3.5 stars, rounded up!

I was so excited to hear that Meg Shaffer was writing another story, The Wishing Game was one of my favorite books last year! The premise of The Lost Story was intriguing to me, I love the fairy tale feel and the nods to Narnia.

Jeremy and Rafe went missing 15 years ago and come home drastically changed. Jeremy is able to find lost people and things and Rafe is secluded in the woods. When Emilie approached Jeremy about finding her lost sister, he was hesitant at first when he finds out it's in the same woods he was lost in. What follows is a story about love, loss, and family dynamics.

The story got off to a little bit of a slow start for me, laying the groundwork for what was to come but it was engaging enough to keep me reading. Once they started to get into the details of what happened when Jeremy and Rafe went missing and we learned more about their past, I was more and more intrigued. I loved the idea of a lost world and the fantastical piece of the story but it did feel a little corny at times. I feel like some details could have been written differently to make it a really penomenal story!

Once they finally did get into the fairy tale kingdom, things went so quickly and the story lines felt super rushed. I wish they could have spent more time there instead of building the story in the real world. It was also pretty easy to predict what was coming and even though that is annoying to me at times, it made for a cozy and gentle story instead of fast paced and nerve wracking.

So if you're in the mood for a cozy read, make sure to pick up The Lost Story! Thank you Netgalley and Meg Shaffer for my very first ARC!!

The Lost Story is about Jeremy and Rafe, two men who went missing in the Red Crow Forrest for 6 months when they were 15 years old. Only Jeremy can remember anything from the time they went missing but refuses to tell Rafe any details about their experience in the woods. Jeremy now spends his time finding lost women and girls while Rafe leads a much quieter life painting in a cabin in the woods. When a young adopted woman named Emilie asks Jeremy to find her missing sister, Jeremy and Rafe reunite to venture back into the woods and reclaim their past.

I absolutely loved this charming book and all the characters it contained. The queer love story was a particular highlight for me. Meg Shaffer is a great writer and fans of The Wishing Game are sure to enjoy this tale as well. Her writing brings the world to life and kept me entertained from the first to the last page.

Highly recommend for anyone looking for a lovely magical story about friendship, family, love, and adventure!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine Books for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Received the ARC from Netgalley. (It was offered to me, I did not request it- but I'm happy I agreed.)

This book was honestly really cute. It was kind of a soft story, nothing huge and epic, but it had a lot feelings mixed in. It was both fantastical and realistic at the same time.

Oddly I though the 'storyteller' was fun. I don't love when narrators pop in and out of books usually, but in this case they had some really good lines that made me laugh and I'm not mad about them interrupting.

I didn't love Emilie's POVs. I did like her, just not her POVs. She felt oddly unnecessary despite being important somehow.

I would 100% recommend this book if you're looking for something a bit lighter. (Though, it does have a few dark themes- abusive father, specifically.)

Like many others, I came to this book because I absolutely loved The Wishing Game. Now with her second novel Meg Shaffer has definitely proven herself to be a great story writer. Much like the Wishing Game, The Lost Story really takes hold of your heart. It is always a breath of fresh air to read a book that doesn’t rely heavily on excessive violence and shock factor to try keep the reader’s attention.

I could have done without the Storyteller Corner. I don’t think the book would have been lacking at all without it.

I would recommend The Lost Story to any former kid who wished they could have stepped out of this harsh world and into their favorite fantasy realm. I hope that maybe one day Meg Shaffer will find a way to take us back to Shanandoah.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! It was a pleasure to read and review!

This book was everything I hoped for and more. It has the same heart and more magic than The Wishing Game with all the whimsy and hope you could want. Truly combining a fairy tale with West Virginia, I wish I could go back and read this again for the first time.

The concept for this novel was one that I really enjoyed, and the prologue took my breath away. I absolutely could not wait to dive further into the magical world that Shaffer was creating. However, unfortunately the rest of the novel did not live up to my hopes. For how beautiful and impressive the writing, world building, and character building all were in the prologue, throughout the rest of the novel all three were kind of hit or miss. There were moment of good writing, moments of bad— moments of excellent world building, and moments that made me have to reread a page multiple times to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding something, and ditto for characterization. As I said, I really liked the concept for this novel, but the execution for me was a bit lacking. I think it was just too much to pack into a sub-400 page book. It wasn’t a bad book by any stretch, I just think it tried to do too much at once and because of that didn’t get to do anything to the full extent that it could have.

