The Words of the Wandering

A special thanks to D. E. Night, Stories Untold Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced electronic copy of The Words of the Wandering (release date: May 30, 2020).

The third installment of The Crowns of Croswald is full of adventure, friendship, dragons, magic, & the continued search for answers & understanding for the protagonist, Ivy Lovely. While deepening and forming new friendships, Ivy is determined to dive further into her family's unique past & do whatever is necessary to find the third & final piece of the Kindred Stone. While taking new classes & recruiting new members for the Quality Quills Club (QQC), creatures are appearing (& disappearing) for unexplained reasons & strange things are happening in & around the Hall of Ivy, which can only be the work of the Dark Queen. While swept off to the circus on her first real date with Fyn, the magical fun quickly turns into another devastating mystery needing to be solved.

D. E. Night continues to build on the world of Croswald and its unique magic & fascinating characters in The Words of the Wandering. This book was a fun, easy read which was hard to put down, as I was eager to see what was in store for Ivy & her friends from chapter to chapter. If you are looking for a middle grade fantasy that contains the right amount of adventure, friendship, and mystery to keep you entertained, I highly suggest this series! Be sure to read the first two installments, The Crowns of Croswald & The Girl with the Whispering Shadow, before diving into The Words of the Wandering. I can't wait to see what happens next in the fourth book!

Ivy has faced the Dark Queen and the shades and shadow sent to take her power, but her mission to find the missing piece of the Kindred stone before the Dark Queen still awaits her. During the summer and into the new school year Ivy and her friends mature and their magical knowledge increases but there are still dark forces threatening to ruin her and the people she cares for. I really enjoyed the new adventures (dragons!), the new (and unexpected) friendships, seeing the characters personalities develop further, and did I mention Dragons?!?

I will always love middle grade fantasy and I will always love the magical world of Harry Potter, which I believe to have been a huge inspiration for the author’s work. So I have really have enjoyed diving into a similar world but all new magical creatures, new spells, and a new enemy to defeat!

I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book for an honest review... it was my pleasure, and I can’t wait for book 4!!!

Yet another exciting and magical journey that I truly enjoyed!

The Words of the Wandering picks up quickly from it's prequel, The Girl with the Whispering Shadow. However, Ivy has no clue as to where to look for the third and final piece of the Kindred Stone. Instead, she decides to dive into the diary of generations of royal scrivenist assigned to her family in hopes to uncover the past and hopeful fish out some clues about the lost stone. Throughout the journey, more unexpected revelations and secrets were revealed, new friendships form and romance blossoms.

In any good stories, the unveiling of the past is an essential element to me. It makes me more connected to the character which in turn will cause me to like the character even more. With so much of the past being written in this installment, I can sense a deeper connection to this series.

I was also excited to see new alliances form. Here, Ivy and her enemy in school makes peace with each other after attempting a project together in a glanagerie. Additionally, new club members were added after an exciting three round trial.

Besides that, I was also pleased that Fyn took Ivy out on their first date although it did not end up that well. I just love this cute couple!

Although this book ended with a cliffhanger, which can be torturous indeed, I actually think it ended well and at a climax. Clearly, this means I might go begging for the next installment to be release now! Unfortunately, I don't think that is going to happen since this book will only be released in May 2020. Ha! Good luck to me and all readers out there. Haha..

Highly recommend fantasy lovers to give this series a try, especially if you enjoyed Harry Potter.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from D.E. Night through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

With each book in the Croswald series, I fall in love with the characters, the story and the world of Croswald even more. Ivy and her friends are so very lovable and adventures...a la Harry Potter especially when Harry created Dumbledore's Army. While these characters may be young, they realize that the adults around them are not going to be able to save them from everything and so they decide to take matters into their own hands. I love how these characters come together around Ivy and embrace her even though she did not come from the same backgrounds as they did. It is a great story of inclusion and loving someone for who they are, and not judging them for where they came from. Even characters that we may not have liked previously get a new beginning in this book and I love that Night is giving all her characters more depth in each book. I absolutely cannot wait for the 4th book now! These books will definitely be on my school library's shelves and I will be promoting them heavily, especially for my fantasy loving students. Thank you Net Galley and Stories Untold for the e-ARCs!!

