It was really difficult for me to get into this book. It has a very slow pace and none of the characters really stood out for me. What I did like about it was the beautiful descriptions of the scenery...you can really get a picture of it in your mind. I also really liked the last 30% of the book, it was well paced and exciting. Overall, while I had trouble connecting with the book I think it would definitely appeal to a middle grade audience and I would definitely recommend it to my kids.

An adventurous fantasy book perfect for children and teenagers.
Full of magic and secrets and wonderful characters. Follow Ivy on her journey to discover her powers and her story.

When I first read the summary of the book, I got huge Harry Potter vibes. Because, it’s a book about a girl who doesn’t know she has magic, she goes to a magic school and is threatened by a villain (the Dark Queen). But this was different. The whole magic system is completely different from Harry Potter, because here, the stone in your crown decides the magic you get.
Ivy came from the Castle Plum as a scaldron maid. She had no idea she had magic in her blood. And she didn’t expect at all that she would have such mighty powers. I loved to see how Ivy learned everything about the magic, about the school and about who she was. It was wonderful to learn along with Ivy how her magic worked, and getting to know a bit more about it everytime something happened.
I was a bit confused sometimes, though. There were some things I didn’t fully understand. But I don’t know if it was because it wasn’t explained, or because I missed it. I had a few moments where I couldn’t keep my full attention on the book, where it was a bit boring. So if important things were explained there, I could have easily missed it.
Overall it was a great magical experience, with magical stones, hairies and a Dark Queen. I’m curious to see what Ivy has to deal with in the second book.

I really enjoyed this middle grade fantasy, especially the magical school aspect! It was a fun adventure and learning about its world, the magic was different and reminiscent of Harry Potter. Ivy is a 16-year-old learning of her new magical abilities, a maid at first, and then, she’s going through a different pathway than she expected. She gets involved in a lot of hijinks, but it was a delight to read about! I enjoyed the different creatures especially the scaldrons, dragons who provide the fire for cooking. The pacing in the beginning was a bit slow and the tone was quite younger than a 16-year-old girl. However, I loved the worldbuilding and imaginative fantastical elements. Overall, this book has a great magic system, whimsical writing, and fun adventures with Ivy and her friends!

Personal Summary: Ivy is a naive castle maid until she is thrown out and exposed to the world of magic. Whisked away to the Halls of Ivy, she is left with more questions than answers about who she is, how things really work in the world around her, and who she can trust. Schooling opens her eyes to what she is capable of and her budding friendships help rescue her from the trouble Ivy always seems to find.

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Recommended Readers: This is a perfect read for those who enjoy Young Adult Fantasy and fans of the Harry Potter series. If you like magic, fantastical creatures, and a little mystery this would be a book for you.

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Bookish Thoughts: I frequently marked Night’s character descriptions. They were detailed and created a great visual. I found Ivy to be compelling. She is curious and adventurous, though mostly to her own detriment. I enjoyed how the villain, the Dark Queen, was shrouded in mystery until her confrontation with Ivy. The Dark Queen came onto the scene with a bang. I would read book two in the series to get more of her! I also could use more of Ivy’s friend, Fyn, and how sweetly he flirts with Ivy.

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I struggled to really fall into this book. I liked the world and how magic worked within it. I liked the mystery and wanted to see how it all came together but it took almost the entire book before I felt the plot really pick up. The last chapters made the struggles to keep going worth the time I put into reading. If book two is like those chapters, sign me up.

