Wow. I could not put this book down. It's a middle grade fantasy that follows a girl named Ivy Lovely on her journey of discovering who she really is and it made me feel so nostalgic even though it was my first read. Thank you to Netgalley, DE Night, Daniela, and the publisher Stories Untold for allowing me to read this whimsical book. I NEED MORE. The magic system was so realistic and I enjoyed the concept of the academic point of view as well. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This was a fun youthful dive into a new world of magic, and who can resist a good coming-of-age story. I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a young adult book because the tone was definitely more geared toward children.

The writing starts off a little slow, but it did eventually pick up.

One thing I didn't really like was how similar this work was to Harry Potter. I think there are ways to create whimsical worlds without drawing so much creative inspiration from Rowling's creation.

Over all, it was a pleasant read, but not earth shattering.

The Crowns Of Croswald by D.E. Night. 2/5

I’m really bummed to say this was a 2 star read for me. I know authors don’t have it easy all the time when reading feedback from their audience, so I’ll always try to keep my reviews as kind as possible.

I received a digital copy of The Crowns Of Croswald for free in exchange for an honest review. This is a YA fantasy fiction in a magical setting, with our main character Ivy skeptically arriving to magic school without a warning or a why. With every turn of the page there’s a new surprise and obstacle for Ivy to tackle, all the while trying to figure out why she belongs at Halls of Ivy. Friendship is found in a royal shapeshifter, Rebecca, and class leader, Fyn, who take turns accompanying Ivy on her whimsical endeavors.

My issue with this book is that it felt like I was reading a rushed version of Harry Potter. I noticed an overwhelming amount of similarities to Rowling’s work, sometimes almost exact traits. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say I have 16 highlights that were just dedicated to similarities to Harry Potter. The world has its intricacies and adventures, and I loved the scaldrons and hairies! Many clever uses for magical creatures and a fair amount of detail put into character development. I would say, if you haven’t read Harry Potter, you might love this book. However, I had a hard time staying engaged and overall the story wasn’t particularly “my type”.

I appreciate the generosity provided by the PR team to reach out to me in regard to this novel, and I hope this review offers helpful insight.

Ivy Lovely is a girl who hadn't been living in the magic world, but eventually is able to. She gets to go to school for magical powers. This reminded me a lot of Harry Potter, because it is a similar premise, but it was different as well. My daughter is 11 and she and I read this book together. We took turns reading the chapters. She is very much into wizards and magic and loved this story. She liked that the main character was a strong female character. I liked that there was magic all throughout the book, the author really took you into the magic. I wish we lived in the same world. We both loved the cute creatures, the Hairies. I like this this is a series because we want to continue reading it together.

Fun and cute! A nice read and introduction to the series for Mid-Grade readers! While not up my current alley, it definitley would have been something I reach for when I myself was a kid-grade reader!

This magical tale is of a scaldrony maid that is anything but ordinary, and her journey is finding out who she really is, whilst also discovering the powerful magic inside her that’s been lying dormant for way too long.
Ivy Lovely spends her days tending the scaldron dragons that heat the food for the royal family in The House of Plum castle, under the watchful eye of the moody Helga. It’s hard work but all she has ever known and expects nothing more out of life. In her free time she likes to sketch a mysterious castle she can’t seem to stop dreaming of while talking with the friendly dwarf Rimbrick. But Rimbrick has a dark secret that will change Ivy forever. Suddenly everything changes the day Helga throws both Ivy and a sickly scaldron dragon out warning them to never return. Suddenly she finds herself and the scaldron dragon she has affectionately named Humboldt on her way to The Halls of Ivy a school of magic where she has been accepted to study. She is to study to be a scrivinist, a person with magical abilities assigned to assist royal families.
She soon finds out that all is not as it seems and she is more than a mere scrivinist. Her magical abilities are much greater than she ever dreamt possible and she is more connected to the Halls of Ivy than she ever imagined. This story has it all from pirates and Dark Queens to magical quills and dragons. It’s is a tale of finding your destiny while making lifelong friends along the way.
The one thing I will say is the story moves a bit too swiftly for my taste which makes it hard to keep up, especially considering this is a book intended for middle school aged children. There were quotes I highlighted (which will be shared in another post) not necessarily because they were great but because they explained key aspects that easily got lost as the story continues. It could have been a wonderful book had the author not rushed through key parts, making some things nearly impossible to understand. I had to read and re-read a few passages to try to figure out what exactly was happening. That said I will not be continuing this series and do not necessarily recommend this book.

