'Crowns of Croswald' book review

I absolutely adored this book! It reads a little like Harry Potter and has such a whimsical tune. It was also super easy to read though because it’s a middle grade novel.

Title: Crowns of Croswald

Author: D.E. Night

Release Date: July 21, 2017

Genre: Middle Grade fantasy

Pages: 310 (paperback)

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

~ Synopsis ~

Ivy, for sixteen years, has been locked away as a servant until she ventures beyond the borders of her castle and her powers awaken. She is then taken to a school for the magical where students at the Halls of Ivy learn how to wield their powers and their quills. However, Ivy’s powers are a threat to the Dark Queen who is pent on stealing it from her. It is up to Ivy and her friends to uncover the truths of Croswald and the Halls of Ivy.

~ ~ ~ ~

This book is a middle grade, remember, so it does read pretty young and it is reflected in how the characters talk and interact, so if you don’t like the more childish stories, I wouldn’t recommend this book. However, if you’re looking for a fun, whimsical story filled with magic and adventure, this is a great book!

Ivy, in herself, is a great main character. She was very curious about the world and herself and it was a lot of fun to follow her through Croswald. She was also very relatable because she was such an average teenage girl type character without all the self-doubt and low self-esteem. Ivy was constantly empowering herself and never allowed herself to lose hope. I really had no complaints about her except that in beginning she acted quite young for a sixteen year old — in the end she definitely acted more her age through.

She also wasn’t boy-crazed, but also not completely disgusted by boys, so she was a perfect middle ground.

I loved all of the characters of this world — they were all very much like Harry Potter characters and were erratic and spontaneous and constantly leading Ivy to different places and ideas. Everyone also played a very important part, which added a lot of depth to the story because there were a lot of ties and relationships built throughout the book that I can’t wait to explore through the rest of the series.
The boarding school concept is one I greatly love, and this school did not fail to be enchanting. The classes were really interesting as the students learn how to wield their powers and quills. Their goal is to go through school, either as a royal or a regular person with traces of power, and to be a scrivenist or a sqwinch, respectively. So they have classes on all sorts of interesting topics and it’s fun to learn with them like we did in Harry Potter. That is one of the things I love about boarding school stories is that there is so much learning.

The only thing that could relatively be an issue if you’re my age is that it is a young story, but it’s always nice, especially after ACOWAR like I just read, to have a light-hearted story.

In all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone of any age who enjoyed Harry Potter and similar tales.

Did you read this book? What did you think?
Thanks for reading,
Taylor.