Book 3 in The Crowns at Croswald just keeps the adventure alive. Ivy spends the summer with her best friend Rebbeca learning about dragons and how to fly them. Her 3rd year of school brings the loss of not seeing Fyn everyday due to his graduation in book 2 butter QQC team takes on the role of being Ivy’s protectors. This middle grade fantasy is a fun read and hard to put down. I’ll just be sitting here waiting not so patiently for Book 4!

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!!

Rating: 4/5🌟

- HOLY MOLY PEOPLE!! This book is masterpiece and probably my second favourite book in the series so far!

- Comparing this book to the other 2 books, it has less world building and the plot starts out on a slower pace. The first 60% of the book wasn’t as eventful as I expected BUT, I was still really entertained by the story. It’s wasn’t boring or disengaging. Based on this, I would have given the book a 3.5-3.75 🌟 ... but the ending smashed it for me!

- THE ENDING IS PHENOMENAL!! It’s almost like the entire book’s worth of intensity is slammed into the last 20%/the ending. And NOT in the sense that the ending is rushed. The ending is just so intense that my mind is blown. And also that cliffhanger ... wow! I need Book 4 desperately!!!

- While the world building isn’t as strong in this book, this book has great character development. Both in Ivy and some side characters which I will not mention because of spoilers. I really enjoyed the character development in the story and it made me love Ivy even more

- The romance also has great progression in this book (*SCREAMS AND SQUEALS*). it’s such a great addition to the story and I hope to see more of it! Big fan of the romance

- The creativity of the author continues to shine through in this story, specifically in the circus scene! Her beautiful writing paints the whole scene so vibrantly - it’s almost as though I’m in the circus.

- I really want to give this book a 4.5/5🌟 or even a 5/5🌟, because the ending was so amazing and there was great character development. Unfortunately, because of the slower pace and the decrease in world development, I feel that 4/5🌟 would be a accurate rating but deep in my heart, this is a solid 4.5/5🌟

- This is seriously the best middle-grade series I’ve read and I recommend this to EVERYONE!! Please read it! You will not regret it one bit!!!

Thank you so much to D.E. Night and Stories Untold Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own

It's hard to talk about a third book in a series without giving away spoilers for the rest, but i will try to just talk about this book's unique aspects.

There is more world building from a historical standpoint, as Ivy is teledetecting through a book sketched by her family's scrivenists. I think it's cool how art comes to life more in this third novel. The circus was a treat and definitely one of my favorite scenes, but my favorite favorite were the parts about coming home.

There are more magical creatures too, dragons play a larger role and some truly terrifying monsters. The invisitaurs come back too in a big way.

The pace is so much slower though, we see a lot of Quality Quills Club team building and new friendships forming. No quogo this time.

A lot of time is spent kind of growing Ivy up and making her stronger. The pacing took it's time until the last 14% when the plot took off running and dropped an unbelievable cliffhanger. I neither love nor hate cliffhangers but feel like one or two more chapters would have been ideal?

My only other issue was the total lack of Fyn in this book, I am honestly shipping Glistle and Ivy at this point. ((((And seriously how did Fyn not know the thing...or does he? How did he show up right then unless he....??))))

I do like that this is a very clean read, there in one quick peckish kiss between characters and that's about it!

Definitely 100% recommend this series to any fans of magic worlds. Totally appropriate for middle grade readers as well, I would happily hand this over to kids everywhere

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review

This third book is just as magical as the first two. I am absolutely in love with this story and all the characters

I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:4/5 stars
Synopsis:
With the Dark Queen on the rise and still not all pieces of the Stone found, Ivys year at the Halls won’t be as pleasant as the years before. And adding to that, there are growing doubts of whom she can trust.

