The Lost Story is a spellbinding mix of fantasy and reality. But don't mistake it for a children's book-with themes of kidnapping, homophobia, hatred, and revenge, The Lost Story is definitely adult fare. Like most "fairy tales" The Lost Story is essentially a battle between good and evil- in both the real world and the one hidden in the base of a tree in a West Virginia forest. But with a queen, prince, and knight as characters, and writing that transcends the ordinary, the plot feels "regal." Filled with magical moments and flights of fancy, The Lost Story will leave you with a sense of wonder and awe-almost like being a kid again!

Meg Shaffer's "The Lost Story" is a magical and nostalgic journey reminiscent of childhood dreams and fairy tales. This novel beautifully blends fantasy with reality, creating a captivating tale for adults who still believe in magic.

The story revolves around Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell, two best, childhood friends who mysteriously vanished as boys, only to reappear six months later. Fifteen years later, Jeremy is a renowned missing persons investigator, while Rafe, a reclusive artist, has no memory of the time they were lost and remains haunted by his loss of memories. When Emilie Wendell seeks Jeremy's help to find her missing sister, they embark on a quest together that forces them to confront their past and the enchanted world they once inhabited.

The characters in "The Lost Story" are engaging and richly developed. Rafe, with his wounded soul and dual talents in physical and artistic pursuits, is particularly endearing. His vulnerability and depth make him a character you want to hug and protect. Jeremy, strong and determined, is equally compelling, and the bond between the two friends is heartwarming and authentic. Their journey, alongside Emilie, is filled with emotional highs and lows, making you root for their success and healing.

The story's magical elements and the exploration of friendship, love, and healing create a tale that is both enchanting and deeply moving.

Overall, "The Lost Story" is a wonderful read that will take you to a world of wonder and remind you of the magic that exists just beyond the surface of reality. It's a four-star tale that will linger in your heart long after the final page is turned.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

“Joy is quieter than people think it is. Especially the joy of getting something back, something you thought was lost forever. ”
Here are reasons to read the Fantasy book:

Missing Boys - Jeremy and Rafe went missing in the West Virginia mountains, and 6 months later were found
Years Past - after 15 years, they no longer keep in touch but Jeremy can now find lost things and people
Sister - Emilie’s adoptive mom has died and she wants to find her missing sister, who disappeared in the same place as Jeremy
Return - So she enlists his help to see if maybe they shared the same lost story

I read this with my buddy Erin and we both had the same reaction: We wanted to re-read this book immediately. It reminded me a lot of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire and definitely had the same feel as this author’s last book, The Wishing Game, which was one of my top books last year. This one is on track to be the same. I love the world she creates and her characters so much!

I really enjoyed this magical book. I loved the characters and the development throughout. It was fast paced and kept me engaged, to the point that I read this in a day and a half. I am not much of fantasy reader but this was just the right amount of magic!

Thank you Netgalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for the advanced reader copy!

THE LOST STORY was a really interesting reading experience and unfortunately another miss for me this month. Her debut novel was also not a top favorite for a few reasons but I could see why people loved it. THE WISHING GAME needed some more actual magic and this book technically delivered on that. I wanted her to write a book like this one but it still didn't live up to the expectations.

This book is a portal fantasy / kind of magical realism story, which is usually absolutely up my alley. Emelie is looking for her sister and Jeremy is known for finding missing women and girls. He was once lost himself - he and his best friend Rafe were missing for six months in the woods... well, according to the general public. Where were they actually? In a Narnia-esque land through a door in the forest.

The first half of the book involved them figuring out how they'd journey together and preparing. I was expecting more time in the magical world but it took a lot of buildup to get there. Then, unfortunately, the plot felt very meandering like there wasn't a point or climax to be seen when they were in there. There were basically two mini climaxes with very little rising action or time for a conclusion once we got there.

The characters felt very lame and the dialogue was cheesy in most instances. I didn't care for Emelie - she was usually annoying and childlike while Rafe and Jeremy felt more like actual adults. I know that Shaffer is going for whimsical but unfortunately it usually just comes off as juvenile, to the point where I never believe I'm reading a book for adults.