Not really my cup of tea. I found the fantasy level too high and found it difficult to keep track of characters.

The Crowns of Croswald is the first book in the series. There are currently four books in total available now. I am very intrigued to see how this series continues and look forward to continuing the adventure.

D. E. Night does a great job of explaining the setting and characters. It was so easy to visualize the school and creatures. All the imagery is amazing.

The story follows a sixteen-year-old named Ivy, she is such a good character. She was a maid that never thought she would be anything more. You follow her journey to the Halls of the school. It was great watching her grow throughout the book.

This is a great read for anyone that loves fantasy and magic in whimsical settings. It has all the Harry Potter vibes you need. This is great for fans of magic and whimsical settings.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a magical book that gives a mix of Hatty Potter and City Of Bones vibes. I loved the writing style given by this author. It is easy to follow and entertaining to imagine the story playing out in your head. In this book, a young woman discovers that she has the gift of magic and is exiled from her home. Sent to a school to help a master magic user she soon finds she must understand her past to have a future. The Queen takes interest in this young woman but it isn't just any Queen; its the dark queen. A battle between good and evil must always take place.

The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night

Looking for a good fantasy underdog turned heroine book, well here it is!

Ivy Lovely is a scaldron maid in the slurry fields, she has never seen the daylight, nor has she ever experienced true love. Well, that's not quite true she has one friend, Rimbrick. Rimbrick always gets her books about magic written by scrivenists and it is an understatement to say that she is fascinated by them. One day she gets kicked out of castle plum and picked up by a carriage of The Halls Of Ivy. A magical school, whose building is the castle of the forgotten family. The same exact place Ivy has been dreaming about her entire life. Once she gets to school strange things start happening and Ivy is caught between what she believes to be true and the strange occurrences that tell a different story. And as if that isn't enough The Dark Queen seems to plan something malicious. No one knows what she's after or maybe the people that do know prefer to keep it a secret. Only sixteen years old and Ivy needs to figure out who her enemies are and which friends she can actually trust.

The book is fairly short and obviously you need to be introduced to the whole world and some characters at first before you can start to properly enjoy the plot, which is why there isn't much happening in the beginning (aka the first 50%). However, I am sure that the other books won't have that problem since you already know he basic rules of this fantasy world

Let me tell you the last 15% or so had me on my feet. At that point I was already so anxious to finally figure out what's really going on, that I was barely able keep my socks on. Some questions do get answered however a lot of them are still left in the blue. Hopefully those will get explained in the following 3 books. Something that will happen a lot is that you think you know what's going on but you never really do. Like I said, I've finished this book and I still am unsure about whether what I read is the real truth. If you don't already have trust issues, after this book you definitely will.

The book is about 200 pages nonetheless it is supposed to cover an entire year worth of happenings so quite often, the time jumps are fairly big / some of them aren't even that big but you just feel like a lot of time has passed, cause you're still processing what you read only seconds ago.

And last but definitely not least (to be honest this has me fangirling so hard) is the subtle name reference. You see a constantly reoccurring character is Derwin Edgar Night (a very important scrivenist) has the same initials as the author (D.E. Night). I thought that that was kind of ironic since D.E. Night has the answers to all of the readers’ questions (in relation to this story) and so has Derwin for all of Ivy's questions.

I hope that you found this review somewhat helpful!!!!!


Bookstagram account: minasbookcorner

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Ivy Lovely, a scaldron maid gets kicked out of castle plum into the slurry fields with no where to go. Once out of the slurries, hiding her magic, she is invited to the Halls of Ivy to attend school to study scrivenry.

While at school, Ivy finds trouble at every turn and with the help of many mysterious characters, discovers a huge secret about her past, present, and future.

My Review: 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this book so much! The world building D. E. Knight created was something to be applauded for. The imagery Knight creates was amazing, I could picture every setting in this book which I appreciate a lot in fantasy novels.

The Crown’s of Croswald was similar to Harry Potter in a lot of ways. The main character was “the chosen one” but in a different way. The adults in her life all lied to protect her from a terrifying destiny, but her curious nature allows her to find out these secrets on her own. A young teenage protagonist breaking the rules along with her friends to slowly bring all the pieces together.

I really enjoyed Ivy as a main character, she was curious, determined, and couldn’t care less about the rules - which is all great qualities for a character on an adventure.

Thank you to the publisher for reaching out to me on Instagram who encouraged me to request the novel on Netgalley. Thank you to Netgalley and Stories Untold for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I will say this book took me longer to finish than I originally planned. I just couldn’t really get into it😭

I love young adult books but to me it was just not descriptive enough. I had a hard time picturing what I was reading in my mind.

