The Crowns of Crowswald by D.E. Night

⭐⭐⭐ / 5 Stars

Summary:

For sixteen years Ivy Lovely has been hidden behind an enchanted boundary that separates the mundane from the magical. When Ivy crosses the border, her powers awaken. Curiosity leads her crashing through a series of adventures at the Halls of Ivy, a school where students learn to master their magical blood and the power of Croswald’s mysterious gems. When Ivy’s magic––and her life––is threatened by the Dark Queen, she scrambles to unearth her history and save Croswald before the truth is swept away forever.​

-Goodreads

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A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a small publishing company known as Stories Untold Press. I was offered a copy of The Crowns of Croswald for an honest review. First, I would like to say a big Thank You to Stories Untold Press for reaching out to me and sending the book, as well as to D.E. Night who signed and personalized it! This was my first time being contacted by a publisher or author to review a book, and it means the world to me.

Now, on to the important part. The review!

I found the Crowns of Croswald (CoC) a bit difficult to get through, if I'm being honest. Admittedly, this may be due to the fact that CoC is a middle grade book and it has been quite some time since I've actually sat down to read one of these. The writing is, as to be expected of a middle grade book, simple and accessible to readers of a variety of ages. I have gotten so used to the challenge of books meant for an older audience that it took me a while to adjust to the simplistic writing of this novel.

Ivy Lovely is, as one may expect, your typical middle grade book heroine. A young girl who has been kept in the dark her whole life about some big secret that then comes about and changes everything for her. It forces her to go on an adventure and become a heroine of a world she was once ignorant too- or at least partially ignorant to, in this case. It is a common enough trope in literature. Here, however, I must admit that it felt a bit more stale than in other books. Perhaps that is because the parallels this book has to Harry Potter make it feel as though it is at times a weak fanfiction rewrite of the series where an author attempts to put themselves in the role of the hero instead of the main character. This is what bothered me the most about this book. That as well as the fact that the main character's name is Ivy and the school is called The Halls of Ivy. It is at once both uncreative and smacking you over the head with the fact that clearly Ivy is going to have something major to do with this ficitional magical school.

My issues aside, the book isn't that bad. It is a simple middle grade read that has action and adventure. Once you move past the obvious Harry Potter sampling, it is an entertaining read that will grip younger readers in the way that HP gripped me when I was that age. You have your heroine, the unlikely best friend, the strange and mysterious love interest, the all knowing and protective adult figure, and the bad guy. All of which come together to create a story that, with the exception of a few jarring jumps, flows well within it's narrative.

I would certainly recommend this book for children who are interested in reading, yet not quite read for the daunting task that is reading the entire Harry Potter series. I would not, however, recommend this book for anyone over the age of 12 that has read Harry Potter- as it will simply seem like a strange retelling of the series and likely be a bit difficult to get through due to the nature of the writing.

So, for me, this book definitely gets a 3/5 stars. It is not a bad book, but it is a book that will stay in my read pile without a re-read; and the jury is out on whether or not I will go through the effort of finishing this series as it's published.

-A Review By K