Ivy pulls us into her magical world from the first chapter. There is a good balance of world-building and action in the beginning of the book, and it does not take long for Ivy to be kicked out of her miserable life of servitude and taken to a magic school. Details and strange events give clues about her important powers and the important role she will play in the book.

The books seems unsure about whether it is middle grade or YA (the main character is 16, which means it is YA, but the tone, content, and readability are more appropriate for the middle grade crowd). However, for middle grade readers, it will be difficult to keep track of the world-specific vocabulary and characters. A few parts seemed rushed--why wouldn't Ivy rush to meet with Winsome after returning from her adventure in the Loch-and other, mundane parts drag (like the lunch scene with ghosts). That said, the story is fun and magical, with a great sense of adventure. Fans of Harry Potter will notice LOTS of similarities (from the plot to characters) but there is fresh, creative originality here too. I think the book will appeal to younger fans of magical fantasy fiction and there are others in the series for readers who wish to continue the adventure with Ivy.

I received this book for free from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy Lovely works as a scaldrony maid managing the fire breathing cookers for the House of Plum. She day dreams of one day becoming a scrivenist and attending the Halls of Ivy, the renowned school of magic. Unfortunately, Ivy possesses no magical blood nor is she part of the royal family: the only two ways of which you are chosen to attend. Ivy's luck suddenly changes though during the Moonsday festivities when a sick squaldron gets her thrown out of the castle. Finally away from the magic shielding slurry fields Ivy is found by Lionel Lugg, who delivers Ivy an official invitation from The Selector of the Halls of Ivy. Once at the school, Ivy realizes there are many truths she doesn't yet know and she is more magic than she could have ever imagined. This is a story about the quest for truth, the use of magic, and the love of friendship and family.

I received this ARC from StoriesUntoldPress in exchange for an honest review. This is the first book in a four book series and I have to say it has quite a Harry Potter type of feel to it. The descriptions are unique and the world is very original. I enjoyed the descriptions and names of the places and people. The characters are likeable, and the action and language is appropriate for middle grade children. 3.5/4 🌟

#thecrownsofcroswald
#NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Stories Untold Publishers for letting me read this middle grade fantasy novel in exchange for an honest review!

As a long-time Harry Potter fan, I immediately felt that this novel was heavily influenced by JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Ivy Lovely, 16, not only discovers her own powers but also learns more about who she is. We follow her 1st year of school at the Halls of Ivy as she grows more into herself, learning to better control her magic.

The plot of this was enjoyable, especially for fans of Rowling's Harry Potter series. Ivy displays a determination typical of the heroine/main character. Once she has a goal set in her mind, Ivy pushed through whatever obstacles were in her way to achieve it. The intertwining storylines - Ivy's learning of her powers as well as of her identity - made this middle grade book more complex, which is an ambitious task. I think the author did a pretty good job with it, since they didn't always overlap.

What I didn't like was how inconsistent the pacing was, as well as the dialogue. While this book is marketed as a middle grade book, I can't help but picture a girl younger than Ivy's 16 years of age. Once in a while, I was reminded that she is 16, but her dialogue (as well as that of subsequent characters) constantly made me forget that fact. The pacing as well made certain unimportant events more important than they actually were, and vice versa.

Overall, I would give The Crowns of Croswald: Book 1 a 3.5/5 stars. As a teacher, this is something I would absolutely recommend to my middle school students.

Thank you to the author for letting me read and review your book!
This is a mesmerising story about a girl named Ivy Lovely, a scaldrony maid who gets summoned to a magical school which she’s only ever seen before in her dreams. There, she will learn more about who she is and why she is there.
I really enjoyed reading this book as it isn’t a genre I would normally choose!
Both the characters and the setting were described in so much detail that it made you imagine you were there, and the story telling was incredibly imaginative!
This book is perfect for anyone who wants to try reading fantasy for the first time!
Overall, I’d give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

This book was full of whimsical and magical elements, and I loved it! The magical beasts introduced were my favorite, and now Iw ant my own scaldron. Ivy was an interesting heroine, and I enjoyed learning about this fantasy world through her eyes.