After loving “The Wishing Game” last year, I was so excited to read Shaffer’s next book! Unfortunately, I thought this was just okay. I knew this was a loose Narnia retelling going in, and ultimately I think I might’ve liked this more if I had been more of a Narnia fan growing up. The novel itself is very sweet, but it felt very juvenile to me. The dialogue and interactions between the characters seemed best suited for pre-teens, not characters who are supposed to be in their late 20s/early 30s. I also struggled a bit with pacing; I felt it took too long for the trio to return to the enchanted kingdom, and then once we were there the story raced through world building and plot at breakneck speed. That being said, I did enjoy some of the themes explored, especially the often complicated relationship between parents and children. Overall this book was filled with whimsy and nostalgia, it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

"The Lost Story" was a fun and creative book. I enjoyed the origin story for the land of Shanandoah. The story of Jeremy and Ralph (Rafe) was interesting and enjoyable. Fifteen years ago, they disappeared in Red Crow State Forest, only to reappear six months later, with no explanation for their absence. Rafe was confused when found, and he had some nasty looking scars on his back, but both boys looked muscular and well-fed, which made no sense. If they had been living in the woods, they should have been malnourished and weak; and if they had been kidnapped and escaped or been released, their physical condition should have deteriorated as well. Rafe has no recollection of what happened during those six months; Jeremy seems to remember something about their time in Shanandoah but is not willing or able to share it with anyone, including Rafe. This will lead to Jeremy and Rafe becoming estranged, although through their mothers, they will still have some knowledge of each other's lives. Rafe has largely become a recluse, secluding himself in his dad's cabin in the woods of West Virginia and focusing on his art -- sculptures and paintings. Jeremy has made a career out of finding lost girls and women (but only girls/women), having an uncanny knack for being able to find people who are lost but want to be found. What will bring Jeremy and Rafe back together is a woman (Emilie) looking for her lost sister. When Jeremy sees the picture of the missing sister, he realizes he knows her, and the secrets he has been holding onto for fifteen years are ready to be revealed. For you see, Jeremy and Rafe are very familiar with Shanandoah and Queen Skya, but the circumstances that led to their return to the real world required that one person would remember Shanandoah and the events that occurred there but not remember how to return, while the other person would have no recollection of Shanandoah but would know how to return (though this knowledge was useless by itself, as there would be no reason to try to return to a place one could not remember).

The existence of Shanandoah came about from the love of fairytales and fantasy, but also as a way to escape the evil and unpleasantness of the world; however, evil and unpleasantness could not be kept from Shanandoah either. Jeremy and Rafe's initial unexpected journey to Shanandoah was also brought about by a desire to escape a bad situation. Rafe's father was abusive, physically and mentally, and did not approve of Rafe spending so much drawing and spending so much time with his best friend, Jeremy. What Rafe had never been able to admit to Jeremy was that he was in love with him. However, seeing the drawings of Jeremy by Rafe, his father figured out how Rafe felt about Jeremy, and that was something he could not tolerate. He justified his actions by telling himself that he was just protecting his son from future harm by others (and identifying as gay in West Virginia would certainly have posed some risks), but in reality, he posed the biggest threat to Rafe. Jeremy felt the same way as Rafe, although he also had been afraid to admit it, not knowing that his feelings would be reciprocated. In Shanandoah they were able to share and act on those feelings, which made leaving that much harder, as Jeremy still had all the memories, but could not share them with Rafe or act upon them in the real world.

The return to Shanandoah will bring lots of positives, most significantly, enabling Jeremy to share with Rafe what he has been keeping secret for fifteen years. However, it will also bring danger and potential heartache and loss, as there is a serious threat facing Shanandoah, and it is directly related to Rafe.

Right now I am still thinking of the rating.

There are so many good parts of the book, I am by no means a professional, however I have read mt far share of books.
The Lost story follows Emilie who is on a quest to find a sister she *never* met. This is when Jeremy and Rafe come in.

I overall LOVED the premise of this book, a bit of mystery with fantasy/magical realism. The format of the book I additionally enjoyed. I will not not diverge a ton of information at this time, however there are bits of romance, mystery, fantasy elements, and NOSTALGIA.

Towards the mid-end of the book you start getting information regarding how this all came to be, I LOVED this concept of dreaming of a place you would rather be. Something that was completely made by you. I love the long lost romance between two of the characters. If you like found family this will also be a good choice!