Her plots and synopses sound so good but there's something lacking in the execution. I feel like I will definitely keep reading her books in hopes that one of them hits. There's just something about them that keeps me interested in whatever she writes next.

I had no idea what to expect from The Lost Story, but I’m so glad I gave this book a chance! Full of great characters, a fantastical plot, and a sweet romance, The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer has a lot to offer.

>> ❤️ What I loved: *The Lost Story* reads like a fairytale in the best way. It felt like tucking in with a bedtime story, and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Despite some serious subject matter, the story overall had a lighthearted quality that kept me hopeful and kept things from feeling too heavy. The omniscient “Storyteller” character (narrating through interstitial chapters) was a fun way to keep the story moving and made the book even more endearing. I loved all of the characters and was rooting for everyone’s happily ever after!
>> 💔 What I didn’t love: While I appreciated the pacing of this story being pretty consistent, some of the transitions felt a bit abrupt. I would have liked things to linger a bit more, especially at some of the more intense emotional moments in the book so that we could really “feel” them a bit more.

I would highly recommend this book to adult readers who love fairytale fantasy and adventure and are looking for a quick read. I hope that we get a continuation of this story from Meg Shaffer to see how things turn out for these great characters!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (4-4.5)

Acknowledgments & Disclaimers
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Meg Shaffer, and Random House Publishing/Ballentine Books, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

Dear Meg Shaffer,

Please continue writing whimsical magical adult novels for those of us who have always dreamed of being transported to another world, and have never let go of that dream.

XOXO, Another Meg

Shaffer did it again. She was able to capture the essence of story that has meant the world to me. I have loved Narnia forever, so much that I have taught it to my students and made Turkish Delight for them... So much that I do look for retellings or different interpretations of that have given me those feeling again. THIS STORY DID THAT.
Jeremy and Rafe were the best protagonists. Their story is moving and you are on board with both of them feeling mad and confused and hopeful. Emilie and Shannon's story was so heartbreaking and redemptive. The layers of their tale were so beautifully woven through every part of this story. I hated the Bright Boys. I hated the all of the other characters you were supposed to hate. That being said, I ABSOLUTELY loved the characters you were supposed to love and were able to forgive. I know that this is kind of all over, but honestly, it is super easy to spoil this story.
This is highly recommended for fantasy readers, magical realism readers, CS Lewis lovers. I honestly would reread it again right now. This book is FULL of Easter Eggs.

The premise was what instantly drew my attention. Anything resembling Narnia and I will be there. The mystery and intrigue of what happens to the boys also was so appealing. There were parts on the book that reminded me of Adrienne Young's beautiful, lush and whimsical writing. The writing at times was so immersive that I was lost in the book reading. But it was the dialogue of our characters that I found very weak. While in there 20s and 30s, they spoke as if they were teenagers. It felt very jarring to go from beautiful descriptive writing to immature dialogue. Overall it was a great idea and concept!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the digital review copy via NetGalley!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rafe and Jeremy get lost in the forest of West Virginia when they are boys. 15 years later, Emilie is asking them to go back to find her sister. Jeremy returned home with the ability to find anything and anyone and Rafe returned home absent of all his memories but both men are needed to find Emilie's sister who also disappeared in the state forest several years earlier. But to find Emilie's sister everyone is forced to face what made them long for a different world to begin with. This is a magical tale of facing our demons, finding family and love and booping danger on the nose.

All these characters are so charming! Down to the rat there was not one character that you didn't grow to love almost immediately. This novel uses fairy tales (in a very obvious way, it's kind of the whole point) to tell the tale of a one boy falling in love, another accepting himself, a girl doing everything she can to find a family, and a woman who created a who different world because she didn't care for the one she was in. If as a child, you ever had cause to wish your way away from your life or your family this book is going to touch you in a really special way. You're never too old to hope and wonder.