While the writing and dialogue meets the needs of a middle school reader, I do think the intertwining plots would be hard for them to follow. Even Rowling’s Harry Potter series, a series I believe heavily influenced this one, didn’t expand into multiple arcs and plot points until book 4 when the targeted readers aged up with the characters. Starting with a more basic plot line would’ve more easily hooked readers for this book’s age group.

A good 5-star read! (I only give this if I really enjoy the book so much)

This is an enjoyable and enchanting read on a magical world. It felt the same vibe as Harry Potter but was still different. I think that I'd still pick up the next books on this trilogy when I have spare time.

So so soooo good. I feel in love with this book. Wow I really love everything thanks for the chance guys to read it

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

Ivy Lovely is a sixteen years old scullery maid working at Castle Plum. Her days are filled with looking after the scaldrons and sketching at night, until one day she gets thrown out of the castle she works at and meets someone that has been waiting for her. Ivy can't believe that from the kitchens she gets to live and attend the most famous magical academy in Croswald, the Halls of Ivy. With new friends, she will have to face new secrets that will change everything.

I think the premise of this book got me very excited and then didn't deliver in my opinion. The magical worlds have always appealed to me, but I think that overall the pace was slow and at times events and things were not well explained. Ivy is a great character and promised to be great, as well as the secondary characters, but they then were not explored much.

On a positive note, the ending was packed with action, which I hoped I could find all through the book.

As a well known Potterhead, I'm always on the look out for a new magical, fantasy read and so was delighted to be invited to review this by Stories Untold Press through Netgalley.

I loved the first one that much that I immediately downloaded books 2 and 3 as I just had to read more!! I haven't even stopped to review each one as they are INCREDIBLY good!!! So much so that I've literally just finished reading book 3 tonight and I'm like 'Noooooo!! How can it end like THAT?!'

D. E. Night has skilfully created such an imaginative, magical world. I wanted to be right there inside the Halls with Ivy Lovely (the main character who is immediately likeable) and the rest of the QQC as they learnt how to wield a quill. There were so many new elements to magic introduced that I've never read anywhere else before and I so enjoyed building it all in my mind's eye.

I think what I liked the most was that D.E.Night herself was present in the story - albeit in the form of a royal scrivenest...it just added to the appeal of the world inside the book.

I would highly recommend this if you're looking for a new magical adventure!

The Crowns of Croswald is a fantastical and magical story that will keep you entrapped in hours of entertainment. I couldn't help but imagine that Harry Potter was an inspiration for this book, but that would be the normal thinking when you mix kids, magic, and a magic academy.

If you like magic, schools, and are looking for an alternative to the infamous HP, this is the perfect story. I love how the author used different elements to create a whimsical environment of light fairies in light lamps and scaldrons (dragons that work in kitchens), and magical quills that will take you to magical places. The world-building is incredible and grows as you keep reading!

The cover of the book is simply stunning and it is what captured me! Also, as with any book for middle graders or children, the illustrations in the book (at the beginning of the chapters) were really nice and helps you imagine the story. Nice Read and totally recommend it!

Wow! What a creative story. The story of a young girl that goes from basically living in the dungeons as a slave to living out a dream! I typically don’t read fantasy stories but I am so glad I picked this one up! It kept me on my toes throughout and now I’m just dying to read the rest of the series. As a teacher, I am adding this to my classroom library ASAP!

This book is great for middle graders—I struggled to get interested and ending up not finishing, but from what I read I think it fits the age it’s geared toward and doesn’t have much universal appeal. Thank you for the opportunity to review!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my exclusively my own.

This was a beautiful and whimsical middle grade novel that I loved. I really enjoyed being emersed in the world as it was built so well. The main character Ivy was so well written and I can’t wait to see where her story goes.

