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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
I Am A Huge Fan Of Fantasy Book So I Was Very Excited When I Was Asked To Review This Book. This Book Was An Incredible And Fun To Read Book. From The Very Starting It Gives You An Eerie Vibe. Fans Of Harry Potter Will Surely Love This Book. It Is A Magical Adventure With Well Developed Characters. The Cover Of The Book Is Absolutely Gorgeous.
I Am A Huge Fan Of Fantasy Book So I Was Very Excited When I Was Asked To Review This Book. This Book Was An Incredible And Fun To Read Book. From The Very Starting It Gives You An Eerie Vibe. Fans Of Harry Potter Will Surely Love This Book. It Is A Magical Adventure With Well Developed Characters. The Cover Of The Book Is Absolutely Gorgeous.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Ivy lovely is a 16 year old girl who works in a kitchen of a castle with Scaldron dragons. Working with dragons who bake cakes in their mouths sounds great, but for Ivy it isn’t. After one of the dragons gets sick Helga, the head staff of the kitchen, throws Ivy out of the castle. Ivy leaves with the dragon, who becomes the best pet that you can imagine. She finds out she is accepted to a magical school and her adventures and search to answers can begin.
The world and magical system of this book are great and unique. There are two kinds of magical people. You have royals who have crowns with stones that give them specific powers. Like being able to become any animal. And you have Scrivenerists. They have photographic memory, sketch a lot, have a magical quills. How cool is that.
Ivy is a lovely main character. She is adventures and gets in a lot of trouble. And if she wants something, she will do anything to get it. This makes her an awesome main character. She makes some friends which she drags along in her adventures. Although I love her friendships I would have liked to see more of it and know more about her friends.
I would recommend this book for people who love middle grade fantasy books and to the fans of Harry Potter. There is a magic school, wonderful world, an evil queen and a great adventure.
The world and magical system of this book are great and unique. There are two kinds of magical people. You have royals who have crowns with stones that give them specific powers. Like being able to become any animal. And you have Scrivenerists. They have photographic memory, sketch a lot, have a magical quills. How cool is that.
Ivy is a lovely main character. She is adventures and gets in a lot of trouble. And if she wants something, she will do anything to get it. This makes her an awesome main character. She makes some friends which she drags along in her adventures. Although I love her friendships I would have liked to see more of it and know more about her friends.
I would recommend this book for people who love middle grade fantasy books and to the fans of Harry Potter. There is a magic school, wonderful world, an evil queen and a great adventure.
I can see why people love this book so much because it reminds them much of Harry Potter, but I had to DNF it. I got 100 pages in and there were too many blatantly obvious similarities to Harry Potter: the acceptance letter, the school uniforms, the professors etc. The Harry Potter series is so iconic, original and creative, especially the Sorcerer's Stone, I don't know why people are enjoying this rip-off. I would have just read Harry Potter had I known how similar these were. Maybe the plot will get better but I would not give this a 5-star rating simply for the comparable world building.
So I got access to this story from Stories Untold Press, so thank you so much to them!
So I overall did enjoy this story. I think it's a solid start to a middle grade novel. I think the author did really well at creating a universe that is interesting and brings in the reader for more. I think that's something that I really wanted.
I wished that we got more from the world and a little more exposition from the author. I feel like we were thrown right into it. I normally wouldn't have minded this if we were thrown into some action but it felt like we were plopped right into the middle of a story. Adding on to this I would have loved to see more of the school setting. Even a little meandering would have been a nice breath of fresh air for the reader.
I think the story itself maybe could have unfolded a bit better in terms of how much story/reveals were given to the reader. It felt like we got most of it in the last quarter of the story. The pacing just felt a little rushed.
I think there were comparisons to Harry Potter thrown around? I guess I can see that with some similar tropes but I do think the author put in a lot of their own creativity and spin on these already popular trope for this book to stand alone from that comparison.
I am interested to see where the story goes. I think the strength of this story lies in the unique setting and world, a story with good twists and turns, and the fun and whimsy writing that really shines through certain parts of the book. Really fun!
So I overall did enjoy this story. I think it's a solid start to a middle grade novel. I think the author did really well at creating a universe that is interesting and brings in the reader for more. I think that's something that I really wanted.
I wished that we got more from the world and a little more exposition from the author. I feel like we were thrown right into it. I normally wouldn't have minded this if we were thrown into some action but it felt like we were plopped right into the middle of a story. Adding on to this I would have loved to see more of the school setting. Even a little meandering would have been a nice breath of fresh air for the reader.
I think the story itself maybe could have unfolded a bit better in terms of how much story/reveals were given to the reader. It felt like we got most of it in the last quarter of the story. The pacing just felt a little rushed.
I think there were comparisons to Harry Potter thrown around? I guess I can see that with some similar tropes but I do think the author put in a lot of their own creativity and spin on these already popular trope for this book to stand alone from that comparison.
I am interested to see where the story goes. I think the strength of this story lies in the unique setting and world, a story with good twists and turns, and the fun and whimsy writing that really shines through certain parts of the book. Really fun!
3/5 stars
I was interested in seeing how a middle grade novel, which usually focuses on friendship, adventure, and coming of age, would handle a 16 year old protagonist, especially since a lot of books with teen characters focus on romance. Although it’s not necessary that the MC be the same age as the target audience, it is more common.