While the story drew me in immediately, I did have some issues with how camp the story attempted to be. They were easy to overcome but while the narrator is revealed at the end of the book, I don't feel that the story breaks added anything to the story. Another criticism that I've seen often and is totally valid is that no matter the age of the character, they all talk like they are 16. This one was a little annoying but in my head I just kind of aged everyone down to make it more palatable to me. The pacing of the story was a little weird as well. It's almost as if she spent too much of her energy writing the start of the story so at the end she just had to rush through. I hated that it took 40% of the book for them to go back to Shenandoah then the big conflict was in the middle of the book so the end was this weird 15-day summary of them having a good life in Shenandoah. If I could criticize anything about this book it would be the weird 15 days summary. We (the reader) read 300 pages of buildup, let us savor our happy ending a bit more.

4/5

he Lost Storyby Meg Shaffer was a wonderful and whimsical summer read. The story follows three main characters as they unwind the struggles and deep understandings of their past with a heavy focus on their childhoods. But the method for coping is through entrance to a secret world in the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia, where the uncover the imaginings of their childhood stories. The twist is that Rafe and Jeremy have been there before when they were the Lost Boys of West Virginia, but what caused them to return to the land of the normal and why are they headed back?

For my second Meg Shaffer, I absolutely adored this book and the elements of fairytale storytelling. She always knows how to enrapture an audience with her sense of magical realism to create a story that all audiences can relate to - while using elements that are reminiscent of Narnia and Peter Pan. The reason for the one star deduction is that it felt like there was a lot going on with some of the characters at some points and it made it hard to follow when some of the small threads tried to come back together. Overall, I will definitely pick up whatever this author writes next1

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

I really really enjoyed how different this book was. I needed something unusual, quirky, whimsical and this did the trick. It took a bit to get into the more fun and magical stuff-I was surprised a lot of this didn't start to unfold until about 40% in. That first part of the book did seem a lot different than the second half, which was hard to kind of transition into. I loved all of the characters and the fair tale aspect of the book. Some things were a bit confusing. Sometimes it felt like characters were just telling, instead of the reader experiencing those moments. But overall, I really liked this one. I liked it more than her other, The Wishing Game. I would continue to read from this author! Her books are just so unique.

I loved the first part of The Lost Story and was so excited to see where it would go, but I started to lose interest when Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy “crossed over”. Without giving anything away, I felt like something big happened way too quickly, and I wasn’t as excited about their mission. The fairytale world was fun, but at times I felt like I was reading a middle grade book (which I love), but it wasn’t what I was hoping for as far as world-building. The romance was fine, but again, it wasn’t really what I was expecting when the book first started. I’ll totally give this author another chance because I adored The Wishing Game, but this one fell flat for me.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Being a fan of Meg Shaffer’s first book, The Wishing Game, I was ecstatic to hear she had a second novel coming out. And The Lost Story did not disappoint. In fact, I liked it even better! Touted as a fairy tale for grown-ups, it successfully balances the whimsy of childhood classics, like The Chronicles of Narnia, with more adult topics, like lost love and trauma.

I was honestly nervous that the “magical realm” mentioned in the summary would end up being a metaphor and was overjoyed when the wonderful MCs journeyed to a beautiful and fully realized hidden world. SO MUCH YES!! As someone who grew up hoping she’d stumble across her very own secret portal, this book read like a childhood wish come true.

But it’s so much more than a fairy tale, exploring themes of loss, sacrifice, and resilience, including the inner and external battles we must fight to find our true selves. There’s also a beautiful queer love story at the center of this novel, and seeing that representation warmed my heart.

My one critique is that the book ended with a few loose ends and a cliffhanger vibe, which left me feeling just shy of 100% satisfied. I’m crossing all of my fingers that there’s a sequel in the works because I’d love to get my questions answered!

If you’re an adult who still believes in magic, finds joy in storytelling, and gives the back of every wardrobe a thorough search, then this may be the book of your dreams!

This book was just such a weird experience. Even though it is adult, the dialogue and the character's inner dialogue read a lot like middle grade; I kept getting whiplash. I had to keep reminding me that Jeremy and Rafe were almost 30 years old and Emilie, 23. They read like small children, especially Emilie - I kept thinking she was 9, but she kept saying she worked at a vet clinic and she lived alone.

The author tried to write whimsy but she just made the characters extremely cringeworthy and unbelievably young. All 3 of them felt like manic pixie dream girls from 2000's indie romantic movies. And that is so weird because she managed to create a whimsical book with The Wishing Game. That made the characters so annoying to me.

