Thanks to NetGalley, D.E.Night & Stories Untold Press for giving me access to this fantastic book!

This book is beautifully written & immerses you into the magical world where Ivy Lovely lives. Ivy is invited to go to the Halls of Ivy to become a scrivenist. In a world where royals and scrivenists work together, Ivy feels like the outsider. What she stumbles into however will change her life forever. The Dark Queen is lurking about searching for something. Scrivenists of the past are roaming the magic school’s halls & nothing is what it appears.

D.E Night has created a whimsical & magical world that will be a hit with children (and adults!) who enjoyed the Harry Potter series. I loved the characters in this book and I really look forward to reading book 2 & 3 in this series. There are mystical creatures galore in this book, from shorehorses to hairies and many more in between. The author’s love of all things magical can clearly be seen in the loving way she spins this wonderful story.

If you or your child want a book which will allow them to escape into a magical world full of danger and adventures, I highly recommend “The Crowns of Croswald”!!

The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night is a magical adventure, perfect for anyone longing to be sucked into a new world with mystery and intriguing characters at every turn of the page. Ivy Lovely is a great strong female lead in this story. Even when she is thrown into the unknown, Ivy dives in head first! Be ready to be thrust into a world with dragons, magical potions, intoxicating slurry fields, special stones, storm-driving cabbies, and evil queens.. this tale is packed with fun characters, intriguing details, and a lot of suspense along the way. I highly recommend this book to any Harry Potter fan or MG reader. The Crowns of Croswald is an impeccable mix of MAGIC and MYSTERY rolled into one!

Thank you, NetGalley, D.E. Night, and Stories Untold for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Man. I went into this hoping I would like it, I really did, but The Crowns of Croswald was just not for me... I didn't like this book at all. I hate to write a negative review, especially for an author's debut, but I was asked to give an honest review and so that's what I'm gonna do.

The bad:

✦ So, right off the bat, the writing style came across to me as quite juvenile. This makes sense to some extent since this is marketed as a middle-grade book, but let me say why I mention this. The first is that this has been shelved by several users on Goodreads as YA fiction. It's not - at all - and I'd warn anyone picking this up thinking that this has been written for a young adult audience. The main character is a 16-year-old girl, but she reads more like a preteen. The other reason is that I strongly believe that just because a book has been written for a young audience, doesn't mean that it can't also be enjoyed by an older audience. For example, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Percy Jackson and Skulduggery Pleasant are all series targeted at young audiences but are written in such a way that I, a 23-year-old woman, could and would go back and read them. This isn't the case for TCOC.

✦ Continuing along the theme of writing, the text was written confusingly. I was already confused by the end of the prologue (which, by the way, could've probably been removed completely). The book is difficult to get through because the reader goes paragraph to paragraph having to sift through info-dumping, flowery descriptions bordering on purple prose, a tone that can't seem to decide whether it's gearing towards children or young adult readers (the number of words I had to look up makes me wonder what kind of children are expected to read this), and characters who have little to no plot relevance but who are given full-blown descriptions. And speaking of characters...

✦ The characters are so. dull. Ivy, our main character, has no personality. None at all. I got halfway through the book and realised that I could hardly tell you a thing about her, aside from her tendency to be pretty dumb. She's just a generic main character, and there's so little to invest in. The best friend is just... there. The (unnecessary) love interest is definitely not a fully fleshed-out character. The big bad is an underwhelming character who's shrouded in mystery, but as a result, is someone we don't know enough about to be interested in or fearful of. And the antagonist is a mean girl who exists for no reason other than to cause a minor inconvenience every now and then. And, I guess, to pit girls against girls.

✦ Another issue with this is that it's basically Harry Potter v2.0. I was waiting for something to come along which distinguished this book from HP, but it's really a very similar story with superficial changes. The book literally starts out as "orphaned kid kept locked away without a friend in the world whisked off to a magical school in a castle by a strange man with a strange transportation vehicle and a list of magical school supplies to purchase from quirkily named shops on a magical street". So... make of that what you will.

