Books
The Wishing Spell
The first book in the series, The Wishing Spell was published July 2012. [2]
11 months have gone by since twins Alex and Conner Bailey lost their father in a car accident (a month before their 11th birthday). Their mother is trying to balance her job and her family. On Alex and Conner's twelfth birthday, their grandmother gives them an old fairy tale book from her childhood. Alex realizes that the book hums, glows, and eventually sucks items into its pages. Against Conner's advice to throw the book away, Alex keeps the book and eventually reaches into it, after experimenting by throwing pencils and books inside. Conner barges in to stop Alex from going into the book, but doing so, startles Alex, and therefore makes her fall into the book. Conner jumps in to help Alex. They find out the book is a portal to the fairy-tale world. There, they meet Froggy, a man turned into a frog. Froggy gives them a journal that tells of the Wishing Spell, and how to find it. The Wishing Spell is a journal and a spell that can grant whatever wish the person wants if the person has a specific eight items. Hoping to return to the real world, Alex and Conner set off to find the Wishing Spell items. They later meet another person who was later identified as the Huntsman's daughter, the Huntress. Alex and Conner realize that the Huntress is working for the Evil Queen to get the Wishing Spell as well. They find out that the Wishing Spell can only be used twice, and the man who wrote the journal already used it. The Evil Queen gets this message from her magic mirror as well, and begins a very desperate race to create the Wishing Spell. While they are collecting the ingredients for the Wishing spell, Alex and Conner come across many tales that their father had once told them. After a while, they face the conclusion that their father came from the fairy-tale world.
Finally, when Alex and Conner get all the items for the Wishing Spell, the Evil Queen kidnaps them, takes the items, and goes to her hiding place, North of the Sleeping Kingdom. There, Conner tries to prevent the Evil Queen from using the Wishing Spell by smashing the fairy tear bottle, one of the items needed in the Wishing Spell. The Evil Queen tells her story: When she was little, she was named Evly, and she was a kind and caring girl. She fell in love with a young boy named Mira, but the Enchantress captured her and stopped her from meeting him. Evly tried to send secret messages to Mira, but the Enchantress found out and imprisoned Mira in a mirror. Evly later killed the Enchantress, but she couldn't do anything to bring Mira back until she found out about the Wishing Spell. Due to the story, Alex sheds a few tears. The Evil Queen gets one of Alex's tears, puts it with the items of the Wishing Spell, and the Wishing Spell activates. Mira is freed from the magic mirror, but he is nearly dead. The rescue team, led by Froggy, arrives. Mira dies in Evly's arms, and they are both swallowed up by the Queen's magic mirror when it falls because the queen's Hiding place falls apart. In the fighting that follows, the Huntsman and his daughter are killed, and Alex and Conner are rescued. Froggy is found to be the long-lost Prince Charlie from the Charming Kingdom, and Alex and Conner learn that their grandmother is the Fairy Godmother, who is capable of making portals between the Otherworld and the fairy-tale world. The journal written by the man who had completed the Wishing Spell years before was written by their father: Therefore, Alex and Conner are part fairy. Alex and Conner return to the real world.
The Enchantress Returns
The Enchantress Returns is the second book in the series and was published August 2013. [3]
Alex heads home after attending school and finds her brother Conner, who is worried because their mother has yet to come home from work. He also found a romantic note to their mother from a surgeon she worked with named Dr. Bob, who brought them a puppy. When Charlotte comes home, Alex and Conner ask if Charlotte has a boyfriend. Their mother tells them that it's true. Later on, Bob goes to see the twins and tells them about his plan to propose to their mother. He shows them the ring, which has two large diamonds on it, one pink and one blue to represent the twins. When Bob asks the twins for permission about the proposal, Conner and Alex decide that this would make both Bob and their mom happy, so they agree.
All three then decided to surprise Charlotte with a special dinner at the Bailey house the next Thursday at six. Alex returns home as quickly as she can from a course she was taking at a community college, and Bob tells the people he works with at the hospital to keep Charlotte busy so she won't come home early. The twins' mother, Charlotte Bailey, doesn't show up on time, but another nurse at the hospital says that she had left two hours ago. They then hear a mysterious knock at the door and a bunch of fairy tale soldiers from the Charming Kingdom barge in. Bob was originally shocked, then doubtful, but he later accepts that the Fairy Tale world exists. The twins' grandmother, the Fairy Godmother, enters and explains that their mother was kidnapped. While their grandmother attends to her own business, Xanthous (a member of the Fairy Council) and Sir Lampton (their father's old friend) watch over them until Mother Goose, their grandma's closest friend takes over babysitting the twins. Later, Alex gives Mother Goose alcohol until she becomes drunk, and Alex asks her for information, which she unknowingly gives.
Alex discovers that her mother was captured by Ezmia, the "Enchantress", who cursed Sleeping Beauty as a young baby, and that the Sleeping Kingdom was in ruin. Since she couldn't get to the Land of Stories through the book, she sneaks out of the house and bikes to her grandmother's house, hoping to find a way to the Land of Stories. The next day, she almost falls off of a bridge. Unexpectedly, Conner saves her and admits that he had followed her. They eventually go to their grandmother's house, which had a glowing painting in it. Alex knows that this is a portal to the fairy-tale world. Suddenly, Alex and Conner find themselves in The Land of Stories. They eventually find Froggy, who is once again in frog form as a disguise, after being turned back into a human at the end of the first book. All three travel to the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, where the Enchantress seemed to be destroying symbolic historic sights. Alex and Conner then attend a meeting only for the kings and queens by persuading Red to wear a dress that they could hide under. At the meeting, the Enchantress captures Alex and Conner's grandmother, revealing that she had captured 'Alex', but instead got Charlotte, their mother, who pretended to be Alex. At Red's castle, Conner learns of something called the Wand of Wonderment, which makes the holder invincible. To create it, one must find the six most valuable things of the six most hated people in the world. To help find all the items, Red asks the villagers to all pitch in to make a flying ship out of all her baskets.
When the ship is completed, Alex, Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack fly the ship across The Land of Stories. They obtain the ice scepter of The Snow Queen, the wedding ring of Cinderella's stepmother, the giant's harp, the glass from the Evil Queen's mirror, and the jewels of the Sea Witch. However, they are unclear on what the Enchantress's most prized possession is. After landing in the Troll and Goblin territory, they discover that Trollbella, a female troll that likes Conner, is now queen and that Bob traveled to the Land of Stories as well. They meet the ghost of Old Queen Beauty in the Eastern Kingdom, who says that the Enchantress' most prized possession is her pride.
The Enchantress uses her vines to drag Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack to the coliseum. Alex tries to defeat Ezmia by subtly stealing her pride, but she is blasted off of the coliseum. Because she was holding the Wand of Wonderment, she is saved from death. However, when she reaches the ground, she faints. Alex then has a dream that she was talking to Alice from Alice in Wonderland , Lucy from Narnia, Dorothy Gale from Oz, and Wendy Darling from Neverland, who advise her on the situation. Alex wakes up and goes back up the coliseum using a flying horse. When she arrives, she drops the Wand in front of Ezmia. Ezmia tries to kill Alex with the Wand after Alex stripped her of her powers (until Ezmia got hold of the Wand of Wonderment) but Rumpelstiltskin jumps in front of the blast to save Alex out of guilt for what he has tried to do for Ezmia. Conner destroys the Wand, so all the magic is taken from Ezmia's body and she dies.
After that, Bob finally proposes to Charlotte and they get married in Queen Cinderella's castle for Queen Cinderella to thank Charlotte for taking care of their baby. When it is time to leave, Alex claims that she is meant to stay in the Land of Stories and that Conner should share their stories in the real world. The twins then believe that they were to be separated forever after the fairies decided to seal all portals leading to and from The Land of Stories. Later, Conner fetches Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters to go back to his world, Conner also shares their stories in the Otherworld.
