel. Can't wait to read that one too.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

Prepare to be spellbound by "The Lost Story" by Meg Shaffer, a mesmerizing tale of friendship, mystery, and the allure of the unknown. Childhood friends Jeremy and Rafe vanish into the depths of a West Virginia forest, only to emerge six months later with no memory of their extraordinary journey.

Fifteen years later, Jeremy has become a sought-after investigator of missing persons, while Rafe grapples with scars both seen and unseen. When vet tech Emilie Wendell seeks Jeremy's help to find her missing sister, the trio embarks on a quest that will lead them back to the enigmatic realm where Jeremy and Rafe were lost.

Shaffer's masterful storytelling blends elements of fantasy and suspense, weaving a captivating narrative that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. As Emilie, Rafe, and Jeremy confront their past and journey into the unknown, they must unravel the secrets that have haunted them for years.

With its richly drawn characters, evocative prose, and tantalizing twists, "The Lost Story" is a gripping exploration of love, loss, and the enduring power of friendship. Lose yourself in this enchanting adventure where every turn of the page reveals new wonders and revelations.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was a book that will stay with me for a long time. It is filled with mystery, love, magic, lost worlds and a really good plot. If you had the ability to write your perfect world into existence, what would you write? This book will make you think about that very topic.

The Lost Story at its heart is a book about fairy tales. This book starts by discovering two boys lost in a vast state forest after an extended period of time. The plot quickly fast forwards 15 years later and picks up with one of the boys having the ability to find lost items and people. The Lost Story is a wonderful character driven novel filled with magical realism with a touch of fantasy. I really connected with all of the main characters and rooted for them across their different adventures.

It made me nostalgic for a child's imagination and grateful for a well written book to export me to different lands. I loved this book so very much. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Thank you Random House Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced copy. This honest review contains my own opinions.

There are books that bring me back to the magic that reading was for me as a kid. The Lost Story is the kind of book that I loved as child, but now can appreciate the grown up version of those fairy tales as an adult. I loved and rooted for the characters, the magic within it is explained, and it beautifully shows us how the trauma we have as a child carries with us in ways seen and unseen. How that trauma can mold our personalities in ways we didn't realize. It is a beautiful story. Easily 5 stars and one I will tell others about.

See more in Instagram - @bookish_starry_skies

Thank you to my new MUST READ author, Meg Shaffer, the publisher, and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an Arc of this Story.

The Lost story follows two men who were once lost and a girl trying to find her sister.

I have a lot of feelings about this book. I really enjoyed it but also feel like it was missing something. I rate it 3.5

I loved the first 10% and it really pulled me in. I liked the storyteller Interjections, although I wish some of them weren’t just a sentence long. I liked the idea and thought it was a fun read! I love a good introductory map! There were parts that were genuinely funny to me and parts that made me feel for the characters.

I didn’t like the interactions between characters . I didn’t like the romance because I didn’t feel any buildup to it. It wasn’t there, it wasn’t there, *blink blink* oh, they’re kissing? They are late twenties and early thirties and they feel 13. I wish that the story was written in a way that felt more like the story was being told to me. We have short little snippets of 2nd person POV and then back to a disconnected 3rd. I wish they crossed over into shanondoah sooner. We don’t get to travel there until 41% I wish we had more time there rather than here and I wish that time was more explored. I feel like there was a lot of talking about how much fun they had in Shanandoah as teenagers, but it’s not really explored. I wish they knew how shanandoah was created, even if it was something silly like a drop of sun fell into a cloud that rained on a tree and the roots of that tree became mountains and valleys and the leaves became people yada yada yada.

Over all, I thought it was good! I really think it would go hard as a middle grade book, with some minor tweaking. Age the characters down a bit so they got lost at like 8 and are going back at 15? Or leave them the same age and remove some suggestive content to make it more age appropriate. I would have loved having a fun and easy introduction to fantasy as a tween!

I would suggest this book to people wanting to get into fantasy and younger readers.

Every once in a while you pick up a book, start reading, and realize… this is something special. That was The Lost Story for me.

Ralph and Jeremy vanished in a West Virginia state park for 6 months without a trace. We find out what happened to Jeremy and Ralph in those 6 months while embarking on a quest with Emilie to find her sister who disappeared in the same state park.

This story was achingly beautiful in all the right ways. The characters were so easy to love. The found family they created was fun and entertaining. Balancing nostalgia for childhood fantasy and fairytales with adult themes and how the characters overcome them is tough, but Meg Shaffer certainly found a way to do it and do it well.

I enjoyed every moment reading this book.

As someone with deep personal ties to the great state of West Virginia, it was portrayed in all of the ways one would hope. You may think West Virginia probably wouldn’t be where your new favorite fairytale is set but it was perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Five stars all around, you don’t want to miss this one!

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

Read if you love…
Feeling nostalgic about all of your favorite childhood fairytales
Inclusive love stories
Far away lands with magical critters
Found family
Stories with real world, sometimes tough themes and characters who triumph regardless
Pet rats who save the day
West- by God- Virginia!