At times I did find the book hard to follow with the pacing, times there wasn't much happening, and other times there was almost too much. However, this overall is a solid book!!!!! There are a ton of different elements that appeal to everyone, will tug on peoples heartstrings. Meg Shaffer is a great author and continues to write excellent stories!!

Another enchanting book from Meg Shaffer! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to preview The Lost Story. I requested this book based on my love for her first book, The Wishing Game. I'm happy to report that The Lost Story lived up to my high expectations.

The premise doesn't sound unique at first; two boys go missing in the woods and struggle in their adult lives after their ordeal. What makes this story so different is that Jeremy and Rafe weren't lost, they were having adventures in the magical land of Shanandoah. Fans of fairy tales and fantasy will find lots to love here.

Like The Wishing Game, his was an easy read and had me engaged immediately. The characters had issues that felt real and reacted to them (usually) like real people would. This is a great second offering from Meg Shaffer, and I can't wait to see what she does next.

“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 like they wrote it just for you or to you?….Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is”.

This right here sums up this book perfectly. It’s pure magic the way it transports the reader to another world, making them forget everything for a while. The book is about two boys lost and then eventually found with no explanation of where they were or how they survived. When the boys grow up they aren’t talking anymore and each living their own lives. Jeremy finds missing girls and women so when Emilee asks him to find her missing sister he takes the job but only if Rafe joins them. What happens next is the stuff out of the best fairytales and most enjoyable books.

This is my second book by this author and I loved everything about it. I can’t wait to read her next one and thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

The Lost Story is like taking a trip down memory lane to my childhood. Meg Shaffer's books have both easily become some of my favorite. This has The Chronicles of Narnia vibes, but for adults. I was immediately drawn into the story and loved escaping to the magical world of Shanandoah. I fell in love with the characters and the world-building. Do not miss out on this one! Even if you're not a big fan of fantasy, give this a go and you won't be disappointed!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Publishing for sending me an ARC of this book! This beautiful fairy tale centers around two teenage boys from West Virginia who go missing for 6 months. After their return, things don’t seem quite right with the state of the boys, and 15 years goes by without any real answers.

This is a fairy tale for grown-ups that never wanted to grow up and an opportunity to relive the magic of childhood. The story is clever, well-paced and extremely creative. I adored the characters and the incredible bonds they shared. The relationships were so strong and supportive that these characters have really stayed with me long after finishing the book.

If you are looking for a story about unconditional love, something wholesome and beautiful that will sweep you away, please don’t miss this one!

"The Lost Story" by Meg Shaffer begins with an enchanting promise that draws readers in through its captivating cover, adorned with vibrant elements that foreshadow the magical journey ahead. The tale commences with a gripping first chapter, introducing two friends who mysteriously vanish in the woods of West Virginia, only to reappear unscathed six months later.

The narrative then fast-forwards 15 years, portraying the divergent paths taken by the once-inseparable friends, Rafe and Jeremy. Rafe, now a reclusive artist living in the woods, and Jeremy, a finder of lost people. The storyline gains momentum when Emilie seeks Jeremy's help in locating her missing sister, leading the trio to revisit the forest where their enigmatic journey started.

However, the plot takes an unexpected turn as the narrative transitions into a magical, fairy-tale realm. While the story introduces elements of wonder, it falls short of creating a truly imaginative and unique world such as the one created in Harry Potter or Alice in Wonderland. Instead, it incorporates conventional elements from classic children's literature, resulting in a somewhat cliché magical setting with rainbow-colored animals, unicorns, and talking pets. One notable drawback is the lack of depth in the antagonist department. The adversaries lack robust motives or intense confrontations, making the conflict feel somewhat tepid. The Bright Boys and the King, while present, do not possess the menacing presence needed to elevate the stakes.

A narrative device that somewhat disrupts the flow is the Storyteller's Corner. This commentary section, though intending to provide additional insights, occasionally comes off as unnecessary and redundant. Integrating these opinions and events directly into the respective chapters could have maintained a smoother narrative flow.

Despite these critiques, Shaffer succeeds in addressing an underrepresented demographic within literature – the queer community. The story incorporates a same-sex coming-of-age love story, providing much-needed representation for young readers exploring their identities. It is evident that "The Lost Story" caters to a young audience, particularly those within the LGBTQ+ community, offering a heartwarming and inclusive narrative.