A Grimm Warning
A Grimm Warning is the third installment in the series and was published July 2014.
At the beginning of the third book, Alex is in her coronation as Fairy Godmother. Meanwhile, Conner is at school in the real world and is questioned about where his sister is. Conner goes on a school trip to Germany to hear never before heard stories by the Brothers Grimm that was recently found in a time capsule. The good news for Conner is that the girl he has a crush on, Bree Campbell, is attending. The bad news is that four rude girls called the Book Huggers are also going.
As for Alex, she keeps messing up her spells. She eventually meets a farm boy named Rook Robins, whom she takes liking into. She becomes torn later in the story because her grandmother is dying and she feels like she is killing her. The fairy godmother is dying because she finally finds a replacement; now the Fairy Godmother can rest knowing the fairy tale world rests in good hands.
Conner finds out that one of the stories is a secret message and a warning for the Land of Stories. He sets out across Germany to crack a 200-year code. With Bree's help and the directions of Mother Goose, Conner eventually meets Emmerich Himmelsbach, a little boy from a small village.
Alex and Conner realize that time-displaced soldiers of the Grande Armée from their world are coming to the Fairy Tale world. The army is led by General Jacques Du Marquis, with the help of the Masked Man, a prisoner he freed during a raid on Pinocchio Prison. When some villagers are attacked by the Grande Armée, Rook (Alex's crush and first kiss) is blackmailed by the army into giving up the location of Alex and the royal families.
Alex's grandmother, the Fairy Godmother, eventually defeats the Masked Man's dragon with her fairy magic and "returns to magic". Alex figures out that Rook is the person who leaked out information. She is hurt by this and decides to break up with him. Rook tries to regain her trust by helping her in the next stories. Alex feels sad about leaving him but knows she has done the right thing. At the end of the book, Alex encounters the Masked Man without his mask and becomes convinced he is the twins' deceased father, John Bailey.
Beyond the Kingdoms
Beyond the Kingdoms is the fourth installment in the series and was published July 2015. [4]
The book begins with the Bailey twins chasing the Masked Man, who Alex believes is their late father. Conner is unconvinced, though. Alex is going through apparent mood swings, in which her hair would float above her head and her eyes would glow. She has a hard time controlling her emotions which cause her to attack many people with her magic, including her family and friends. Alex insists to the fairy council that the Masked Man should be one of their highest priorities. As a result, she is 'un-godmothered' and kicked out of the fairy council. Alex loses her temper and her control of her magic and shoots at the fairy council with lightning and vanishes in a wall of fire. She arrives at the Giant's castle after her wall of fire exit where Mother Goose is staying.
Later on, at Red and Froggy's wedding, Morina the beauty witch arrives and claims to be Froggy's first lover (and the one who cursed him to live as a frog). She threatens to curse Red if he doesn't leave with her, causing Froggy to choose to leave with her, as Morina is a powerful entity. Meanwhile, Conner gets beaten up by the Masked Man while getting the wedding rings for Red and Froggy in the library as the Masked man attempts to steal books. Conner rips off his mask, and he also believes the Masked Man is their father. That night, Alex wishes to speak with her late grandmother. Her grandmother then sends an "angel moth from outer space" of memories from the stars to tell Alex the true story of the Masked Man: he is their uncle Lloyd.
Conner's old friend Trix the fairy stole a book from his grandmother's possession. From the book, they learn that what Lloyd attempted to steal was a Portal Potion, which can transport anyone into any work of fiction. The ingredients to the potion are a branch from the oldest tree in the woods, a feather from the finest pheasant in the sky, a liquefied lock and key that belonged to a loved one, two weeks of moonlight, and a spark of magic. Alex then explains to the others that the Masked Man is their uncle and not their father. Conner says she is crazy, but Mother Goose confirms that it is true and that it was their grandmother's final wish for her not to tell. The group then travels into the works of literature in an attempt to stop their uncle before he recruits an army of literary villains.