This book gave me all the Harry Potter and Nevermoor feels, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Ivy Lovely believes that she is a mere scullery maid from Plum Castle. She spends her days making bread with the scadrons and seeing her only friend, Rimbrick the dwarf. Her life had not changed much in the sixteen years living there in the slurry fields. Until one day her friend the dwarf, gifts her books by D.E. Night and she is forced to run from her home. Ivy Lovely did not know that those slurry fields had been hiding her from the wider world all her life.

She ends up taking a journey to the capital and enrolling in the school to become a Scrivenist. Where mysteries abound, friends are made and miraculous magics are learnt. She explores the school with her transforming friend Rebecca and the help of her mentor Winsome, all to discover the mystery of D.E. Night.

I loved the level of detail in this book and how everything tied in together. The world building is so whimsical and imaginative. I love the idea of a book filling up with everything a person has learnt and discovered in their life, and eventually bound at their death.

I’m excited to see what happens next in Ivy Lovely’s adventure and her fight against the dark queen.

Thank you to Stories Untold and Netgalley for the copy of this book.

This novel is the first book in 'The Croswald Series", it is a middle-grade fantasy novel that takes place in the magical world of Croswald. The protagonist is a girl named Ivy, who is a simple kitchen-maid living among greater magical beings. Everything changes for Ivy on her sixteenth birthday, Ivy is forced to leave the only home she knows and soon becomes aware that she is of magical blood. Ivy travels to the Halls of Ivy, where she will learn to master her magic and learn a few things about herself and the family she never knew.

Excerpt from the novel: "For the first time in her life, she truly felt like a princess. Yes, Ivy: the same girl who spent her days below the grimy ground that royals walked upon. Rather than mingling scaldrons, Ivy would soon be mingling with royals and soon-t0-be srivenists. Standing in front of that mirror, Ivy felt more alive than ever before. She hadn't smiled like this in a very long time."

This novel is my first read from the author D.E. Night. This book definitely captured my attention from the start! Night did a great job with the imagery surrounding the magical creatures like hairies, and scaldrons. I loved the idea that descendants of royal families were entrusted with a bejeweled crown as a conduit of their power, and each and every stone was a source of a different magical wielding.

Ivy's character was well established, I loved her curiosity and her adventurous nature. I quickly fell in love with her character! The secondary characters (Ivy's friends: Rebecca and Fyn) were slightly less defined. I felt their personalities lacking and I would have liked to understand them better. They sort of had a mysterious air that, in my opinion, didn't appeal to the overall friendship Night was trying to create.

There were a few tropes that were similar to other popular titles such as the rags to riches trope like Cinderella. One aspect that I am critical about is how closely it related to Harry Potter, I LOVED Harry Potter, I think it was one of the best YA fantasy series ever written. This novel was extremely comparable to HP. I don't mind the similarities, but I found some parts to be so similar that I started to picture the scenes from HP rather than the creative world of Croswald. For example, I would picture Ivy walking around Hogwarts rather than the Halls of Ivy.

I would rate this book 3.5 stars. The ending had me wanting more! I would definitely pick up the next 2 books in the series.

This book was gifted to me on Netgalley on behalf of the author D.E. Night for my honest review.

I haven't spent much time reading middle-grade fantasy, and I was looking for something a little lighter to balance out some other reads. Enter in... The Crowns of Croswald.

This book follows Ivy Lovely as she escapes from a sad and abusive household and attends a magical school. Sound familiar?

I won't drag it as a Harry Potter knockoff, though it had some similar elements. This story had its own unique flair and characteristics. It was whimsical and fun. But it still didn't have much depth to it. The characters felt pretty static. When the author tried to build out the world, it felt clunky. It just didn't really work well for me as a grown adult. Nevertheless, I think this book is perfect for young readers who are looking for an adventure.