✦ Also, the plot is lacklustre and boring. Too much of the book is just day-to-day school life which isn't particularly interesting to read about. It's very much a "things happen" kind of story for the book's majority. People act OOC just to advance the plot and I'm sure there were some plot holes but to be honest I could've just missed things because I was so bored that I started skim-reading halfway through the book.

The good:

✧ Um... I hate to say it, I really do, but there was not really anything I enjoyed about this book. I suppose if I was to say one thing, it's that this book might work for its intended young audience, probably for kids no older than 12 or 13. Though, in honesty, I think there are higher quality books out there for kids. I'm trying to think back as to whether I would've liked a book like this, and honestly, I'm not sure that I would've.

Again, I hate to give such a negative review, but this wasn't an enjoyable read. I would have DNF'd one or two chapters in but did want to give a full and honest review. Sadly there wasn't anything here that would compel me to pick up the next book in the series, but I sincerely hope that it does pick up later on.

Regardless of my feelings about The Crowns of Croswald, I'd like to give a massive thanks to Stories Untold Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't read the book completely because I was confused with the world building and whatever was going on. Sorry.
I tried high fanatsy for first time so maybe that is the reasons I felt so disconnected with the book. It does have Harry Potter resemblance so people used to high fantasy will probably like it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Stories Untold Press for the review copy of this book. The Crowns of Croswald by D. E. Night is thoroughly enjoyable and engaging. 15 year old Ivy Lovely has worked as a scaldrony maid (The maid in charge of the dragons who cook the food for a wealthy family) surrounded by a slurry field. One day, she finds herself fleeing to save a dragon from a horrible fate and is invited to the magic school, the Halls of Ivy. Because Slurry dampens magic, she didn’t realize how powerful she actually is.

The novel covers Ivy’s year at the Halls of Ivy as she tries to discover the mystery behind her invitation to the school. The reader gets to uncover the truth along with Ivy.

The world built by D. E. Night is absolutely beautiful. I look forward to revisiting it again with book two!

This story transported me back to my young self, when I would get lost in the most fantastic of stories. I truly enjoyed getting to know Ivy Lovely and her journey to discovering the truth about her past and her future. This fantastical world has the most entertaining characters that you can’t help but feel connected to. Ivy possesses all the qualities of a heroine, and right from the start you want to see her win. It was a true joy to read and I look forward to reading the next books in this series.

Thanks to the publisher (Stories Untold) for lending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not usually a fantasy reader but this story had me hooked from the beginning! It’s written beautifully, the author is able to get the imagination wheels spinning with her writing. I absolutely loved the characters, especially Ivy and I cannot wait to read more! I had to really take my time because I didn’t want the story ending too quickly haha. Cannot wait to read the next book! ☺️

It was a good book, but it failed to grab me completely.
The truth is that the story is very good. It tells the story of Ivy who has been hiding behind an enchanted boundary that separates the mundane from the magical, she has powers and when she crossed the powers awakes. and the truth is that it is a story full of magic and mystery. It caught my attention when I started reading it, but I must admit that at the beginning our quite confusing everything, I didn't understand everything that was told in the book.
It has very amazing things too, like its magic system, Ivy in particular I liked it.
But I must say that it did not meet my expectations, it left something to be desired.
But I don’t mean it’s a bad book, and if you love fantasy and mastery you should give this book a chance

Ivy Lovely has grown up working as a Scaldron maid, tending to the dragons in the kitchens of Plum Castle. When a small mistake sees her lose her job and her home, Ivy sets out across the magic inhibiting slurry fields only to be met by a peculiar man who has been looking for her for a long time. Ivy learns she has been selected to go to The Halls of Ivy, a prestigious school for aspiring scrivenists and magical royals.

I think most reviews you might read of The Crowns Of Croswald will likely mention that book shows remarkable similarities to Harry Potter and it's fair to say I got the same vibe. This is a coming of age, fantasy about a girl who had been hidden away most of her life, only to be whisked off to a magical school where adventure, mystery and danger await. Thankfully, D. E. Night has woven such a well thought out, intricate and original magical world that you get so absorbed in, the similarities to Potter become insignificant.

The book is very fast paced, ocassionaly it felt a little too rushed. You're quickly introduced to a whole new world, with a lot of new magical terms and strange new creatures to learn, it was a little overwhelming at first. However, the plot was well conceived and the story arc was gripping, meaning the confusion in parts sort of works itself out by the end.

