The Girl with the Whispering Shadow by D. E. Night Series: Croswald #2
Published by Stories Untold LLC on January 23, 2019
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley
My Review
I enjoyed The Crowns of Croswald very much so it would only make sense to pick up the second one in the series. The book starts off with Greta coming home from her first year of school at the Halls of Ivy. She is talking with her father about the Masquerade Ball and explaining to him why she did not attend. I found this to be such an odd thing to start the book with because it seemed so out of place. Little did I know that this was a very important detail leading into the book. Trust me all will make sense once you get to the end of the story.
Now onto where I thought the book would have started and that is with the main character Ivy. She has discovered that she is not supposed to return to school in the fall for her own safety. Ivy is instead being sent to a town that is unnamed to those who do not live there. This town is completely protected from the Dark Queen so it would make sense that Ivy would remain safe or so one would think. Did I mention Ivy is the rightful Queen? She is sent on a quest in the book to find the other pieces of the Kindred Stone (which you would know about from the first book) before the Dark Queen finds them.
The story bounces between this secret town Belzebuthe and the school. We discover new characters and are reunited with old characters. We are introduced to a magical game called Quogo where we learn how its played along with a club that may or may not have been created around it. There are also new magical creatures in this story and lets not forget to mention the fact that there is a dragon.
Now for a bit about the secret town Belzebuthe. It is a town where Scrivenists are able to practice their magic without having to fear the Dark Queen. You can only reach the town by one way and that is riding in a special Cabby. It is also a place like no other where it is always night and the stars are not only in the sky but are actually able to be caught. I loved the idea of being able to fish for stars and grant people’s wishes. I found that to be a very interesting and original idea.
This story is full of all the things that I loved about the first book like the characters, the setting, the magic, the curses, and the adventures. The only thing that I should mention is parts of it reminded me of Harry Potter. With that being said if you are a fan of Harry Potter then I would definitely recommend picking up this series. I know I will be continuing in the series because I want to see how Ivy’s story ends. I gave it a 4-star rating.
I want to thank D.E. Night and Netgalley for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions that I have written above are entirely my own.