Thursday, August 30, 2012

Book Review: The Wishing Spell

I just finished reading The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1) by Chris Colfer for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

Alex and Conner Bailey’s world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.


Okay, so I'll be honest.  I first signed up to read this book just because I am a huge Gleek and knew that one of the characters that I loved from the show wrote the book.  And then when I got it and saw that it was about fairy tales, I had mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I LOVE fairy tales (heck...my wedding was princess themed at Disney World!) but on the other hand, I have read so many retellings that I didn't like.

Right away, I knew that I would enjoy this story.  Once again, I have to be honest.  The book was written for middle grade kids, which I usually don't enjoy.   And I don't think that the actual writing was all that great.  But as for the story as a whole, I loved it!  I loved the idea of these kids falling into the fairy tale land.  And getting to meet all of the characters that they'd grown up loving (and I still love)! 

I was totally Alex when I was younger, but with slightly more friends.  I was the girl that knew all the answers and would never be found without a book.  And I was obsessed with fairy tales.  If I had fallen into a fairy tale land, I'm not sure I would ever have left.  I loved reading this version of my favorite characters too.  I loved that Goldilocks was kick butt.  And that the princesses were so sweet.  And that there were so many mention of fairy tales, that there were even small ones mentioned.

Do I think this book is going to win any awards?  Probably not.  Am I going to be picking up the next book in this series?  As soon as I can possibly get my hands on it! 

I gave this book a rating of 4/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 64

2012 ARC Reading Challenge: 52
2012 Debut Author Challenge: 16
2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 55

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.

1 comment:

  1. I too picked up the book because it was written by Chris Colfer. But I didn't really enjoy the story very much. It must have been the writing, because it definitely wasn't Bridge to Terabithia status. I'm sure he'll do well because of who he is though, and younger kids will love the book.

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