After famously going missing as children in the West Virginia wilderness, Jeremy and Rafe reunite fifteen years later as adults to find a lost girl in the same woods and discover something magical had been waiting for them. 

From the first page, The Lost Story is teeming with magic. It starts from an outsider’s perspective of the moment Jeremy and Rafe are found after being missing for months, and they’re described as older than their “missing” photos, as well as strong and nourished—pretty much the opposite of people who were lost in the woods for that long. It sets up a mystery really well: where were they, and how did they get back home?

As I went on into the first half of the book, I really enjoyed the rising tension as Emilie reaches out to Jeremy for help to find her sister and in the drama between Jeremy and Rafe as they’re forced back together. I also really enjoyed the urban fantasy elements surrounding Jeremy’s strange power to find lost things, as well as Rafe’s vivid dreams and how it translated into his artwork. However, as the answers to the questions I had started to reveal themselves and the novel shifted into something less urban fantasy and more fantasy fantasy, I felt like the novel lost some of its hold on me. Some of the high fantasy elements were a bit elementary to me, and the constant references to C.S. Lewis, Narnia, and other “classic” fantasy did not help.

Still, I felt very invested in the characters and to what happened to them. I fell in love with Jeremy, Rafe, and Emilie from the moment they appeared on the page. Their easy banter was fun to read, and I was ecstatic to see them get their happy endings. 

Feels like: Playing castle on a plastic jungle gym, adding cinnamon to your coffee, jumping into a pile of leaves. 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars