Dealing with Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 1)
Searching for Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 2)
Calling on Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 3)
Talking to Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 4)
By: Patricia C. Wrede
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: All ages. Independent Readers 10 and up.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles was written in reverse!

Talking to Dragons, book 4 of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, was originally published in 1985 as a stand alone novel. Events transpired, magic happened, and suddenly the author discovered there were stories to be told about the secondary characters from Talking to Dragons. That stand-alone novel became a wonderfully endearing four book series about the family and friends of the King and Queen of the Enchanted Forest.

You can expect lots of magic, lots of making fun of traditional fairy tales, lots of swords, lots of wizards, witches, princesses, knights, kings, queens, and a whole host of various magical creatures–including, of course, lots and lots of dragons!

Patricia C. Wrede tells the story of how this magical series came to be in the introductions to each of the four books, and I found the backstory of how the Enchanted Forest Chronicles came to life as enchanting as the books themselves.

As a whole, I found Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons endearing. The story is sweet, and the way the author wove her books around traditional fairy tale lore was a lot of fun and frequently silly. The strong female characters, written in 1985, were lightyears ahead of their time. I loved that the books are the story of a family, and I especially loved seeing how everything came together knowing the last book was written before the first.

Individually–and especially early on–I found the books to be a little bit dull and basic. There was still enough to pull me through, and by the end of the series I was in the author’s head and enjoying the simple stories.

Everything wraps up with a perfectly happy-ever-after bow.

All four books are content accessible to fantasy lovers of all ages.

Get your copy here!

Happy Reading!