Enter a world where magic exists. Some are born with magic and some obtain it through their crowns. Those born with it have the important job of being a scrivenist. The ones with crowns are royal. Being a scrivenist is a highly honored profession where you use your magic to record events as well as help the royals, Together, the royals and sqwinches (those studying to be a scrivenist) attend a magical school.
Ivy has spent all her life in the slurry fields as a maid, never to see the light of day. It is on her sixteenth birthday that she is kicked out. While searching for a place to exist, she discovers she has magic. Being in those fields suppressed her magic all those years. Now she is to attend the school and learn to be a scrivenist. As she gathers her materials for school, weird things begin to happen. Weird things continue to happen around her all year. She sets to find out why.
Opinion
Are you bookish? Do you love enchanting stories that flow so smoothly you get caught up? If so, you will absolutely love this book. D.E. Night tells a tale so beautifully that you cannot help but be caught up in the story.
I think at some point in their childhood, most people have dreamed of discovering that they are magical, or royal. This book speaks to that inner child in all of us that had those dreams. Ivy lived the poor, downtrodden life as a maid, much like Cinderella. When she discovers that she in fact is magical, all that changes. Add in the fact that there is a wicked queen and boom! You are transported back to the fairy tales of your youth.
For most of the journey, Ivy is on her own with the help of someone who no one else knows. As we get closer to the climax of the story, she is helped along by a friend and her roommate. Ultimately, it is up to Ivy to save the day. My inner child is bouncing with excitement over this story. It takes children to a land where they themselves become Ivy and get to discover the joys of magic and fight to figure out what is going on.
I truly cannot day enough about this story. I truly loved it and have talked to many people to get them to read it.

This seemed like a re-working of Harry Potter for girls to me. A girl has been living a horrible life as a slave, where she is cheerful and hardworking, in spite of the ill treatment she receives. Then one day she is sent to magic school where she discovers powers she never knew she had. She finds new friends and new enemies and ultimately, embraces the very large powers she has.

I enjoyed reading this book. The characters were authentic and very unique. The story also is very unique itself. Even though that a lot of books with magic schhol settings are out the story goes her own way. The descriptions of the world are very well described and amazing. I would definitely recommend reading it.

Overall this book was a fun little escape from reality. The characters and setting were definitely whimsical (including the names of characters, places, and objects), and it was very age appropriate for middle grade readers. However, I would have liked to see a little bit more originality, especially in the first half of the book, as there were almost too many similarities to the Harry Potter series. I also feel like some of the events in the plot would just happen out of nowhere, and then would wrap up too neatly without a believable solution. The main characters would find themselves in a sticky situation, and then would just as quickly find themselves out of that situation in a way that was either too convenient or too easy to make sense. I am all for suspending belief in fantasy books, but I feel like the reader has to do that too much in this story.

Wow, this book was such a nice and cute middle grade fantasy read! It was so whimsical and magical with Harry Potter vibes, but with its own imaginary world. In a few words: magic, little dragons, magical cabs, school setting in an old castle, magical quills. Yes, it sounds so whimsical and it WAS.

First of all, the plot wasn’t the strongest point of this book. It was a bit flat throughout the story, and there wasn’t a lot of intrigue for the most part of the book. The intrigue really started around the middle of the book, and the pace of the story sped up until the ending. The main focus was mostly the discovery of this magical world and magic school, but to be honest, I was fine with that! The whimsical atmosphere and worldbuilding were so well done that I didn’t care much about the lack of intrigue.

The strongest point of this book was without a doubt its atmosphere and worldbuilding. Oh my god, this book was so whimsical! I got carried away in this fantastic world with a magic school setting, magical quills, magical beasts and scrivenists! This magic school had two types of students: royals, and scrivenists. Royals in this book were people who were able to do magic through their crown filled with magical stones. Each stone had different magical traits that these Royals needed to learn to control. Scrivenists in the other hand were “real” wizards, who were able to do magic without the need of magical stones, and had more “art abilities” like sketching everything they saw with a photographic memory with magical squills.

This world was filled with magical beasts like little dragons called scaldrons, and from chapter one, they were the cutest beasts EVER. These little dragons were used as cooks in a castle and I just loved Ivy’s relationship with Humboldt, the scaldron who became her little companion at the beginning of the book.

I also really enjoyed all the magical aspects of this world, like small bottles called glanagerie filled with imaginative worlds where you could be completely swept in, or the Forgotten room, a place where everything you would put into it were forgotten by everyone. The author has such a great imagination, it was actually impressive!

The magic school setting was also everything. I feel like I say this all the time, but honestly I LOVE magic school setting in books, and this one didn’t disappoint.