My thoughts:
First of all, the first two books were so magical, engaging and exciting, it`s difficult to keep up with my expectations by now.
This book suffers a bit from “Second Book Syndrome”, if you know what I mean. It`s clearly a bridge to, a setting up for the fourth and final book. The beginning was lovely and fun, some of the middle chapters dragged on though, and I felt like nothing happened. Some parts seemed like stupid actions to me, perhaps to keep the plot going. Other times I wondered why the characters didn’t just sit down and collect all their knowledge, but okay, they’re teenagers after all.
BUT: The last half of the book gains steadily in speed, letting you worry and fear for the characters that’ve grown so dear to you. The end was mean and left me crying. I now need the next book!

I liked how Ivy stays herself and still gets to grow over the time of this series. She’s a bit more confident now, especially when it comes to her magic. I was just sad that there wasn’t a lot of Fyn in this book, because he’s one of my favourites!
Some characters grow or change too, revealing other, perhaps darker, sides of themselves. I loved it.

My favourite parts about this book were probably the dragons. I mean, DRAGONS! Can’t have enough of them!
The book also left me with some questions. Like, is there no hospital wing in the Halls? Don’t the students ever get severely hurt? I sometimes felt like the students were a bit overpowered, but that feeling vanished, when the Dark Queen or some of her helpers appeared. But I do ask myself now whether there are just scrivenists and royals in this world, or if there are normal citizens too?
And teledetecting was explored too, which is really cool!

The best thing about his book, in my opinion, is the style. The writing just drags you in, makes you care and worry and love all the characters. The descriptions are lovely and magical and you can definitely imagine whatever scene is described.

With a little bonus for the beautiful cover, this book gains four stars. It`s not as perfect as the first two books, but still an enjoyable read.

I quickly jumped right into this 3rd book in the Crowns of Croswald series. I do enjoy how the author continues the story right where the last one left off. We get to see more into Ivy’s past and pick up some important details. Our heroine, Ivy is really coming into her own, she sees the support of her friends but is learning that her strength is her own. This book does touch on depression, which I thought was done really well. The way the author discussed the feelings, was good for the target audience. Showing that what Ivy is thinking & feeling is ok and how she was in dark times, she with help was able to come back to a better place. A good lesson for us all. I was left wanting to see more of certain characters. Even though the book ended on a huge cliffhanger, that left me mad, it was appropriately done. The thought of having to wait for the next book is really what left me mad!

Thank you D.E. Night, Stories Untold, and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This is going to be a spoilery one!

Following Ivy from the 1st book to now, her character has grown so much and she’s got a lot of wonderful people around her! She’s not alone on this journey anymore! To name a few, Glistle and Gretta, Rebecca, Hayword, Woodley, and all the QQC club members, those kids are a gem! Also, finally, the thing between her and Damaris was sorted out! To add, she finally got to know about her family, even though it’s just through teledetecting, it was heart-filling!

I should say, Fyn and Ivy’s relationship have been finally recognized? Established? And it was not rushed, just the perfect timing. But that Circus date could have gone well! I was so bummed out that at the same time Derwin’s staged death must happen! Come on it’s supposed to be a fun date! Dear author, please give these two love birds a second chance at having a magical and fun-filled date! I think they deserve it!

I am glad that we get to finally see a point of view from the Dark Queen, that p.o.v. was sad to see, not for the Dark Queen but for Fyn’s father. She’s become more hostile than ever on her quest on owning the stones! I did see it coming though, her being Isabella and about the Selector. Glad Ivy made the smart decision on not putting both the stones in the same place!

Then we come to the scene where Ivy finally figured out where the third stone was and Rimbrick was alive, for just a short period though, what happened was heartbreaking. Fyn and Wisdom were there? What perfect timing? Why were they actually there?

That cliffhanger! I don’t know how Ivy will get out of that situation alive?

"Sometimes fear brings out the best, saves a life, changes the future."
All I know is Ivy will gonna come out victorious on this journey by gaining strength in that fear using it in a good way - a total opposite to her ancestor - the Dark Queen Isabella.

What chain of events led her to that? What did actually happen to Isabella?