The Wishing Spell (2012)The Enchantress Returns (2013) A Grimm Warning (2014) Beyond the Kingdoms (2015) An Author’s Odyssey (2016) Worlds Collide (2017)
⚡ Pace: fast · 🎭 Emotions: light, magical · 🚪 Entry threshold: low · ⭐ Why read: familiar tales reimagined, fun journey
Once upon a time, fairy tales ended with a promise of happily ever after. But what happens when you fall inside the story itself? Alex and Conner Bailey, twins from an ordinary modern world, stumble upon a portal into a realm where every tale they’ve ever read is alive – and none of them go quite the way the books said. Here, Snow White doubts her crown, Red Riding Hood rules a nervous kingdom, and witches and wolves are more human than they appear. What begins as a search for a way home becomes a journey through the bones of myth and the limits of courage.
Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories series blends childhood wonder with real emotional depth. Each book peels back the gloss of bedtime tales to reveal what happens after “happily ever after” – when heroes grow older, villains question their roles, and magic demands a price. With humour, heart, and cinematic imagination, Colfer turns nostalgia into adventure and fantasy into reflection. These are stories about growing up while refusing to give up on wonder – about facing loss, friendship, and fear in a world that feels both impossible and deeply familiar.
📚 Did you know 📖
Published in 2012, this novel marked the literary debut of the Glee actor.
It immediately landed on the New York Times Bestseller list and launched a six-book series.
Colfer wrote it at night between filming sessions, while the publisher was initially sceptical until success proved otherwise.
The Land of Stories blends classic fairy tales with Colfer’s own twists, winning over both children and adults.
Spin-off: The Land of Stories: The Ultimate Book Hugger’s Guide (2018)
Legend has it: the actor admitted he wrote the book “literally on his knee” in the Glee dressing room.