Name: The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns
ISBN: 9780316242356

Chris Colfer

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns

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.

Nessa Luna

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

About two years ago I read the first book in this series, The Wishing Spell. I had heard about it first because I was watching Glee at the time, and very interested in what the Glee stars did besides the show. I am also a sucker for fairy tale retellings, so when I heard about this series I just HAD to get my hands on it. I really liked The Wishing Spell, and I was a bit saddened to find out that the Enchantress Returns wasn't brought out in paperback at first. Seeing as I had the first book in paperback, I didn't want to get the second on in hardcover. So I waited, and eventually the paperback was announced.

Last Sunday I finally found the book in my local bookstore, even though according to the Book Depository it won't be available until the eighth. Anyway, I decided to buy the book and read it as soon as I could. And I must admit, though I liked it, the Wishing Spell was a lot better in my opinion.

I want to start off by saying that these covers are GOREGOUS. I just love the drawings of the characters that you are going to meet in this story, and of course of Connor and Alex. I am not a fan of people on the cover, especially if they are original characters (I didn't mind all the fairy tale characters, because we all know what they look like); but in this case I was okay with it, just because the covers were so beautiful. And also, both books have a map of the Land of Stories, which is just gorgeous and very handy!

Then there were the characters. I liked Alex and Conner, and their mum (Charlotte) and Dr. Bob. Though I was a bit angry with the twins for being so against Charlotte and Bob's relationship. Give your mum a break, guys, she's lost the love of her life, and now she's found love again. I don't care that they are thirteen years old, come on. Eventually, I think they realised that Charlotte and Bob were happy together, and they made peace with that. Of course, there were a lot of fairy tale characters, but there is a small group that travels with the twins for the majority of the story; Jack (from the beanstalk), Goldilocks, Froggy (aka Prince Charlie) and Red Riding Hood. I liked Jack and Goldie, and I especially liked Froggy because he was just such a good friend; but oh if I had been Goldilocks, I would have thrown Red off the ship before the latter could cry 'Wolf!'. I was so annoyed by her throughout the entire story, and though of course she did some good things like cutting down the beanstalk and sacrificing a lot of her dresses for the ship, she was SO ANNOYING!!!!!!!!


  
Besides that, the story was very lovely, though I didn't really like that it was another 'finding things to make a thing that probably doesn't even exist' story. I liked that they were looking for objects for the Wishing Spell, and eventually proving that it does exist and that it does work, but in this story they do it again. They have to look for six items that will make an object that might or might not defeat the Enchantress. (view spoiler)[ And in the end, they don't even use it to defeat her, so what was the point in that entire quest?! (hide spoiler)]

Another thing that I also didn't really like, was the changing POV. Not even per paragraph or per chapter, sometimes there would be two or three sentences from (as an example) Red's POV, and then the sentences after that would be from Jack's POV, only to go back to Red after that again. Though I kind of get that Colfer wanted to write the story from several POV's, I found this a bit strange and sloppy. But other than that, the writing was nice, simple and perfect for children.

In the end, I liked the Enchantress Returns, but I would have liked it more if it had been a different kind of quest than they did in the Wishing Spell. But I will definitely check out the third book, mainly because this book ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! It will probably take another year for the paperback version of A Grimm Warning (yay the brothers Grimm!!) to be released. But hey, I'm patient. I can wait. (No I can't).

Sophie Collins

The second book in The Land of Stories series gives readers a new edition to a family favourite fairytale, Sleeping Beauty. Alex and Conner dive headfirst back into their storybook to travel throughout the kingdoms on another fun adventure with some of our beloved classic fairytale characters. 
The main plot of this book was definitely better than the first one. I really enjoyed the new villain that was introduced and as, always, I loved reading about the growth the twins experienced on their journey. 
If you enjoyed the first book in this series, I promise you won't be disappointed in this one!

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns

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