✨ A cozy, part mystery, part romance, and mostly fantasy that had me hooked from the start.

✨ This was an overall easy read, but it did delve into serious topics such as abuse and mental illness.

✨ I loved the main characters and felt as though their character development was done in a way that was both realistic and inspiring.

✨ This truly was a small adult version of Narnia!

••• quotes •••
💬 “...scared is a feeling, not an excuse.”

💬 “Joy is quieter than people think it is. Especially the joy of getting back something you thought was lost forever.”

💬 “I wasn't lost because I wasn't here. I was lost because I'm lost without you.”

💬 You are my kingdom. Where you are is where I belong.”

💬 “Yes, books are magic. Maybe the strongest magic there is.”

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
✏️✏️✏️
🌶️

Thank you @NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is one of my favorites of 2024! I could not put it down! With a loose interpretation of one of my childhood favorites, The Chronicles of Narnia, it kept me interested throughout and the fantasy world created was incredibly realistic.
We follow Emilie, Jeremy and Rafe into the woods of West Virginia as they search for Emilie's long lost sister. Their dialog was so much fun and easy to follow. The world they enter through Red Crow Forest is described so perfectly I could see how beautiful it was and envision everything as if it was a play on a stage in front of me. And the narration by "The Storyteller" was a perfect an essential part of telling this story. As the storyteller would break the fourth wall it felt as if they were talking just to the reader and added so much to the story.
I highly recommend this story for the characters, the plot and the wonderful message that it leaves us with throughout the story. I was sad to say goodbye to these characters when the story ended because they felt like my friends by the end.
All of the opinions in this review are my own but I am so grateful to Random House - Ballentine for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this heartwarming fantasy book.

"The Lost Story" by Meg Shaffer is a captivating blend of fantasy and mystery that transports readers to a magical realm hidden within a West Virginia forest.

The novel follows best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell, who mysteriously disappeared as teenagers and returned six months later with no memory of their time away. Fifteen years later, Jeremy, now a renowned missing persons investigator, and Rafe, a reclusive artist, are drawn back into the forest to help Emilie Wendell find her missing sister, Shannon.

Shaffer’s storytelling is reminiscent of classic portal fantasies like C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, with a modern twist. The narrative weaves together themes of friendship, love, and the enduring impact of past traumas. The magical world of Shanandoah is richly imagined, filled with both beauty and danger, and serves as a poignant backdrop for the characters’ emotional journeys.

While some characters, like Emilie and Shannon, may feel underdeveloped, the deep bond between Jeremy and Rafe adds a layer of emotional depth to the story. The novel’s pacing keeps readers engaged, balancing moments of action with introspective passages that explore the characters’ inner struggles.

For me, "The Lost Story" is a nostalgic yet dark fairy tale that will appeal to fans of fantasy and those who enjoy stories about the power of memory and the search for lost loved ones.

I scrambled to request this after absolutely adoring The Wishing Game. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work as well for me. I do think this book will be enjoyed by so many people, but I struggled a bit with the pacing of it. There were moments I was completely drawn in, and then moments where if I put down the book, I wouldn’t pick it up for days. Towards the ending, things are happening so fast and I feel like that’s when the world building was starting to happen, but I think I just wanted more a little earlier.

I did enjoy the characters and the world felt really whimsical. The romance was really sweet, but awkward at times. Overall, I still look forward to Meg’s future books, at her debut was 5 stars for me.

Yes all books are magic! This one has just a little bit more with a big dose for romance.

Thanks Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Meg Shaffer has an ability to create magic and adventure with characters who are fully drawn and charming. She won me over with The Wishing Game and kept the promise of her talent and skill in The Lost Story. Told as a fairy tale, including the insertion of explanatory chapters by The Storyteller, Shaffer tells the story of two boys who are lost as teenagers in the West Virginia wilderness. Jeremy and Rafe are sensitive and talented and when they suddenly return home after being missing for six months, things have changed in their lives. Then Emilie comes along, seeking Jeremy’s special gift of finding lost girls, as she’s just discovered that she had a sister who was lost in the same wilderness where the boys were lost. She wants to find her sister’s remains.
The story unfolds from there, with travel back to the woods and the creation of a glorious, fantastic world. But is it fantasy?
The book reads at times like a middle grade novel, but it is immensely readable. It is hard to put down. As with all good fairy tales, there are moral issues to deal with, and the treatment of that subject matter is not juvenile. I appreciate the way this author breaks down complex issues to our level and that is both hopeful and infinite.
The Lost Story was released July 16, 2024. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for this delightful ARC.

