When I saw this was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, I instantly had a feeling this would be my new favorite book, and I was absolutely right.
Everything about this is perfect. It was one of the most wholesome, nostalgic, and endearing books I've ever read. I read it voraciously, unable to put it down, needing to know what happened. The writing is both simple and powerful...it felt pure and undiluted and made me feel like I was 10 years old again, lost in Narnia for the very first time. It is one of those rare books that you don't want to end, and when it does, you instantly want to jump back to the beginning. I love this book wholeheartedly and will be pushing it into the hands of everyone I know when it releases this summer. Absolutely obsessed.

Meg Shaffer does a great job taking a story that the reader is likely familiar with and making it her own. I enjoyed being able to following the characters in the present while learning about their past experiences. The Lost Story has some clever storytelling devices that keeps the reader engaged and the plot moving. The ending leaves it open for a sequel which I would enjoy reading. These are characters that I want to continue getting to know. Meg Shaffer is two for two with her amazing stories.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this Advanced Readers copy. I loved this book. The Wishing Game was one of my favorite books of 2023 so when I saw Meg Shaffer had another book coming out in 2024, I was ecstatic. This book was has the same whimsical style as the first, but with more adult themes. I love the once upon a time narrator storytelling and secret world, along with the slight change up of the love story. I hope Meg Shaffer continues to create more whimsical stories with beautiful characters as I will read them all.

A favorite memory from my childhood was listening to my father read to us at bedtime. His enthusiasm for tales and adventures of Narnia, mermaids, hobbits, and walking/talking trees set me up for a love of reading.

Meg Shaffer’s nods to these nostalgic and fantastical stories drew me in. I loved The Wishing Game and had excitement going in to The Lost Story as well. It took a beat for me to get accustomed to the format with the storytellers chapters, but I liked the quirkiness of it.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys magic and Fairytales.

**I was approved for an Advanced Read Copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this opportunity!

Super cute, easy, fun read that felt like a grown-up version of all the fairy tales we read as children. If you like fantastical stories with a bit of romance, this heartwarming book should be added to your list. I hope there will be a sequel and look forward to reading it!

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a wonderful, and fun read.

The characters in the story are lovable and vivacious. They all have distinct personalities and interests and offset each other beautifully.

The world is constructed perfectly for a fairy tale and to give you more would induce spoilers and this story deserves better.

The plot is that of your typical fairy tale and tells you as much itself. It hits all the tropes and is better for that.

While I generally only cover those three points, in this case I will also let you know that there are few authors who I would 'follow' and search out their other books and this author is one of those. This is the second book of hers I have read and I am a fan.

Sadly I just don't think Meg Schaffer's writing style is for me. I DNF'd this one at 19%.

I wasn't able to get into The Wishing Game and even though I was super interested in this story, I just couldn't get past the style. From what I read I did enjoy reading Rafe much more than I did reading Emilie. This seems to be a me problem though as both her books are widely loved.

Predicted rating 4 stars for the correct audience. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC ebook.

I've discovered my new favorite book. I awarded 'Wishing Game' five stars. As for 'Lost Story,' it deserves five stars and the moon. It's a cozy warming heart fairytale about a found family and their adventures in a magical land. Infused with love and humor, this book explores various aspects of childhood trauma and different ways to dealing with it.

the wishing game, meg shaffer's debut novel, was one of my favorite reads of last year. i loved it with all my heart and devoured it in only a couple hours. it was magical, so when i saw the premise of this book, i was not only intrigued but excited-and-happy-and hopeful that this one would be just as good as her first work. and i was right, i'm so glad i was right.

the lost story is indeed a fairy tale, but not your typical one. yes, we have a queen, a prince, a knight, a lost princess, unicorns, magic apples filled with light, a forest with a magic portal and so, so much more. now, for the why this isn't a typical fairy tale, you'll have to wait and see for yourself. you won't regret it, it will be just like entering a famous wardrobe and landing in narnia, but this time... you'll be welcomed into shanandoah.

Two 14 year old boys who’ve been lost in the woods for months suddenly return home unharmed but different. As an adult Jeremy has the gift of finding lost people. When he encounters a young woman, Emelie, who says her sister was also lost in the Crow he knows he has to help, and he has to get in touch with his old best friend Rafe, whom he hasn’t seen since they left the woods. Reality blurred with fairytale, combining the best of both worlds, this is a fun and original read.

I wanted to love this as much as I adored Shaffer’s The Wishing Game, but alas…this one just didn’t quite hit me the way her previous novel did.

This was very entertaining, a “grown up” version of a fairy tale where 2 teenage boys go missing and suddenly reappear 6 months later. Fast forward 15 years, a young woman’s sister is missing - in the same West Virginia state park that the boys were missing so long ago. Jeremy, one of the prior “lost boys of WV”, decides to help Emilie find her sister, convincing the other lost boy, Ralph aka Rafe, to come with.

While lots of parts of this novel were imaginative & the author credits CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, & The Wardrobe series as inspiration, by the end I felt like this was a cheesy, half-baked rip-off in which the world is oddly similar but the main characters are gay. Not that it bothered me from a moral perspective as I don’t care, I think everyone should be able to love who they love, but lately I feel like modern authors have been taking old concepts and giving them a “woke” twist. Maybe it’s because the characters all felt very flat and two dimensional, but I don’t think she did the romance particularly well.

All in all, this was entertaining, and I was lucky to receive a NetGalley copy, but I noticed a TON of bizarre errors as far as spelling, grammar, and punctuation were concerned (even more so than the hundreds of NetGalleys I’ve read), so that definitely took me out of the story frequently.

3.5 because the world she built was dreamy and I loved escaping to it, but unfortunately the characters never felt like real people to me/everything progressed in a rushed way, making it hard to stay invested.

