The Crowns of Croswald
D.E. Night
Publication Date: July 21, 2017
★★★★☆
Raised in a mundane world as a scaldrony maid, Ivy accidentally crosses an invisible boundary into a new and fantastical place. This new world sweeps her away in a tide magic, filling her with intrigue and secrets that strive to keep her head spinning.
Within the walls of a magical school, Ivy begins to unravel a mystery of not only her new life and future in this new world - but what's hidden in her past.
I had the publisher, Stories Untold Press, reach out to me via Instagram on behalf of the author, D.E. Night. They asked if I would be willing to read and review this book, and after reading the synopsis, I happily agreed.
I found this book reminiscent of Harry Potter, Sorcery of Thorns, and any story that has royal and academia vibes. It had heavy thematic elements, including creating a large and comprehensive magical world, complete with new creatures, magical tools and unique lore.
I found the writing to flow easily, for the most part. The way the author describes the atmosphere, environment or the physical representation of characters and situations provoked my internal-mind to conjure up exciting images. I did find that some scenes that included a lot of action sometimes became hard to follow. Some parts of the story jumped around a bit and I found myself re-orienting from time to time.
I will say the similarities to Harry Potter were uncanny, particularly the "chosen one" trope, the trio of friends in a magical school, the classes and tricks, the magicked portraits and even the eerie parallels of the side of evil: the Dark Lord and his death eaters mirrored by the Dark Queen and her Cloaked Brood. However, that being said, there were pieces that set it apart from these common themes that give this story the potential of becoming wholly original.
I really enjoyed the ample pieces of foreshadowing and connections. Things like the Halls of Ivy, and their ultimate link to the titular role. The play on words with D.E. Night (the author) and the ever-elusive scrivenist, Derwin Edgar Night. Also, the visualization of the after life for scrivenists is something notable: their souls essence entering a tome to be held in a limitless library.
As I expected in a middle-grade novel, romance wasn't the forefront - and that's okay! I truly believe stories that focus on friends and self-discovery are so important for young minds to devour. The story touches on friendships and companionships between Ivy and others, including Fyn, Rebecca and the incidental character of Humphrey, the scaldron she saved. I would've loved to see further development into these friendships, as well as expanding on the actual school setting, as the story jumped from her bedroom, the classroom and the library without much transition between.
I would've loved to dig deeper into the lore - to understand how the crown stones worked and how the royals and scrivenists worked together. I'm a bit of a history nerd, and this doesn't stop at fictional worlds. Give me ALL the worldbuilding and you would create a perfectly content bookworm. Maybe this is something we'll see in the next few books in this series?
All that being said, I am truly interested to see where the rest of Ivy's story goes. The end of this book set the scene for an epic quest of discovery, investigation and piecing together the past!
Where to find The Crowns of Croswald:
I will note that books two and three are available on Kindle Unlimited (in Canada, at least!). Book One is also listed as a Teacher's Choice on Amazon US!
As an addition, check out D.E. Night's website (linked above) for some truly gorgeous artwork surrounding this book and the subsequent books in the series!
Yorumlar