My daughter and I started out reading this together but we decided to finish and review it seperately because I didn't want to put it down. Pops has never been a massive lover of fantasy but she's enjoying the book, albeit in smaller doses than I wanted to consume it.

This is a brilliant middle grade fantasy for lovers of Harry Potter and Charlie Bone, those who love magical beasts, lost Princesses and evil Queens. This is the first of the Croswald series, book four will be released later this year.

A massive thank you to @netgalley and @storiesuntoldpress for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. I have given The Crowns of Croswald by D. E. Night two out of five stars ⭐️⭐️

I really wanted to like this book as I was very intrigued to read it once I had read the description to the story as I loved the sound of the magical realism and fantasy side to the story, but unfortunately it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I thought the author did a brilliant job with their descriptions and pulling the reader into a whole new magical world. Normally I really enjoy the magical school trope, however I found this book reminded me a little too much of Harry Potter. I love when an author is influenced by other authors to create their own story, as it can have a great helping hand in creating a fantastic piece of work, but I kept thinking of characters from the Harry Potter world instead of conjuring up new images for the characters in The Crowns of Croswald as it was too similar for my liking.

I found it difficult to connect with the characters, especially the main character Ivy Lovely. I didn’t really like her narrative and thought Ivy was a little too middle grade for the story that D.E. Night had created. At times, I found myself lost with certain parts of the book that was happening as the storylines tended to chop and change every now and again. It was interesting to see that a character was named after the author, as I don’t think I’d ever seen that kind of involvement from an author in their own book before. I can’t see myself picking up the rest of this series, but would recommend to a young adult audience who enjoys magical realism and action.

📚Book Review: The Crowns of Croswald by D.E.Night

🌟🌟🌟3.5 stars! Enjoyable.
Recommended to fans of the genre.

This is an enchanting tale of an orphaned young girl, Ivy Lovely, who has been living a humdrum existence as a scaldronry maid for a royal family, for the past 16 years. Alone, apart from the scaldrons ( dragons who cook the royal meals), Rimbrick, her dwarven friend and Helga the strict and imposing kitchen mistress, she dreams of escaping the only life she’s ever known. This happens one day when she unexpectedly receives an invitation to a school for scrivenists and her magical adventure begins.

Sound familiar? This book is heavily reminiscent of Harry Potter, which is not a bad thing for fans of this type of fantasy boarding school world, but, for me, some of the similarities were a bit too obvious and overused ( ghosts in the dining hall, moving portraits, Diagon Alley by another name). I did enjoy the use of quills, rather than wands though and the original use of sketching as a magical skill.

One thing I did love was the imaginative world building. The description of magical spells and creatures, particularly, is very immersive and vivid. I loved the scaldron, Humboldt, who Ivy rescues and keeps as a pet and the hairies ( fairies with luminescent hair, use in lanterns.)

Ivy’s backstory is intriguing and kept me wanting to know more about her magical abilities and connection to the royals and the ominous Dark Queen. However, it did sometimes feel that things were being kept from her just for the sake of it. It might take the next instalment to fully understand the motives of some of the characters.

There is a lot of adventure in this novel and Ivy gets herself into a fair few scrapes. As an adult reader, I did find that she seemed to lack agency a lot of the time; yes, she is curious and she does decide to explore forbidden places in order to discover the secrets she knows are being withheld from her, but she always seems to be saved in the nick of time by something or someone else. Having said that I know that many young readers will be bewitched by her escapades and swept along with Ivy’s exciting search for the truth.

All in all this is an enjoyable and imaginative fantasy for older children and teens; perfect for young fans of spells and sorcery.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stories Untold and D.E.Night for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book turned out to be so much more than I expected it to be. Since I don't usually read middle grade books anymore I was a bit hesitant to pick it up at first. But I'm so glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed the clever writing and brilliant world building. I was never a huge Harry Potter fan growing up but I think The Crowns of Croswald could’ve easily become “my” Harry Potter. Because in my opinion this book contains all of the clever, highly imaginative and sometimes outright hilarious elements which I found myself drawn to in J.K. Rowling’s books. However, the story and main plot in TCOC speaks to me on so much more levels than Harry Potter ever did.