I loved this book. Such a magical fun fairy tale, with hints of Narnia (and the Book of Lost Things by John Connolly). So of it was a little predictable (being a fairy tale and all), but there were enough twists and turns (especially the ending) that it kept me engaged to the very end. Quite frankly, I didn't want the story to end! Secretly hoping that maybe there's another story (or two) to tell in the Kingdom of Shanandoah! If so, I will definitely be reading it.

I do love me a plot about magical realms accessed via hidden portals, and this is no exception. Also, I agree that “Rafe” is a much better pronunciation of the name “Ralph”, and it’s certainly what I would choose if saddled with the latter moniker. 😆

Anyway…I loved many things contained in these pages. It does have everything you need for a good fairytale, including the horrors of the “real” world. The characters are well-developed and multidimensional, and you will root for them on their journeys.

However, and this is very much a personal preference, I immensely dislike when a character breaks the fourth wall, at least in a book. It’s just one of my pet peeves, and it makes me groan inwardly whenever I see it being done. Let the story speak for itself. I opine that this could have done without the narrator entirely. Also, I guessed a twist right away, so I would’ve liked that to be a little more hidden.

With that said, I still had a lot of fun reading this, and I would happily read about more adventures!

4.25 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC! All opinions are my own..

Thank you so much to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of “The Lost Story.” This book was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and it did not disappoint. I loved the magical journey of Rafe, Jeremy and Emilie and was totally engrossed in this lovely story filled with likeable characters. If you enjoyed “The Wishing Game” you will love “The Lost Story.” Beautiful cover too.

3.5 stars.
Okay very cute. This was a whimsical “feel good” book that will call you back to the traditional fairy tales of your childhood. Wondrous lands, princes and knights, mermaids and unicorns. Also a great queer romantic plot line that you couldn’t help but root for.
The first half or so of the book felt a little rough- the writing was choppy, and it didn’t immediately grip me, but after that, it felt like a totally different book. This was an unfinished ARC and the author has already stated there have been significant edits, so hopefully that has changed and the beginning matches the middle and end by publication. Other downside: I also really didn’t like the FMC, and kept wanting to skip her chapters. She was just sort of annoying and kept saying cringey things like “Boop death”?? None of the other characters spoke like this, so it was odd.
Overall: simplistic world building and predictable plot, but cute and would recommend for a light read

Here is an adult fairytale with a spin. Intriguing beginning setting up the characters of the "lost boys" who went missing for six months, only to miraculously return unscathed, healthy, yet forever changed. As adults, one who remembers nothing of that time cloisters himself away from others, while the older sister who was lost four years before them in the same woods, they agree to help her and return to a place they never thought they'd visit again. But as they search, they enter into a magical land of unicorns, mermaids, kingdoms, and unknown dangers to a place that they've been before. It is a land created by a young girl, written as a fantasy dream where she longed to be. It is here they feel safe and have to decide whether they should leave to go back to the real world, never to be able to return again or to stay. But perhaps that is not the end of their story and another story has yet to be written. I love the element of an added "storyteller" who inserts bits here and there to the reader as the story unfolds and reminds us what makes a fairytale. Once again, Shaffer tells us a tale like no other. If you are a fan of Narnia, Wonderland, or all places magical, then you will certainly enjoy this book. Many thanks to #netgalley #megshaffer #theloststory for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Having been fortunate to read an early copy of The Wishing Game and adoring it, I was just as lucky to receive an invitation to read The Lost Story which I knew I had to read the second I could - growing up I absolutely loved the Narnia books (4th grade Scholastic book fair, ftw), have continued to love a good fairy tale and while I read the synopsis for this, I was immediately sold.

Once I started this, I read it over a day as it was pure magic. With each chapter, I fell more and more in love with this story; it just kept getting better, and I didn’t want to stop reading.

*The bit about fairy godmothers made me tear up.
*And the romance? omg, omg, OMG! Chef’s kiss.
*The secondary characters are vivid.

Gorgeous and perfect, I read The Lost Story with the utmost pleasure; it’s the best book I’ve read so far this year and has my highest recommendation, I hope you love it as much I did ❤️


*I’m going to pre-order this as an audiobook.

**I truly hope there will be more to this 😍

***Stevie Nicks is a goddess, the High Priestess, who really does transcend space and time

****I’m also going to add Tiffany Reisz’s books to my list.



Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the DRC

This story was so good! I really enjoyed the different magical aspects of this story that really brought it to life. The characters and their relationships were amazing, and the journeys they encountered together were incredible. The story reminded me of childhood stories that I loved like the Chronicles of Narnia. There is something so special about bringing your childhood into a book you are reading that makes it so special!

I have been wanting a Narnia-like adult book for so many years and could not believe when I heard about this beauty. Portal fantasy stories are some of my absolute favorites. I was ecstatic when I was given an ARC of The Lost Story. This was an absolute delight of a read! It felt like a fairy-tale for adults especially with the writing style. Meg Shaffer has created a world I wish I could travel to and I hope she will return to it eventually. This is a wonderful fantasy story with a focus on friendship, love, and the act of storytelling.

I loved the framing device for this book and how the narrator kept giving commentary. It’s enjoyable having a narrator who is a character in the story being told and finding out who they are eventually during the plot. Also, I enjoyed the LGBT representation.

I highly recommend this beauty to fans of portal fantasy or fantasy books in general. It is definitely a favorite of the year for me.

Meg Shaffer does it again! She has created another magical world that one can only wishes were to exist.
The Lost Story is a beautiful tale of love, friendship, fairytales, and things that are lost and found. Overall, this was such a feel good cozy book with sparkling moments of loss and forgiveness.