I was really excited for this book because I think Chris Colfer is an amazing person and I was interested to see if he would write a book well. I was happily surprised with how much I liked this book, considering I usually find fairytales a bit boring. I think I would still admire Chris even if this book was bad, considering he wrote this while he was editing his screenplay for his movie that he wrote, and later starred in, at the same time as being on glee tour. Also he's friends with John Green and that makes anyone ten times cooler.
Although this book is for children, I found it had some complex vocabulary and themes in it that made it enjoyable for me as well as other older readers. I think it's a good idea for a plot with the idea of fairytale characters having more to them then their popular story. I thought Chris did a great job when writing the main characters, giving both twins aspects that are familiar at the same time as being original. My favourite character was probably Conner, (I read this a while ago and can't really remember which princesses I liked) I thought he brought much needed lightheartedness to the story and ever since he said that he can't deal with stories where dogs die, I felt that even though he's a fictional character, we share a bond. Although the end was predictable and corny, I thouroughly enjoyed most of this book and would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of fairytales.
Alex and Conner are twins celebrating their 12th birthday, their first birthday after their Dad's death. Their Grandmother comes to visit them for their birthday and she gives them their Dad's old book of fairy tales, The Land of Stories, Alex is overjoyed with excitement as she's loved the book ever since she was a little girl however Conner starts to notice Alex acting strangely. Alex tells Conner that the book glows and absorbs anything she drops into it, Conner then realises that Alex is going to go into the book herself and he gets home just in time to see her going into the book so he follows her. They end up in the Land of Stories in the middle of a forest and are rescued by Froggy, a frog who was once a man but turned into a frog by a witch. He lets them stay the night at his house and gives them a journal which details how to use the wishing spell so they can go home. To complete the spell they must collect items from all over the fairy kingdom, on the way they battle trolls, wolves and must complete the spell before the Evil Queen does as the spell can only be used once more. The Queen captures them before they can complete the spell and tells them her story then uses the spell to bring back her love, but he dies in the process. The twins are then at Cinderella's baby shower when the fairy Godmother requests to see them, she turns out to be their grandmother and has been travelling between the worlds her whole life. She tells them their Dad grew up in the Land of Stories and she took him to their world once and he fell in love with their mother, it turns out it was him that was the one that had used the wishing spell previously so he could return to their mother. Their Grandmother then takes them back to their world with the promise that they would go back again someday.