As for the characters, I really like our main character, Ivy. She was so cute, but also fierce and strong with a real problem to follow rules and a nice sense of humor. The relationships were also cute and perfectly adapted to a middle grade story. I really enjoyed the friendship between Ivy and Rebecca, and I loved the tiny bit of romance in this book. And I really hope it will evolve more in the next books.

This book was honestly so enjoyable and despite a flat plot through this book, the worldbuilding and the magic totally made up for it. The ending was also surprising and I enjoyed all the revelations, even if I had seen them coming. I will definitely read the rest of the series!

Overall, I would really recommend this middle grade fantasy book to Harry Potter fans or cute fantasy stories in general.

What I Liked:

- the fairytale style reminiscent of The Princess and the Goblin
- magical school and lessons inspired by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
- the friendship between Ivy and Rebecca

What I Didn't Like:

- the pacing was very off for me and the story never really had time to breathe so I didn't connect with a lot of it
- the characters were caricatures rather than fleshed-out, complex people and I found myself not caring what happened to them
- a lot of tropes were used but not very effectively
- the info-dump at the beginning means the book is quite confusing at times and some things are never explained properly
- the plot is bland

Overall, this was a run-of-the-mill children's fantasy that didn't offer much new to the genre. However, younger children might enjoy the simplistic style and appreciate the myriad magical creatures and lessons. Just because the book wasn't for me doesn't mean it won't be perfect for another reader.

I think this book was targeting an audience a bit younger than I'm used to reading so it definitely wasn't my usual choice of reads BUT despite that it still delivered.

It has a well thought out magic system with consistent and compelling world building that draw you into the adventure.

It's well written with a solid plot and great pacing once you get into it. I did find the beginning a little jarring and it took me a little while to get into it but overall a great read for middle graders!

This book really loved it, it's full of magic and a lot of unexpected twists, I could see what there are two others and I can not wait to read them. This book is perfect for middle-aged children, if you loved Harry Potter?, this book is for you, thank you for the opportunity to read this e-book.

The Crowns of Croswald is the first book in a magical middle grade/YA fantasy series written by D.E. Night.

The book follows Ivy Lovely who works as a maid in the kitchens of Castle Plum taking care of dragon-like creatures called Scaldrons and spending her evenings sketching the same castle that has appeared in her dreams for as long as she can remember. She never expected her life to amount to much until the day she received her invitation to the Halls of Ivy.

I really enjoyed reading this book, the author has a great writing style that flows smoothly and makes you instantly love her characters and the unique world she has created. I especially loved the little illustrations at the beginning of each chapter which added that little extra dash of whimsy to the story. Once I started reading I could not put it down and finished this magical adventure in one evening.

If you are looking for a cozy book full of magic and adventure that you can read in one sitting then I definitively recommend you pick up The Crowns of Croswald and join Ivy as she discovers the secrets not only hiding in the Halls of Ivy but also in herself.

The Crowns of Croswald is a little bit Harry Potter feel a little bit Sabrina the teenage feel a little bit bad ass. This book is hands down a great book that I couldn't put down
D.E. Night did a phenomenal job writing this story and putting us into another sought out world we didn't know we needed.

** thank you to the author & publisher for giving me this e-Arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!** This was such a cute magical middle grade that should be on everyone’s list! It reminded me a lot of Harry Potter, so if you’re a fan of that series I think you would like this one. I love that there was a female protagonist who was so well rounded, and the world building was phenomenal! It’s out now, so everyone run and pick up a copy and experience this magical world for yourself! ✨

“This all sounds very lovely, but I, I can't be the girl you're looking for. Look at me... I-I'm just. Just a girl. A nobody. Maybe you're looking for Princess Alianna?”

He peered over his enormous, round spectacles, his face softening. “Some scrivenists start out as nobodies.”

The Crowns of Croswald tell the story of Ivy Lovely, who starts out to be working in the kitchen. She is an orphan, doesn't know her parents, which is a familiar setting in fantasy stories. I was afraidf I would get the same set-up like most fantasy stories. However, it isn't the main focus of the story; she doesn't drown in the thoughts that she is an orphan, and focuses more on what she has like great friendships, which I find for sure important, and her love for sketching, which is a big part of the story for good reasons. That, and she decides to run away with some kind of dragon-like creature, away from the dwarf she saw as a friend, to get picked up by a metal wearing beast that carried two people with him (not it, don't call him that, he will get upset).