I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars). I fell in love with these characters and their stories. This was such a feel good story and the characters made me feel like a member of the group. For all the people who feel like they don’t fit in or have a place in their world — this book is for you. I had several moments of my life like that when I was growing up, and reliving that was so nostalgic and helped me connect to these characters.

I absolutely loved the breaks from The Storyteller throughout the book. That was the cutest way to give background context to things going on in the book. It provided a major storybook vibe from our favorite childhood stories.

This book is so much emotion and strong relationships. I expected more action and adventure, but I loved how deeply personal the characters were with one another. The connections they had and formed was magical.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for people who love connecting to the storybook fantasy books. While it is still a tale of action and adventure, it also deeply discusses many serious topics of loss, suicide, LGBTQ+ relationships, adoption, and more. It was such a heartwarming story and cements Meg Shaffer as one of my favorite authors.

I enjoyed this. It was an adult fairy tale which I'm totally here for! There was love, suspense, humor, and I loved the interjections from the storyteller!

Thai was magical and really painted pictures in my head that was atypical for me bc I’m not usually into fantasy/YA even though this wasn’t market as such. many many students will love it.

“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 they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.”

What a unique and heartwarming story! A fairy tale with a bit of romance, plenty of quests, and a lot of fourth wall breaking that was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia!

I loved this author’s previous book The Wishing Game, so I was excited to read this! I enjoyed the fantasy and magical realism elements, and all of the characters were multi dimensional and well fleshed out.

I will say the book is a bit too long. It took over 100 pages to really get into the story, and I felt that the background information could’ve been more concise in the beginning allowing the reader to get immersed in the story quicker. But overall I loved this story and these characters, and I want to return to Shanandoah! Books really are magic.

4.5 stars

This has a super interesting premise! I was sucked in immediately with the first half but it got less interesting towards the end and lost me a little. It felt a bit different than the first half. The romance was adorable and the writing was beautiful.

This was a fun, whimsical, magical story that will stay with me for a long time and will be a story I read over and over. I loved how part of the story was in the real world and part in Shanandoah. I wish the first part wasn’t so drawn out so that we had been able to spend more time immersed in the magic of the fairytale world. That was the only part of the book I disliked. Overall, a great read that I’d highly recommend.

I was surprised by "The Lost Story." It certainly has the feeling of a C.S. Lewis tale, but was strikingly sad and a little creepy! Reading about such sad childhoods was difficult, but the story was like a healing fairy tale for adults.

The love story part of the novel was wonderful. Pain and confusion at such a long separation, combined with such a strong history and lingering pining and compassion was well done. An element I liked less was the narrator. The fourth wall breaks pulled me out of the story and took away from the realism. But I can see that this addition added some levity and moved the story along. I will also note that the ending got a little corny and didn't fit as well with the serious tones of the rest of the story.

Overall, this was an interesting and heartfelt story of loss and healing and was written with a strong sense of setting and scenery.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

I enjoyed The Wishing Game by this author last year, so I was interested to pick up her new one, which has been compared to The Chronicles of Narnia. Set in West Virginia, 20-something Emilie is looking for her half sister who disappeared many years ago. She enlists the help of Jeremy, a young man who himself disappeared with his friend Rafe into the Red Crow wilderness as a teenager, and now has the uncanny ability to locate missing girls.

This novel has a slooow start. The supposed "Narnia" tie-in doesn't take place until the 40% mark. The back half of the book was more intriguing, but I can't say too much without spoilers. Overall, I found this to have an interesting premise and I appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation, but it lacked execution and the characters were somewhat one-dimensional.

Talk about an ending that made me CRY!

Shaffer's The Lost Story seems like just another fairy tale (story-teller included), but her second trip into the fantastical was anything but simple. This third-person narrative that cycles between the viewpoints of Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy, a motley crew searching for Emilie's lost half-sister in West Virginia's fictional Red Crow State Forest. Their quest for answers brings them full circle to when Jeremy and Rafe were lost in the same forest for six months as high schoolers and into a magical world that could only be created by a teen yearning to find their true home.

The first almost third of the book felt mundane and hard to get through: I understand the need to set up the story, but things finally kicked into a higher gear once the magical aspect of Shaffer's story appeared. Once the fantastical DID appear, it felt almost rushed. The characters were immediately thrown into a situation that I would have expected more of a build up to.

