Book Bingo: The Enchantress Returns

The Enchantress Returns is the second book in Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories series. This is my first read for the "Series" box in the 2014 Book Bingo Challenge. Here's my current scorecard:

Here's a short review I wrote about the first book in the series, The Wishing Spell: This was a fun fairy tale book. I couldn't particularly enjoy Colfer's writing style, because it felt too simple and repetitive to me, but I did enjoy his story and the world he created with traditional fairy tales and his own original ideas. I'll probably continue reading the series to see what happens next with Alex and Conner.

(picture taken from Goodreads;

 illustrated by Brandon Dorman)

The Enchantress Returns: Colfer has a very imaginative mind, and he really uses it to expand the fairy tale world in this series. I enjoyed this book more than the first one in the series. Colfer's writing has improved somewhat (although the style of over-simplistic repetition sometimes re-surfaces), and I really enjoy how he expands the villainous characters from traditional fairy tales. My favorite part was the chapter with the Snow Queen--what a fascinating character! There are three main reasons that I can't give this two thumbs-up instead of one: 1) Colfer's writing style is still a little lacking for me. Hopefully he'll improve with time, because I love his ideas! 2) Alex's and Conner's home life is too easy. For instance, they might say they're angry at their mother for dating, but there they are, jumping on board the "bless this marriage" train right after she springs the news on them (only two years past their father's death, too!). Too fast, too easy...it's unrealistic. 3) Last but not least, I don't really like the ending. I guess I could see it happening eventually, but in the second book in the series? And it's all stuck in the last few pages of a fairly thick book--why not take a little more time instead of rushing through it? Anyway, I did enjoy reading this book, and it's a fairly quick read for the length. I would recommend it to people who like middle grade series or fairy tales.

 (picture taken from Goodreads;

illustrated by Brandon Dorman)

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