The plot was engaging enough and I was always curious as to what would happen next . Something that I think Crowns of Croswald did excellently was the magic school element. I definitely got Harry Potter vibes, but in a good way; the author does a fantastic job of capturing the sense of delight and wonder of someone discovering they have magic and get to attend a magic school!
Unfortunately I never really got invested in the characters. Although Ivy grows in her confidence over the course of the school year, I never felt any kind of connection to her or the other characters. It was also frustrating that there were simply so many questions presented throughout the book, most of which were not answered, and the ones that were weren’t addressed until the last few chapters. There’s a lot of red herrings, suspicious clues, and traces of Derwin, but sometimes it felt like they were disconnected. I understand wanting to set up the story for a sequel(s), but I still felt like I wanted more information, and spread out more evenly, over the course of the book. Additionally There were only a couple twists that actually kind of surprised me.
Lastly there was a romanctic subplot, which I don’t mind in books, but it was extremely weak. We don’t really understand why Ivy likes Fyn, and she doesn’t have much of a basis. He pops in and out of her life, is conveniently there when she needs help (because he’s supposed to keep track of the freshman), but he’s also working for the Selector and does some shady things (even if the Selector does possibly have good intentions). I hope that the sequels develop the information we have more coherently, as well as the characters and their relationships.
I was interested in seeing how a middle grade novel, which usually focuses on friendship, adventure, and coming of age, would handle a 16 year old protagonist, especially since a lot of books with teen characters focus on romance. Although it’s not necessary that the MC be the same age as the target audience, it is more common.
The plot was engaging enough and I was always curious as to what would happen next . Something that I think Crowns of Croswald did excellently was the magic school element. I definitely got Harry Potter vibes, but in a good way; the author does a fantastic job of capturing the sense of delight and wonder of someone discovering they have magic and get to attend a magic school!
Unfortunately I never really got invested in the characters. Although Ivy grows in her confidence over the course of the school year, I never felt any kind of connection to her or the other characters. It was also frustrating that there were simply so many questions presented throughout the book, most of which were not answered, and the ones that were weren’t addressed until the last few chapters. There’s a lot of red herrings, suspicious clues, and traces of Derwin, but sometimes it felt like they were disconnected. I understand wanting to set up the story for a sequel(s), but I still felt like I wanted more information, and spread out more evenly, over the course of the book. Additionally There were only a couple twists that actually kind of surprised me.
Lastly there was a romanctic subplot, which I don’t mind in books, but it was extremely weak. We don’t really understand why Ivy likes Fyn, and she doesn’t have much of a basis. He pops in and out of her life, is conveniently there when she needs help (because he’s supposed to keep track of the freshman), but he’s also working for the Selector and does some shady things (even if the Selector does possibly have good intentions). I hope that the sequels develop the information we have more coherently, as well as the characters and their relationships.
I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and was excited to read it when I heard it would be similar to Harry Potter mixed with other fairytale like stories. I absolutely love Harry Potter! I went in with high hopes, but couldn't make it passed the first chapter. First, the Prologue confused me to no end and then the start of the first chapter didn't do it for me. I don't feel as if I can give this book a fair rating so I am not going to rate it at all because I don't think I read enough to rate it. This book just isn't for me.
I received a copy of this from the author in exchange for an honest review.
***
I really enjoyed this! However, I did kind of struggle to understand what was happening at the start of the book. My advice is to persevere – it all makes sense in the end!
I'll write a proper review soon, but the story follows Ivy Lovely who has one friend (a dwarf) and wishes she was magical, and on the day of her 16th birthday, everything she has ever known changes forever.
Ivy is propelled into a new world as a scrivenist, but she struggles to fit in here as well. Even with everything she ever wanted, it doesn't quite fit what she expected.
***
This book was really cute, and I have my guesses for what will happen in later books!!
***
I really enjoyed this! However, I did kind of struggle to understand what was happening at the start of the book. My advice is to persevere – it all makes sense in the end!
I'll write a proper review soon, but the story follows Ivy Lovely who has one friend (a dwarf) and wishes she was magical, and on the day of her 16th birthday, everything she has ever known changes forever.
Ivy is propelled into a new world as a scrivenist, but she struggles to fit in here as well. Even with everything she ever wanted, it doesn't quite fit what she expected.
***
This book was really cute, and I have my guesses for what will happen in later books!!
Thank you to D.E. Night, NetGalley, and Stories Untold Publishing for a free copy in exchange for my honest review!
It was hard for me to imagine myself in this world at first, which made it hard to pick up and read in one sitting. The world building was a bit more complex than I expected for a middle grade book, but it also felt familiar (very Harry Potter-esque with the storyline and split between magical world and non-magical world)
I normally don’t pick up middle grade fantasy - I’ve been heavily into the SJM fantasy worlds lately haha. So I feel like this book wasn’t aimed for me specifically, and that’s totally okay! I think a very intelligent middle grader would absolutely love this book, but it just wasn’t for me.
It was hard for me to imagine myself in this world at first, which made it hard to pick up and read in one sitting. The world building was a bit more complex than I expected for a middle grade book, but it also felt familiar (very Harry Potter-esque with the storyline and split between magical world and non-magical world)
I normally don’t pick up middle grade fantasy - I’ve been heavily into the SJM fantasy worlds lately haha. So I feel like this book wasn’t aimed for me specifically, and that’s totally okay! I think a very intelligent middle grader would absolutely love this book, but it just wasn’t for me.