Thank you to the author, D.E. Night for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Ivy Lovely is a sixteen year old kitchen maid who doesn’t expect to do much else with her life, and certainly doesn’t expect to ever be able to attend the Halls of Ivy, a magical school for royals and those born with magical blood. However, when she is kicked out of her job and home, she crosses a magical boundary that sees her whisked off to the school after all. Once she arrives, strange things start to happen around her and she starts to suspect the halls are hiding secrets that are connected to her in some way. She sets out to discover what’s really going on, who the mysterious man she keeps dreaming about is and why she seems to be able to perform magic she shouldn’t be able to.
had me captivated and feeling like I was right there in the room. The story was fairly fast paced and although there weren’t too many characters we got to know well, the ones we did were quite well fleshed out. I loved the suspense towards the end of the book and am looking forward to reading the next one.
The only issues I really had with the book were: Ivy’s age. Ivy is 16 but she reads like she’s about 10 or 11. If a main character is 16 I expect the book to be a YA book in all honesty, but this definitely felt like a middle grade book. It was reminiscent of Harry Potter’s first time at school, and therein was my second issue – it was a little too reminiscent of Harry Potter. Although the story was different, the similarities were such that I could not help making constant comparisons, which took away a bit of the originality of the story for me.
I would definitely recommend The Crowns of Crosswald as a middle grade fantasy though and hope to see the second book out soon.