The Enchanted Forrest Chronicles-Patricia C. Wrede

So I am a big fan of a lot of things, fairy tales, dragons, quests, witches, a little magic here and there, and of course bad-ass women that take care of their own problems and have a good time doing it thank you very much. Naturally being a book such I am I go in search of books that will meet some or all of these criteria. One day my good friend and I were scrolling through a list of the 50 top women in fiction or something of that sort and I came across one Princess Cimorene and The Enchanted Forrest Chronicles. As soon as I read about Princess Cimorene and how she abandoned her kingdom to go live with dragons I knew I had to read the series.

I went in search of it for the first time back in the summer to no avail. During the fall I had a lot going on and so the search was stalled. But then it was time for the holiday shopping to begin and so I thought how great would it be if I could find the first in the series "Dealing with Dragons" and give it my best friend and fellow book nerd for Christmas, with the intention of borrowing it of course. But alas, alack it was nowhere to be found on my search. Christmas was coming closer and I was getting discouraged, finally I decided to give up the search for the time being and try again another day. On Christmas day my best friend/roommate and I started opening presents and I came across a small book shaped one. Loving books of all sorts I was naturally excited which became overwhelming joy when I opened it and saw that it was 'Dealing with Dragons' the first Princess Cimorene series. Turns out while I was looking for the book as a gift for her my friend was searching for the same book for me. Great minds really do think alike. I started reading that day and couldn't stop. The closer I got to the end the more I realized that I didn't want to read anything but this series. And so I went to amazon.com and purchased the box set of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Reading these books was like eating potato chips, you can't have just one. I devoured one book after the other loving each and every one of them. Each book brought about a new story, more characters to fall in love with and through them all was kick ads, hardcore, over the top awesome Princess Cimorene. In the first book Princess Cimorene decides that seeing as she can't be a proper princess loving embroidery and table manners she decides she would much rather be a captive princess with the dragons. And so she heads off in search of the dragon caves and when she finds them offers herself up as a willing princess. Although most of the dragon are wary of a 'willing' princess Kazul decides she could use a feisty princess around the place and so their friendship begins. Together they fight off evil wizards, dust treasure and  fend off annoying knights that keep coming around to try and 'rescue' Cimorene. The result of all this fending off and thanks to Cimorene's unbelievably cherries jubilee Kazul and Cimorene become the best of friends.

I have a deep dislike of spoilers and people that ruin great books by revealing too much of the story. I may err on the side of too much caution at times by not telling any part of the story for which I apologize. But with a series you really have to be careful about what you say and the details you reveal. With that in mind all I will tell you about the next three books is this, each book brings a new bunch of characters that are just as loveable or just as hateable as the next bunch and brand new adventures that leave you breathless with excitement. Are these children novels? Yes, yes they are. And I think that that just makes them better! I have no discrimination in my heart when it comes to reading. Or anything else for that matter, so be it children's, adult's, young readers or whatever it may be if it's good I will like it! And with the Cimorene stories especially I felt that because it was written for children and the stories were fun and simple it made them perfect. If it had tried to be more complicated or intricate it would have taken away from the greatness of the characters and the story itself.

All of that is meant to say this, don't be turned off by the fact that they are indeed children's fantasy. They are amazing books and utterly engaging stories for any age as long as you are young at heart!