That being said, Shaffer hits some really DEEP themes that can be triggering: familial abuse and violence, mental health (such as depression and suicide), implied homophobia and loss of parents. These themes, however, are contrasted with those of found family, enduring love, healing and forgiveness. The profound depth and meaning is similar to that of T.J. Klune's beloved stories, and I would highly recommend to those looking for something not only charming but incredibly moving.

Meg Shaffer’s fantasy novel “The Lost Story” is a whimsical fairy tale about three adults on a quest to find a long-lost sister in a world shaped by a child's wishes, dreams, and a special unicorn pencil.

The novel is narrated by the Storyteller, whose identity is revealed at the end. The story begins fifteen years earlier, when two teenage boys, Ralph “Rafe” Stanley Howell and Jeremy Andrew Cox, venture into the Red Crow Forest in West Virginia in May, only to return six months later under mysterious circumstances.

As the Storyteller explains, fairy tales adhere to certain rules:
1. One princess in distress
2. One magician, wizard, or wise woman
3. One hero
4. One to three villains
5. A member of the royal family disguised as a commoner
6. A bunch of unusual animals

Twenty-three-year-old Emilie Wendell, grieving the loss of her adoptive mother in Milton, Ohio, submits a DNA test in hopes of finding any biological relatives. She discovers that she has a sister, Shannon Katherine Yates, who went missing twenty years ago in the Red Crow Forest.
Rafe’s father, who insisted that Rafe focus on outdoor skills rather than drawing, reacts violently when he discovers Rafe’s drawings of his best friend Jeremy. After being beaten and having his drawings destroyed, Rafe flees with Jeremy into the forest. The two disappear for six months; when they return, Jeremy possesses knowledge of the events that occurred, while Rafe’s memory is wiped clean. Unable to explain what happened, Jeremy returns to England with his mother, leaving Rafe isolated and estranged. Rafe, especially after the loss of his father, has since lived among the forest birds, painting his cabin and creating wooden woodland creatures.

In the intervening years, Jeremy has used his magical talents to find missing persons and lost items. When Emilie approaches Jeremy during a TV interview to help find her missing sister, he reluctantly agrees after recognizing Shannon as Queen Skya of Shanandoah, a magical land within the Red Crow Forest. Together with a reluctant Rafe, they embark on a journey back to this enchanted world, filled with unicorns, dragons, silver tigers, and more. Their adventure unfolds with romance, found family, and heartbreak.

Shaffer’s adult fairy tale is ambitious, featuring a magical realm created by a thirteen-year-old and depicting Rafe and Jeremy as adults in their late twenties, engaging in heroic feats. However, the imagery and descriptions of Shanandoah are less vivid compared to other fantasy worlds. The rapid development of Skya’s and Emilie’s relationship feels somewhat implausible given their limited time together. Nonetheless, Rafe’s struggles with his father’s abuse are poignantly portrayed, and the tender love story between Jeremy and Rafe is beautifully crafted as they navigate their identities and embrace their love in a world that offers acceptance and wonder.

I am in awe about the magic that was woven through the pages of The Lost Story. Meg Shaffer concocted a whimsical story that had my imagination running wild and my fingers flipping the pages faster and faster so I could find out what happened next!

Growing up, I loved fairy tales. As an adult, I enjoyed getting lost in a fairy tale world that the Queen concocted (although it was more Narnia-esque than a Rapunzel fairy tale). Rafe and Jeremy were strong male leads that played the parts of a prince and a knight very convincingly. I would love to go on and on about the story, but do not want to spoil the plot! Just know that this book features love, fantasy, excitement and hope. Get lost in the pages and you'll find your happy ending.

Another fabulous story from Meg! The Wishing Game is still my favorite out of these two but this is still very good. This one felt more YA than the other but was still and enjoyable read in my opinion.

This was definitely a unique and magical read that tackles heavy topics of overcoming grief and abuse. I liked all the characters and enjoyed adventuring into the magical, fairytale world that reminded me of a mix between Narnia and A Neverending Story. I also appreciated the “story-teller chapters” that made me feel like a part of the story. However, the pacing was a bit off for me. Some chapters felt very slow and I felt a lack of plot and depth and some chapters felt exciting and whimsical. Overall, this fell a bit flat for me.

I love love love this! I love the overlap of reality and magic, I love the power of stories, and I love the power of love. I’ll admit at first I hated the “storyteller” chapters and felt like it was weird and took away from the story. But now I love it! It’s like the answer to all the questions I would normally wonder about while reading a book. It added another magical feel to it like getting a little sneak peek into the author’s mind. 10/10 recommend!