And that is where we meet Lionel Ohlander Lugg, aka LOL, aka my favorite character for that fact and that fact alone.

Ivy gets a list of supplies she needs for school, buys those, sees the Dark Queen, who as the name might suggests, is the villain. We don't know much about her besides the fact that is bad. But I wished we knew more, that we got more history of her and the reason she acts the way she acts. I'm all for a well fleshed out villain. Maybe we will see more of her in the rest of the series...

The chapters go by, to give more insight on the school system and the magic system, which is an interesting one. Some people have crowns, and they have stones that give them a specific kind of magic, like changing into an animal or control an element. I never read of a system like that, so bonus points for such an unique system!

Sooo, after those chapters, which sometimes felt a bit too rushed for my liking, we go back to the story. Because something strange is going on and that is that nobody seems to know or want to know who Derwin Edgar Night. And to find out who it is, because Ivy wants to know. She takes her friend Rebecca in her problems. And I loved it. I love their friendship and how even though it developed fast, it also developed so honest. They sure are great in causing problems and make a great team, which is nothing but fun to read about. Because they cause so many problems and because they also get punished from it, even more problems are caused, which gave an even more deeper insight in both the history and magic. If you are afraid there will be infodumps, I would say it isn't that bad. From time to time, there sure is a longer story out of nowhere, but in the end it all comes together very nicely and makes you forget it is even the case. That, and since it has this middle grade feeling, it is easy to understand what is going on and how things work.

All by all, this book is a great first book which also sets up the rest of the series. It has great friendships and a blooming romance maybe. If you want to try out more middle grade/fantasy, I recommend starting here because you wouldn't regret it!

Also, every chapter has a cute little illustrations, which is always a win in my book.

I was really intrigued with the blurb and my curiosity got the better of me when I was asked to review the book for the blog and am I so glad I let my curiosity win. The Crown's of Croswald was an excellent read, it was clearly influenced by some other children's books but that didn't make it less enjoyable or less unique. I enjoyed the writing, I thought it was well paced out and the characters were great

Got this from the publisher and from Netgalley for a review!

We all grew up with Harry Potter in some way - we had a best friend, a sibling, a parent, or we ourselves loved it so much that it shaped our reading habits for the rest of our lives...but now years later we have all of this information about the author and times are changing and I for one think that it's time we lift up other authors who have taken up the sort of theme of the books and elevated them into their own imagination and The Crown of Croswald is one of the books I'd like to start with.

Truthfully, if this book hadn't been suggested to me I would not have known about it but now that I do I'm digging it. I'm digging it so much that when my pay from work comes in I'll be ordering all three books from the closest store for my niece because I think she would love it, and also so I can see the pretty cover art in my shelves.

One of the unique aspects of this series so far is the difference in magic compared to how other people use magic in books.

They use porcupines (the poor things generally scare easy) and sketching for magic as well as royal crowns and stones and I love it. I'd buy an entire novella dedicated to the history of the magic system in this world because I've read a ton of books and this is the most out-there one so far.

For a middle-grade series, I feel like she aged up the characters too much. 16-17 for this sort of series doesn't seem right to me because I think that they should be the same age as the readers but the way that it's paced and worded makes it easy to follow and guess what's going to happen so it's a good starting point. It's a slow build up to an intense end of the book and I like that in a book but some younger kids might not, depending on their individual reading level.

This is a middle grade fantasy series, full of magic & adventure - I adored so many things about this first book! At first, I was getting some major Harry Potter vibes and I really loved it, and it’s so great that it was from a female perspective and eventually got to it’s own story development. Ivy’s character is my favorite, and I was so glad she had such an awesome support system. And can we talk about how cute Humboldt seems?! I loved the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, they are absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t wait to make the connection in every chapter. Also when the prologue made sense in this book, WOW - this book was simply amazing!