Review will be posted to socials closer to pub date.

PITCH: Frozen meets Chronicles of Narnia with hints of Bridge to Terabithia

I crawled inside this book and quickly was transformed into my 12 year old self reading a magical book for the first time. While a brand new story, this book wraps around you a blanket of nostalgia for children’s stories gone by. It’s contemporary fiction mixed with fantasy. Quick moving and full of fun writing (“I want to look death in the face and boop his nose”), this book is a perfect summer in the hammock read.

(By the way, can we cast Jonathan Groff as Ralph? )

Review posted on Instagram, 25 Feb 2024.

This story was so intriguing and had me hooked from the start! I loved the world this book created and how the story progressed. I will definitely recommend this book to everyone!

The Lost Story will appeal to those who like stories inspired by Narnia that include a contemporary setting with doorways to other worlds. It also includes a queer love story. Two boys once went missing in the West Virginian woods for several months and no one knows where they went during that time. As adults, they are helping a woman find her lost sister. Their search will reveal the mystery of where they disappeared to all those years ago.

This book does have a habit of breaking the fourth wall and the beginning was slower than I expected. The first half leans angsty as it deals with themes of loss and trauma as the boys deal with the events that led to them running away in the first place and the aftermath of their return. The fairy tale bits start around the halfway point when they head back into the woods and into a world that felt like it belonged to a child's fairy tale. But going to another world isn't enough to escape the ghosts of their past.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random Publishimg House for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

It had a slow start and drug a little bit.. but the world and fairytale telling was very well written. Over all I really enjoyed the simplicity of the book and the way it made me feel.

This one started off a little slow, trying to find its footing.

But once it did. Those of us who found solace in fairy tales - where dark meets light - will find our solace here.

Books are magic. thank you Meg Shaffer for the reminder while I search the house for a pencil with a unicorn eraser.

I've been putting off this review for like a week because I find myself at a loss for words. First, special thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advance reader copy. Now here's my best attempt at capturing this incredible story in words:

This book is SO. GOOD. It gets a lot of comparisons to the Narnia series, which is apt. But it's more. It's the Princess Bride and Lord of the Flies and some bad guys that feel like they stepped out of a Stephen King story. It's cozy and comfortable and scary and heartbreaking all at once.

I think going in somewhat blind is the best experience with this one, so I won't go into detail about the plot. I'll just say it's about friendship and family and the meaning of home. I fell completely in love with the characters, even ones that were only there for a short time. And the narrator of the story breaks the fourth wall in ways that had me laughing out loud and pinned to the edge of my seat. It's perfect for both fantasy fans and those new to the genre. A large part of the book takes place in a non-fantasy setting with everyday people, which is just as compelling as the lush, fantastical world full of unicorns and Valkyries that serves as the setting for the rest of the book.

I really can't think of a better word for this book than magical. It's my first five-star read of this year and I cannot recommend it enough.

I had high hopes for this book after The Wishing Game and honestly I thought this story blew it out of the water!

The characters were quick to root for, the surprise (but not so surprising) love story was a treat and the world building was easy & effective. Maybe most of all, I loved the narrator commentary- it felt reminiscent of The Princess Bride.

The premise of a man who was lost as a teen and is now an expert at finding people immediately piqued my interest. What I didn't expect was for the story to quickly turn into more of a romantasy type novel. In the acknowledgments the author says this story was inspired by seeing The Chronicles of Narnia next to The Lord of the Flies next to each other on her bookshelf- and that's exactly what it felt like. A conclusion/followup (although hopefully not until after a sequel) to characters similar to the ones we loved in the books we read growing up.

Favorite quotes:
"It was almost too beautiful to be trusted, too breathtaking to feel safe."

"Yes, in an infinite universe, wormholes have to exist. All possible worlds exist. In fact, there are no possibilities in an infinite universe, just eventualities."

Thanks NetGalley & Randomhouse Publishing for the ARC of this novel!

I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley.
Overall, i really enjoyed this story. It felt very much like a middle grade read-for-adults; it was so very sweet overall.
It is absolutely a fairy-tale for adults who grew up reading fairy-tales.
I appreciated that the FMC was only forced suddenly into a friendship with the two MMCs and that there wasn't any romance involving her. Yay for gay, bisexual, and asexual representation. Yay for pet rats.
I did not love the Storyteller gimmack. It really added nothing but tedium for me.
I enjoyed this much more than Schaffer's The Wishing Game.

Thank you to the NetGalley and the author for the ARC. The Wishing Game was my favorite book last year and while this didn’t quite live up to the Wishing Game, there was a lot to love about this book. The story was incredible and magical and I feel in love with all of the characters. I don’t know the Narnia story well enough to know if it is a truly a retelling of Narnia, but the pieces I recognized felt true. The parts that fell down for me were the fantasy pieces, but I’m not a fantasy reader.

I loved the love story, and the overcoming obstacles, and the writing was just gorgeous. 4.5 stars. This will be some peoples favorite book of the year.