And the plot was just so predictable from the beginning.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

I wanted to like this. I expected to like this. I really enjoyed the author’s debut novel, The Wishing Game. I was excited for the fun to continue with this, marketed as an adult fairytale, inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia. But, nothing about this felt adult. In fact, it felt very juvenile. We’re to believe the main characters span from ages 23 to 33, but the dialogue reads much younger.

The world building, story and character development were lacking for me. Ultimately, this had a cool concept, but it was poorly executed. That’s my opinion. I truly hope others who choose to read it disagree and have a more enjoyable experience, although I wouldn’t recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC. This book has been published and is now available for purchase.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
by Good Book Fairy | Jul 1, 2024 | Fantasy, Fiction, LGBTQA+, Magical Realism / Dreams, Sisters, Year 2024 | 0 comments

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer book cover features a majestic looking tree.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

ARC from Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an honest review

Book Blurb:
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest. Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories. Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.

My Review: 4 stars
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The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a magical and fantastical story that will ultimately feel like a trip to an adult’s version of Narnia, but through a forest, rather than a wardrobe.

Going in, I had no idea that this book would be mostly fantasy. I’m a mood reader and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get into this genre when I started reading. Luckily, Shaffer is a skilled storyteller and was able to let me just, well – go with it. I’m so glad I did.

I found myself most intrigued by the three main characters and the growth of their friendship. Rafe, Jeremy and Emilie were a trio to root for, even before they went on a search for Emilie’s sister. Their banter was spot on, and they fell into a comfortable ease with one another. Jeremy’s skill at finding things and Rafe’s artistic ability seemed so amazing until they went into the forest and the reader learns some of the other things they excel at.

This book read more like a YA (young adult) novel than adult fiction. I can’t put my finger on why, maybe the lost boys? I’m not sure. I appreciated the LBGTQ angle and felt like it worked perfectly in the story. I think many Narnia fans will love this book, or fans of any type of magical worlds.

I am so bummed to DNF this one. “Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia”… yes please!! Except… not at all.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and it was categorized “Romance / Sci-Fi Fantasy / Women’s Fiction.” It should have also had an LGBT tag. The two main characters are two men (who were lost together as boys) who are in love, and the book is following their relationship (or lack thereof at the time I put it down because one has had his memory wiped). It’s one of the •main• themes, not a side plot or smaller part. To be clear, I don’t put down every book that has a gay couple in it—that is part of the time in which we live, therefore I expect it to also be in some books today as well. However, I would not choose to read a book with a gay couple’s romance/relationship as the •main• theme to be chronicled.

Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.\

I loved the premise of this story, gave me very bridge to Terabithea vibes. Unfortunately I just wasn’t captivated by the story 🤷🏼‍♀️ the characters were lovable and I loved the premise of a fantasy land but I just couldn’t get into it as I had hoped.

Title: The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Publication Date- 07/16/24
Publisher- Random House Ballantine
Overall Rating- 3 out of 5 stars

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Story Review: Man has this been a few bunch of disappointments. I know now not to request, or buy cozy fantasy they rarely work for me. So, this review please take that into consideration, as I’m learning my taste in books and these new sub genres.

I really enjoyed the start of The Lost Story. I loved getting to know Jeremy, Rafe and Emily, all coming into this shared new adventure from unique places. I loved the heart, the determination to overcome and the comradery. However, once they got into the woods, without spoiling anything, we entered into a new world. The story started to significantly slow down for me there. I ended up DNFing this at 60 percent.

I was invested in the investigation and the unique ways that JErmey finds missing women. I was also invested in his and Rafe’s story as well as feeling hopeful Emily would find her sister. I personally, and this is where the cozy fantasy subgenre just stops working for me, I needed more from the plot and something else driving the story, just slightly higher stakes.

To be fair in my review, if you like cozy fantasy, you will enjoy this book. Meg Shaffers other book “The Wishing Game,” is one of my favorite stories and actually made me tear up. Her writing in the Lost Story is amazing, she has a unique way of storytelling and is just a beautiful writer.

I sadly think this is where my journey of cozy fantasy ends, as much as I want to like it I just don’t. If you do, pick up The Lost Story.