My only regret is that I didn’t get to read this book when I was younger because however much I find myself liking this book now, I just know I’d have absolutely loved it back then. The Crowns of Croswald is a high quality middle-grade fantasy book that is not to be missed!

I was gifted a free copy of this book by Stories Untold Press in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book.

I think it's well placed for readers aged about 10-12. There were interesting elements of the story which I wish had been focussed upon more, like the class and magic systems, but it felt like the author wasn't brave enough to turn away from the obvious Harry Potter framework and it's to the book's detriment.

There is some real potential here, though, and I think with some reworking and decent editing (there are a lot of cutesy, alliterative and rhyming names which gets a bit annoying!) it could be the beginnings of a really interesting fantasy series which captures the imaginations of young and older readers alike, like it's clear idol: the HP series.

Thank you to D.E. Night, Stories Untold Press and NetGalley for the ebook.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher and author for my free copy of The Crowns of Croswald in return for an honest review.

If you are a lover of children’s/young adult magical stories then I am sure you will love this one...

I really enjoyed the story that the author has told here. It is similar to Harry Potter which drew me to it but it was original too which I really enjoyed.

However, the only downside for me was that it didn’t seem to flow and I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character, Ivy.

I’d would still definitely recommend this book to anyone that loves stories about magic!

It was good, but unfortunately it doesn’t stand out of the pile. Thank you #NetGalley, publisher and the author for letting me read the book in exchange of an honest review.

I didn’t enjoy this book, I think the writing style just didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t seem to find any flow to it.

This was such a fun, whimsical, magical, mysterious first book in a middle grade series. I had never heard of this series before and I think more people should read this book .I was hooked from the first chapter as D.E Night's writing is easy to get lost in. This isn't a very long book and I was able to finish it in one sitting, I just had to know what happened. This book takes place in a magical world where magic is used by both Scrivenists (wizards) with their quills (wands) who serve royal families and royalty with magic endowed jewels in their crowns. Our main character Ivy has grown up as a scaldrony maid in the slurries that nullify magic, until one day she is kicked out and picked up by Lionel Lugg who claims she is a scrivenist and must go to the magical school Halls of Ivy to learn about her abilities and herself. I really enjoyed the magical school setting with lots of magical creatures, and learning more about Ivy and who she is in this world. I highly recommend this book to other readers who enjoy middle grade and magical school settings. Ig you are hesitant to pick this up because middle grade can seem too young, I found Nights writing to be more mature than other middle grades with the tone and choice of words.

Fantasy is not my ‘go-to’ genre, but this was kindly gifted to me by the author’s publicist through NetGalley in return for an honest review. I thought it was worth a read as I have started to branch into the world of fantasy. As I am a primary school teacher, I thought this could be a book I share with my class as I know it is aimed at the younger reader.

The story follows a young girl named Ivy who doesn’t know who she is - or what her powers are. As she steps into a new, magical world, she discovers her abilities and more about her hidden past.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t invested in this story and struggled to find the motivation to read it. Whilst this book wasn’t for me, I could see it being a huge hit with fans of books such as Harry Potter. I felt that there were moments I didn’t understand the story. There was a lot going on and I sometimes struggled to to keep track of everything. I sometimes felt it was assumed that the reader would have some background knowledge or understanding of Ivy’s world. For example, I had no idea what a ‘scrivenist’ was and I don’t feel this was fully explained early enough in the story. Maybe this is because fantasy isn’t my favourite genre, or maybe it’s just aimed at a younger audience. Having said that, some of the language and names in the book are very ambitious for the younger reader.

I can appreciate the book is well written and that it would be a big hit with fantasy fans of the right age. Maybe it will be a book I read to my class in the future. Personally, I don’t think I will be exploring Ivy’s magical world again.

An imaginative middle grade read well-suited for fantasy lovers, this story takes place in a whimsical world full of original magical concepts and mysteries alike.