That being said I would totally recommend to the younger audience though!

The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night

It’s one of the first fantasy books I’ve read in many years because I’m not really into the genre. However, I think this book may just have rejuvenated my like for the genre. It has everything; magic, action and so much more. The story is engaging, the characters unique and it’s just a fun book. It keeps you guessing and leaves you wanting more.

Plus I think Harry Potters would like this too; the magic, the school of magic etc. it’s a good fantasy book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author’s team for the e-book

This book was a great start to the series! I was engaged the entire time and had a hard time putting it down after the 20% mark. Can't wait to finish the series! I had a hard time putting it down and I read it within a couple days because of that. Quick and easy read that will bring you into a world of magic.

I was a bit hesitant to pick up this book. I know that books compared to another popular wizarding world can be quite a letdown if not done properly. The comparisons are definitely there. I was worried that this series wouldn’t be able to stand on its own. However, as the storyline matured, I was impressed by the originality that was injected into the narrative, especially by the end. This is the first book in a four-part series. I’m excited to pick up the next book to see how this story and its characters will progress.

*Thank you to NetGalley, D.E Night, and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for review *

I really enjoyed the characters and world building in this middle grade fantasy novel.
I will start by saying middle grade is not something I normally gravitate towards but this book was full of wonder and mystery and I loved every second of it.

The main reason I am giving this a 4/5 stars is because I couldn't get past some of the weird names for things, "hairies" for instance just kind of bugged me, I also thought some of the words and phrasing used was a bit too advanced to be considered a middle grade book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book even as a 28 year old woman! "The Crowns of Croswald" creates a fantasy world that I can't help but fully immerse myself into. While reading the book it reminded me a lot of the magical school world of Harry Potter but with the magic turned up even more. Combine that with the storybook style characters of the Chronicles of Narnia plus the classic story of a chosen one and you've got an all new story that is easy to fall in love with. I can't wait for the next book in the series!

With its magical campus setting, myriad strange fantastical creatures and unlikely heroine with humble beginnings and a heart of gold, this middle-grade fantasy novel has mayhem and mystery enough to captivate readers of all ages. ⁣
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It follows young maid Ivy Lovely as she is whisked away from her miserable life of service to the Halls of Ivy, a school for future magic-users and royalty. Completely at a loss as to why she is there, she and her newfound band of friends (and rivals) must unravel the mystery of her past before it brings everything crashing down. ⁣
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A younger me would have been sold by the magical creatures, from the 'hairies' (fairies with glowing hair that act as light sources) to the 'noticals' (little creatures that love to read quickly and highlight key passages in your schoolbooks for you). I also loved Ivy's longsuffering sidekick dragon, Humboldt. ⁣
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The rest of the novel is fast-paced and interesting, with a well-thought-out magic system and memorable characters. I did find some of the reveals predictable, but the ending was satisfying all the same, and I would definitely read the next in the series. ⁣
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Thank you to NetGalley and D.E. Night for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This gave me major Harry Potter feels. I feel like it was a more modern-day version. It was filled with magic, creatures and loads more. An excellent YA fantasy book - perfect for fans of Harry Potter, fantasy and magic - this will be right up your street.

I want to thanks @storiesuntoldpress for reaching out as allowing me a copy of this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think there could be so much more to this book. To me, it felt like book two of a series a missed, we jumped straight into the characters and I felt I had missed quite a bit of the book. The fantasy element of the book was great.

Ivy has had a sheltered upbringing, until she sees into an enchanted forest and her powers awaken. She then attends a school where students are taught to control and learn their powers and magic.

It was a good book - I feel there is a lot of potential but for me, I wanted more and less ‘Harry Potter’ vibes.

Ivy has spent her entire life slaving away to make the royals’ meals at the House of Plum. Destiny intervenes when she is fired from her duties and a whole new world is revealed to Ivy. She makes true friends, learns about the past and most importantly, interacts with magic. The evil Queen looms in the distance and Ivy must find her courage as all that is good in Croswald is threatened.

Great read for middle grade readers! This book is adventurous, endearing and enchanting. Ivy is a strong main character, and D.E. Night does a beautiful job outlining her development. Ivy is inquisitive, smart and has a sense of humor while also going through the turbulence of her life completely changing. The world building was easy to follow and it’s easy for the reader to immerse themselves in Croswald. The other characters are also very relatable and their interactions with Ivy flow really well throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Stories Untold for the e-book copy. This copy was received in exchange for an honest review.