Thanks to Netgalley and Stories Untold for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My thoughts



Narrative and Plot


I have only recently started reading middle grade fantasies and let me take this moment to let you all know what an absolute delight it has been so far. The overall theme in these novels is the sense of wonder and The Crowns of Croswald was no different. The wild and creative magical worlds with endless possibilities and adventure is what I am looking forward to reading in a middle grade fantasy. This one exactly had that tone with elaborate world building and mystery.


The plot was the one low point in the whole scheme of things though. It was supposed to be woven into this tangled tale of mystery. However, things seemed a little bit muddled here and there. The ending is predictable to the point that I hoped it would be some kind of red herring. However, it does not take away the entertainment value of the book. It is still quite enjoyable. These are really minute details if one wants to be nitpicky.




Characters and Conflicts



Ivy Lovely is an inquisitive child as children should be. She has never shied away from an adventure and that makes her a character you can route for. However, actions do have consequences. Often Ivy seemed to act despite being warned about the consequences. One would think she would be careful knowing the risks but she isn't. And then she comes out unscathed on the other side for the most part. She seemed to never learn from her impulsive decisions and somehow managed to get everything back in order despite a few delicate consequences.



The conflict in the story was well masked in the beginning. The ending however, was predictable enough as mentioned earlier. The ensemble of cast was delightful to read. Rebecca and Fyn in particular. Their friendship had the innocence and tenderness of the age. However, some characters randomly disappeared and never came back. Hopefully we get to see them in the next book.




Conclusion


Overall , The Crowns of Croswald was a jolly one time read for me. If middle grade fantasies are your thing, give it a go. You might end up adding the sequels to your reading list, after all , like me.

Ivy Lovely grew up as a scaldrony maid, tending to the scaldrony dragons that serve purposes in breathing fires in the castle's kitchen. She's a dilligent worker, if not rather clumsy and too curious. Only having a dwarf as a best friend, Ivy wished she could spend her days sketching and reading and no longer be a scaldrony maid—until one eventful day, she was kicked out of the castle before being whisked away to Halls of Ivy, the academy of magic in Croswald. She soon learned how to wield actual magic in school and more secrets from her past slowly started to unravel.

I had a hard time getting into the world of The Crowns of Croswald. I will not say that I disliked the writing style, but I find it difficult for me to grasp the way the author described the places and people in this book. The premise of the plot as a whole is very intriguing, yet I feel like there were too many info dump. I am aware that since this is a fantasy story, it made sense that there are to be many descriptive parts for its world building, but Ivy spent a lot of time alone on her own to discover things and the lack of dialogues to buffer the moments made my reading progress very strenuous.

Unfortunately, I did not like Ivy's character all that much either. I love outspoken and curious characters, but with Ivy, she just seemed too reckless and can be annoying at times as well. At some point, I find it hard to care what answers she wanted to seek, and wished that she would just lay low for once. I do however, like her interactions with Fyn, a senior who appeared to always be there for her (sometimes rather suspiciously too), and with Rebecca, her new classmate and roommate. The times that she spent with Fyn or Rebecca were some of the only moments where I do think Ivy is actually nice.

Although I found it hard to go through The Crowns of Croswald at first, the story is still enjoyable for me as a whole. The climax of the book is much exciting, and it was wonderful to see how Ivy used her power when facing the villain. I like how the book is concluded, and I actually do look forward to Ivy's next adventures in the sequel.

1.5 ⭐

This is the beginning of this series that deals with the story of Ivy Lovely, a 16-year-old orphan who for various reasons ends up being thrown out of the castle where she worked, ending up in a school to improve her magical abilities, however, not everything is what seems and she has to face various adversities throughout her stay at school.

Main characters

Ivy is an intelligent, adventurous, and kind young woman, at first she was an entertaining and spontaneous character which I like, but little by little her character became predictable and somewhat unbearable. She always got into trouble, to begin with, she never wanted to listen to her friends or third-party advice telling her what not to do, basically, she was right, she did what she wanted and never really had any real punishment.