I enjoyed the characters and world of this story, however I found the story and world a bit confusing at first. With so many different magical terms, the vocabulary and pacing seemed a bit advanced at times for a middle grade novel - however, I became more engaged by the plot by the middle of the story and enjoyed the ending.

Though I wish the discoveries at the end of the book came a bit earlier and had more time to play out, overall this book reminded me of a Septimus Heap-like tale of magic, lost royalty, and magical places.

First of all, I would like to thank Stories Untold Press and the author, D.E. Night for providing me with a free copy of Crowns of Croswald via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. :)

DNF at 25%

I was so excited to read this. First to be approached to read and review is always amazing, as I'm just starting out on a journey of taking this more seriously. I had it downloaded and began reading within 48 hours! I'd never heard of this series or the author, which I'm surprised at because she is followed by a few people within the Disney community I'm a part of on Instagram! But I digress. I went in blind, seeing that it was kind of middle grade/young adult fantasy and it had been compared to Harry Potter. I should have loved it.

But it was VERY hard to read. I felt like I had been dropped into a story world where I was supposed to already know things, but they were never explained. I kept checking to see if I was in fact reading the first book, and if there was a prequel of sorts where the world was explained. Like the term "scrivenists" which isn't a real word, it's made up. When I googled it, because I thought I just hadn't heard of it, there is no definition. You get a lot of word processor results, called Scrivens. Everything else is related to this series. Which is totally fine, but you have to TELL me what this is if it's exclusive to your world. It's what magical people are called, and I guess it's clever because they use quills instead of wands. I did like that aspect, but I don't think I even got to the part where they explained how that worked. Or maybe they didn't, I don't know. As well as "hairies" which were sources of light? I pictured them as glowing spiders but I truly have no idea.

The comparisons to Harry Potter make a lot of sense, some of them are blatant. The magical vehicle Ivy gets picked up on reminded me so much of the Knight Bus from Prisoner of Azkaban, I'm shocked I haven't seen anyone else make that connection. Just in the way it appeared to her right when she needed it. I thought the way it was executed was really different, in that they are always hidden from view and have a cozy room on top of them. I pictured flying hippos like the Disney Parks ride! There was the Diagon Alley area of shops, and when Ivy was dropped off in a back alley I fully expected her to have to go through a wall like at the Leaky Cauldron. She didn't, but that was the way it was set up. There was also a character who loved dragons? Not that that is an exclusive storyline to Harry Potter, but... as well as the "orphan didn't know she was magical" and "rescued to go to a magical school" and "living in darkness/cupboard under the kitchen" plot points.

I also FULLY did not understand what was going on with "The Town?" It had to be protected from the flying transportation? They didn't know about it? Does that mean they didn't know about magic? Or was it like Hogsmeade where it IS a magical town? Because they knew about the Dark Queen, everyone was afraid of her. Also, every student who goes to the school is sent to a castle afterwards? How many castles and royal families are there? I was very confused.

On top of all of that, the writing was very clunky. Ivy is at one point described as having "chocolate brown hair" and my boyfriend said that's a 14 year old writing fanfiction way of describing something. I think I actually said "really?" out loud when I read it. Some of the sentences really did nothing for the story and just took up space, like this one in the middle of explaining what Mr. Munson looks like: "These eyes had exploring to do." That is a full sentence, after we are told about his askew goggles and sharp blue eyes (both which are fine). And in the same paragraph, "he smoothed his clothing down with his hands to no avail." I assume he used his hands unless you explicitly state otherwise, I don't need to be told. The editor for this needed to do some severe work, and you can painfully tell that this book did not go through a vigorous enough chopping block of editing. I have seen other reviews say there is too much telling and not enough showing, which I can understand and agree with.

I feel like there was a kernel of a good story here, buried underneath a lot of problems. At the moment, a lot of "magical school" stories are going to be compared to Harry Potter, and there is no way around that. But if you make a story your own, it won't matter. There are too many Harry Potter comparisons for it to not be a problem, in my opinion. This has potential, and I wish it was better. I'm curious to know what the rest of the series is like, so I'll read some of those reviews. I wish the author the best of luck, we really can only learn and do better when presented with constructive criticism/feedback.

This review will also be posted on my personal book blog the strange juniper in late April or May (depends on my launch schedule!).