Alex and Conner are trapped in separate worlds by Lloyd after they pursued him into The Wizard of Oz, Neverland, and Alice in Wonderland. In Wonderland the twins are led into a trap where the twins are stuck in different stories. Alex is trapped in the world of King Arthur while Conner is trapped in the land of Robin Hood. After they escape and meet up in the land of Oz, they realize that Lloyd has sent armies to destroy the kingdoms and that they need to return home for supplies. They leave for the Otherworld on a cliffhanger – they will not go into any published stories, but into Conner's own short stories to recruit a literary army of their own.
An Author's Odyssey
An Author's Odyssey is the fifth installment in the series and was published December 2015. [5]
When the twins and their friends enter worlds crafted from Conner's imagination, finding allies no one else could have ever dreamed of, as well as recovering many memories they had made in the fairy-tale world, the long-awaited race begins to put an end to the Masked Man's reign of terror. Conner and Alex spend time in Conner's short stories ranging from battling pirates to racing in an ancient pyramid filled with a thousand zombie mummies with the story's main protagonist. Conner brought his mother, Charlotte Bailey, on the mummy adventure. In the meantime, the Sea Witch and the Snow Queen along with the witches at Dead Man's Creek had other plans. The Snow Queen and the Sea Witch plan to give a handful of evil dust to Alex. This dust was made from a magic mirror created by terrible demons. The dust was also given to the evil and terrifying Enchantress whom Alex killed in the second book. The reason the enchantress was so horrible was because of the dust, which not only raised her temper but caused heartache worse than one could ever imagine. The Snow Queen and the Sea Witch believe the dust will work the same evil magic on Alex, as they have used it before on her. When Alex goes to the bathroom, Morina throws the dust into Alex's face. Meanwhile, Conner and his friends are attacked by Lloyd who forces them to do a blood transfusion from Emmerich onto him, as Emmerich is Lloyd's son. Conner defeats Lloyd by trapping him in one of Bree's stories but then finds out that Alex has vanished.
Worlds Collide
The sixth and final book in the series, titled Worlds Collide, was released on July 17, 2017. [6] [7]
After a prologue in which Conner, now 80 years old, is celebrating his birthday at a bookstore, and realizes he doesn't know what happened to Alex, he begins reading his last book. The story starts with Alex, still under the witches' control, wreaking havoc at the New York Public Library. Conner realizes this and sets out to New York City accompanied by Red, Jack, Goldilocks, and Bree. There are a few mishaps at the airport, such as Red buying a lot of items at a gift shop, but they get on the plane safely. When they arrive, the Book Huggers, sitting in a restaurant, see Conner and tell their parents. However, Conner ducks, and the parents don't see him. Then as Conner's group attempts to make it into the library, a homeless man named Rusty who had helped them earlier for money leads them to a subway tunnel that was abandoned in the '20s and heads directly under the library. While there, they hear from other homeless people and realize a portal between the worlds is going to open up in the library. They break into the library and see Alex, currently under Morina's control, and the witch keeps them quiet. While sleeping, Conner gets a message from Alex saying that she wants him to kill her so she can "return to magic" and break free from the curse.
The Book Huggers rescue Conner and his friends. The Fairy Council and other heroes battle and defeat the witches and villains. Meanwhile, Alex is causing more chaos against her will. After the Literary Army was destroyed, Conner wrote a story, where he and Alex never explored the Land of Stories. In the story, Alex is not affected by the curse, and they see their father. Alex then gets emotional to the point the curse disintegrates and they leave just in time before the story ended. They then repair New York using healing flames and a week later, met President Katherine Walker. They explain to her to safeguard the Land of Stories book to ensure a catastrophe never happens again like that of the Literary Army. The series ends with 65 years later where Conner, now 80, is going to be relocated to a retirement home because his children believe he is crazy. His granddaughter Charlotte "Charlie" Black visits him as he is about to visit Alex. He then exits to the Fairy Tale world. The series ends with Charlie hearing a sound and going to the attic and seeing the Land of Stories book shine. After all that has happened, Alex and Conner meet back together, safe and sound.
