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jkribbit 's review for:
The Crowns of Croswald
by D.E. Night
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
I was so excited to receive this book! Middle grade fantasy? Yes, please! A lost princess, missing double moons, disappearing castles in dreams, magical beasts both familiar and brand new, a pirate in a glass bottle, magicians who turn into books when they retire, an adventurous and trouble-attracting orphan/scullery maid? All the yeses! D.E. Night has an incredible imagination and creates a very vivid new fantasy world. There is a lot to sink your teeth into! And I grew to love the main character, Ivy. She has a thirst for knowledge, a love of creatures, an openness, and sense of adventure.
While there was so much for me to be excited about and fall in love with, this book did drive me crazy sometimes. This is D.E. Night’s first book, and I think it could have benefited from a few more rewrites. The new world the author created is fascinating and rich and has a lot to capture my imagination. However, I was frequently left floundering. Sometimes there were disparate ideas or descriptions. Sometimes the transitions were too abrupt. Sometimes an anachronistic word was lazily used that pulled me from the world. There were many times where I felt the author got too attached to a certain background character or scene from world building and couldn’t bare to part with it even though it no longer fit the tone or continuity of the finished novel. I also felt that the main character should have been 12-14 not 16. Maybe she was aged to accommodate a romance? Whatever the reason, I never bought that she was 16. All of this is part of the process in writing a novel and creating a new world, but letting the reader see the process is like pulling back the curtain on Oz. The illusion is broken.
Having said all that, I do have to admit that I’m eager to read the next book in the series. The plot, mystery, world, and many of the characters pulled me in so much that I need to find out what happens!
3 1/2 stars. Rounded up because I’m excited to read more
I was so excited to receive this book! Middle grade fantasy? Yes, please! A lost princess, missing double moons, disappearing castles in dreams, magical beasts both familiar and brand new, a pirate in a glass bottle, magicians who turn into books when they retire, an adventurous and trouble-attracting orphan/scullery maid? All the yeses! D.E. Night has an incredible imagination and creates a very vivid new fantasy world. There is a lot to sink your teeth into! And I grew to love the main character, Ivy. She has a thirst for knowledge, a love of creatures, an openness, and sense of adventure.
While there was so much for me to be excited about and fall in love with, this book did drive me crazy sometimes. This is D.E. Night’s first book, and I think it could have benefited from a few more rewrites. The new world the author created is fascinating and rich and has a lot to capture my imagination. However, I was frequently left floundering. Sometimes there were disparate ideas or descriptions. Sometimes the transitions were too abrupt. Sometimes an anachronistic word was lazily used that pulled me from the world. There were many times where I felt the author got too attached to a certain background character or scene from world building and couldn’t bare to part with it even though it no longer fit the tone or continuity of the finished novel. I also felt that the main character should have been 12-14 not 16. Maybe she was aged to accommodate a romance? Whatever the reason, I never bought that she was 16. All of this is part of the process in writing a novel and creating a new world, but letting the reader see the process is like pulling back the curtain on Oz. The illusion is broken.
Having said all that, I do have to admit that I’m eager to read the next book in the series. The plot, mystery, world, and many of the characters pulled me in so much that I need to find out what happens!
3 1/2 stars. Rounded up because I’m excited to read more