Meg Shaffer - The Lost Story

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.

Comment:  This is Meg Shaffer's second book. Having enjoyed the first one through a buddy read with a friend, we have decided to try this one as well and it was as sweet and as magical, although, for me, a little less balanced.

In this story we find two friends who were lost in a forest for six months, in West Virginia. When they are finally rescued, there is a definite change to their appearance and one not matching people who were lost for so long. Besides, one of them, Jeremy, seems to be hiding something and the other, Ralph, claims he doesn't remember anything of all that time.

Several years later, Jeremy is now a man who dedicated his life to search for missing girls and one day he meets Emilie, who wants him to help search for her sister Shannon, who went missing twenty years ago. At first Jeremy is reluctant but then decides to help her and, for that, they need Ralph's help. What will happen next will be very hard to describe...

As I've said, I did like this story. I particularly enjoyed the low key vibe which suggested something was going to happen, some kind of secret would be revealed, and the tension until we finally get some answers was good. I also liked that while this was happening, there were some characterization clues that drew me in to the dynamics between the characters and I was quite invested in knowing what would happen next.

Although graphically the text doesn't have a separation on the page, I'd say there are two main parts in this book: before the main characters go on an adventure to search for Emilie's sister, and after they enter the woods where she went missing. To me these two sections are distinctive and not only because they take place in different geographical locations. Since the story is a fantasy/magical realism mix, some "bizarre" notions are to be expected, but I was still a little surprised by the difference in atmosphere and narrative.

Jeremy and Ralph - well, Rafe, as he prefers to be called - were lost in the woods and then suddenly were rescued. Suddenly because nothing really happened to find them... one day they were still missing and the teams stopped looking, and the next they simply showed up while witnesses saw them. Of course something is different about them and why is what is the real mystery. I think the author does a good job in presenting and slowly setting up things for the big reveal which we know, as things go by, will happen after they go back to those woods.

To me, this first section, let's call it that, was truly special. I think the tone of mystery wrapped up with some magic hints, something special under the currents was so greatly paired up with the characters themselves that I was eagerly turning the pages to see what would happen next or what the characters would do. The tension and the idea of something were enough to make me want to see if some of my wishes would come true about this story.

Since I did read the other novel this author wrote, of course I knew magic would happen for certain, and when we finally learn some key information, Jeremy and Rafe along with Emilie decide to investigate the woods, where the magic will be. This is no horror story, don't worry, and magical stuff starts coming out of everywhere. This is no surprise, it's the whole point after all, but I will share why I was very disappointed with some details in this section: whereas the other part had been juicily antsy, this new part, due to the content, nevertheless, was way too juvenile for me! It seemed as if a new story was taking place and those characters had reversed to be teenagers... so disappointing!

I get it that the reveal and the fantasy aspects could not keep up the narrative as it had been, but... still. I wish the author had done things differently because while I was happy enough with the path taken, the characters sounded immature and were doing things in ways we would only see in juvenile stories that hide moral lessons or such. I've also read the author's note at the end where she tells how this story came to be and what inspired her years ago... well, I can see the youthful base of her work, but I was still sad this was it. The fantasy section wasn't as special as I wanted nor as well explained either.

I should say there are some hints of romance, which were very well suggested but not as amazingly accomplished as they could, there are choices the characters need to make which sometimes felt weren't in par with their characterization and some fantasy elements felt a little too staged, even for what was already fantastic anyway. And, again, some things were just too vague, even if one accepts the rules of magic would not follow any others in this specific world.

In the end, as expected, all ends as well as the characters want, and Jeremy, Rafe and Emilie face the fears they have to so they can triumph. I liked the novel and the end, but I think the author could have done some things better.

Grade: 7/10

Meg Shaffer - The Wishing Game

Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing and whimsical novel.
Make a wish. . . .
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.
But be careful what you wish for. . . .
Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.
For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractedly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.
. . . You might just get it.

Comment: This book was published only a few months ago but long before I saw the gorgeous cover, read the blurb and agreed with a friend to buddy read it. Usually a book stays in my pile for much longer but this time something about this seduced pretty quickly.

In this story we meet Lucy Hart, a kindergarten aid who is struggling to save money so she can finally adopt Christopher, an orphan in her class with whom she bonded. Her prospects seem dire when, suddenly, the incredible writer of children's books Jack Masterson announces a new book in the series that made him famous after years of wait. There will be a contest and only a few will get an invite to participate in a game in the island where Jack lives, so they can win the book. Lucy happens to be one of the lucky ones but will she be able to win the game, will she finally have the means to give happiness and security to Christopher?

It's true beautiful covers don't mean good books. But it also true appealing covers generate expectations and help selling books. I admit it was the first thing that made me pay attention to this book, the cover is amazing, bold and bright colors with some darker ones and with books and landscape? Heaven! I'm also glad the content, in this case, matched and the story was sweet and adorable for the most part. At first I wasn't as impressed, the pace seemed slow and I wasn't certain what the purpose was, but after a few chapters, everything became more interesting.

The story is, at its core, about hope and wishes. We hope for a lot, we wish for a lot and sometimes there are things that help us, such as books and dreams, and for the lover of books I am, this idea was very, very appealing. Lucy is the main character, we learn she has had a frustrating childhood because despite the love of her grandparents, her parents were narcissist people who only cared about her ill other daughter, which always put them in the center of attention. Lucy and her sister Angela never had a good relationship and once Lucy grew up and realized some things, she let go of her family. She also had a carefree youth, doing the things everyone else did and I admit I wasn't too fond of the idea she decided to behave this way.

Now, Lucy is an adult, she struggles to make ends meet and she also wants to adopt Christopher which is hard, for she doesn't have the stability nor the money to make it happen. When things start to look impossible, the wishing game is announced. The thing is, when Lucy was a child and, along with so many other kids, she wrote to the author of the famous books everyone was loving, he replied back and promised she could be his sidekick. Lucy decided to run home when things were bad and instead of turning her immediately away, Jack welcomed her and didn't ruin her dreams. Now, years later, Lucy and three other people who also had run at some point and met Jack as children, are the only invited to the island and to play the game.

Just reading my summary can be indicative of how special the characters truly are, Jack the author of the children's books was an incredible character, as was Hugo, the illustrator of his books. There's much more complexity to this and to their personalities than a simple story of happy and adorable scenes where people talk about their childhood adventures reading books, but I think Meg Shaffer did a good job putting everything together and giving it importance, especially int he things one can read between the lines.

As one can imagine, the story is not only about a fictional game in an island to win a book. As the plot moves on, and the four participants try to solve enigmas and get points to win, their lives are changed somehow, and we get to learn a lot, especially about Lucy and Hugo, who is still at the island and becomes a key player in the novel, although not in the game. There is a hint of romance too, which I loved, but the central issues are precisely the ones related to the characters' personal issues, their pasts and how somehow Jack is truly the mastermind publicity made him to be.

When the story is ending, there were some interesting surprises, some sweet moments and even when things looked not as perfect, readers could see the happy side of things. If there's a issue for me, I'd say is the fact some things were just too cheesy, or too easy... I can suppose the author intended to balance the perfection of the ending with the not so good things of the characters' lives before, but I think it was a bit too much. Paradoxically, I still liked Lucy has her HEA...

This was truly special and cozy and sweet and has many things which aren't, sadly, likely, but as it happens with children reading books and wishing upon magic and fantasy to go through their days, why not continuing so as an adult?

Grade: 8/10