I really like her character because she was determined but I feel like she wasn't developed properly and I really didn't know in the end if I knew very well her character.

Plot

The plot is the reason for the score I gave, firstly, way too many things happen that honestly don't add anything to the main point of the story, that is; she arrives at a magic school, strange things happen to her from day one and all she knows is that she has to find a man that no one remembers. Which is not addressed until the end and honestly the way it was presented wasn't the best. Also, the writing was somewhat abrupt on many occasions, so it was tedious to continue reading or it was necessary to reread certain scenes.

Now the most important thing, we all know Harry Potter whether you have read the books or not, the point here is that when it comes to a fantasy book in a magic school with young characters it's inevitable not to compare it with it. However, in this case, it was as if I was reading a different version of the story, let me explain, it has several original point yes of course, which I liked by the way, and make the story unique but practically the entire beginning of the book was like reliving Harry Potter and I don't like that at all;

- Orphan girl who lives in a small room (closet) with powers she doesn't know about
-A man comes for her to tell her that she was accepted to a magic school
-Buy her school supplies in the Diagon Alley (don't remember the name)
-It's attacked by a dementor (I don't remember what they were called in the book)
-Her rich blonde schoolmate (from royalty) hates her and makes her life miserable
All these are just small parts, I could say more but I don't want to get in too deep.

Side characters

This is another big problem, there are too many characters and none of them are endearing. There are characters that are described and mentioned that we never see more than once, so they are unnecessary since they don't add anything to the story. I'd also like to say that the few characters that really matter have no personality and are honestly one-dimensional.

Rebecca, Ivy's best friend, I ask, How the hell did they become best friends? At what point? They never had a real interaction, more than when Ivy saved Rebecca from a situation, and boom BFF, it was so forced and it didn't convince me at all, I don't even consider it a friendship.

Instead, Fyn, can't be a more forced love interest because it would be impossible. First of all, they met because he took her to buy her supplies, left her there, and only returned at the end for her, and that's it. Literally, that was their only interaction before they saw each other again and began to have loving feelings. I don't buy it and I don't want it, thank you. It was also quite weird that he followed her everywhere.

Overall, I would recommend this book to a young audience who would probably like it, it has original points and is a quick read so anyone can read it to pass the time.

Is this book for you?
Perfect for: Fantasy, magic, and adventure lovers.
Do I recommend it? No.

Heroine: 6/10
Romance: 1/10
Type of Relationship: F/M
Plot: 6/10
POV: third person
Type: Serie
Cover: 6.5/10

My thanks to the author D.E. Night, Stories Untold, and NetGalley for the opportunity to get this ARC for an unbiased review.

This book is great for anyone who has ever wanted to dwell into a magical world, if you're a reader or a writer this story is for you. It's a middle grade fantasy that throws the reader into a different type of fantasy world and a magical school. Which I am sure many of us have read these stories of the protagonist being tossed into a new world, in this story our main character; Ivy, has both grown up in this world, but is also learning about a lot of things along with the readers.
I was really interested in the story's concept of magic. At first I thought it was just so cool that the scrivenist magic was a concept as well as the royal's and their magical stones imbued into their crowns. As it helped give off two different types of magic which made me think of some anime's I've seen where there's different types of magic whether by instruments or innate. Which again, cool.
Also the mystery / Ivy trying to figure out who the man in her dreams and drawings was was pretty cool as it gave a bit of intrigue.
I think that the character names were kind of all over the place, some were pretty whimsical, while others were very normal i.e. Rebecca (whom I liked from the get-go don't get me wrong, she's cool!) it just seemed a bit odd to me sometimes is all.
I didn't LOVE some of the world-specific things every time. I found myself a little confused at times with the creatures and little things like that.
All of this being said, I will have a more detailed review in my blog where I dwell deeper into my overall thoughts on this book.