Sunday 23 February 2014

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer

Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (6 Aug 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1907411771
#2

After decades of hiding, the evil Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty is back with a vengeance.

Alex and Conner Bailey have not been back to the magical Land of Stories since their adventures in The Wishing Spell ended. But one night, they learn the famed Enchantress has kidnapped their mother! Against the will of their grandmother, the twins must find their own way into the Land of Stories to rescue their mother and save the fairy tale world from the greatest threat it's ever faced.


Cover:  Another stunning cover.  I was worried before the cover was released, how could it possibly match the standard of the first one?  But it totally did.  An absolutely fantastic match to the story, the characters, the setting.

Ahhh how to review this one.
I guess I'll start by saying that book one, The Wishing Spell was one of my favourite books last year.  When I read it I went into it totally new to Middle Grade, and it toally converted me.  So the sequel was one of my most anticpated releases of the year.
I was not disappointed!  I freaking loved this.
It's such a light, fun and easy read.
The fairytale world, or The Land of Stories is such a fantastically thought out one, with all the characters we recognise from their stories, but Chris Colfer reimagines a lot of the traits or circumstances and quite frankly it's genius.
I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but how he connects Beauty & the Beast to Sleeping Beauty, or how he connects the giant's golden harp to the pied piper.  It's such an imaginative and creative book, that not only can I at 21 appreciate it, but I feel it's a story to captivate younger readers.  Anyone with a love of fairytales or simply Disney, will fall in love with this series.
If anything I'd say that the plot is VERY similar to that of the first book.  In book one Alex and Connor travelled all over the Land of Stories finding items for the spell, in this one they have to travel over the land of stories searching for items to build the Wand of Wonderment.  I feel it could distanced itself from the first book a little more, but it didn't effect my enjoyment of the book in the slightest.
Plus, Alex and Connor are 13...I know they've traveled to another dimension etc, but sometimes their speech comes across as far beyond their years.
Over all, this is a series I recommend for anyone and everyone of all ages.  A definitely must read series.
5/5 stars.

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