Overall "The Lost Story" presents a compelling premise that may resonate strongly with its intended audience – young teens and the young adult queer community. While the magical elements fall somewhat flat, the overall message of love, friendship, and self-discovery prevails, making it a valuable addition to literature that champions diversity and acceptance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Woah. I first read The Wishing Game back in 2023 and I fell in love with the authors words and storytelling, thus I was extremely excited to read any upcoming project in the future and it did not disappoint. The lost story is a tale about magic and a really cozy fantasy universe that reminded me of Narnia. If you read and enjoyed the first book you will definitely love this one.

I really enjoyed reading this book and was sad when it was over. The mystery was built around two lost boys that were found years after their disappearance. I was glad that I didn't read a summary of the plot beforehand. There was the pleasant surprise that came in the book when you find out that there was another world they were living in. A world where things only exist in fairy tale stories. As a young girl, I'd look at the clouds and wonder if we were inside a big story book world that someone else kept on their shelf. I felt drawn into the story and loved the journey that the characters went through. I became a fan of the author from this book. I have Meg Shaffer's other book on my to-read list now!

First off, Thank you Netgalley, random house publishing and of course the queen herself, Meg Shaffer for this ARC.

let me start be saying this cover..STUNNING! I will definitely be buying a physical copy!

Two boys, Jeremy and Rafe go missing in virginia state park and mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanations of where they were or how they even survived. Fifteen years later, Jeremy finds missing people for a living with a magical ability while Rafe lives alone as an artist in a cabin in the woods. The only one who remembers what happened fifteen years ago is Jeremy. The boys are soon reunited again when a young woman named, Emilie, finds Jeremy asking for his help to find his missing sister.

I loved this book. The world building in this book was so magical, i was able to picture it perfectly in my mind. I wish i lived there, it definitely brought back the fairytale vibe i felt when i first watched narnia. You get princes, princesses, knights, mermaids, unicorns. EVERYTHING! You get great representation of lgbtq in this story. One of my favorite things was the storyteller throughout the entire book, it made the book that more unique. I was hooked from page one and did not want to put this down. ✨

* triggers- parent abuse *

Have you read any thought-provoking books lately, bookworms?

I can say that I have. I think a lot more thought went into this read for me than it might for others, as it’s set in my home state and in/near a town in which I have lived for many years. WV and, more specifically, Morgantown, WV.

Why was this so thought provoking? It made me question how my state is viewed, the perspectives of the people from my state AND the region of Appalachia on a whole, and made me see a perspective that maybe has been a bit a lost to me, as someone who lives here…this is a magical place, especially to those who don’t live here all the time.

Not only this, but this book explored some difficult subject matter with heart, grace, and quite a bit of heroic grit. I ended up really loving this story. I will say the prose felt, well prosaic, to me at times. However, a friend pointed out the beauty in this - the author was able to sketch out a character with simple truths that created the clear outline of the type of character we’ve all known. I think there was purpose in the simplicity. Verbosity does not always equal eloquence. So much about this story was beautiful and unexpected. I hope you’ll chance a trip to Shanandoah and learn the power of love, friendship, and forgiveness.
Montani semper liberi - mountaineers are always free!

3.7*

This was super cute. It gave just enough mystery and wondering the what’s and the whys. I loved the representation the book held and all its whimsical elements

Jeremy Cox and Ralph “Rafe” Howell were lost in the Red Crow State Forest for six months when they were fifteen. Once they are found, Rafe can’t remember anything and Jeremy refuses to tell him what happened. Fifteen years later Jeremy has become a renowned Missing Persons Investigator and has not spoken to Rafe since they were lost in the woods. He is approached by Emilie Wendell, a twenty-three year old woman who has just found out that she has a lost sister, who asks Jeremy to help her find her sister. Jeremy agrees after he learns that she was lost in the same woods he and Rafe were all those years ago. Only Jeremy knows that what is really in those woods is a magical land that he and Rafe lived in for those six months they were lost. He enlists the help of Rafe as he and Emilie go on an adventure into the land of Shanandoah to find her lost sister.
This book was incredible. It’s not often that I read a book and truly forget I was reading but The Lost Story did that for me. It is so immersive and I love that the magical world doesn’t take itself too seriously. The writing flowed wonderfully and the characters were so lovable. Jeremy and Rafe’s story was so beautiful and it is not one that I will ever forget. The only complaint I have about this book is that I wish it had been longer and we could have spent more time in the magical world. Overall, 5/5 stars this book was so good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Review to be posted to socials closer to the publishing date.