Pages & Co: Tilly and the Lost Fairy Tales by Anna James

Summary from Goodreads:

A magical adventure to delight the imagination. The curl-up-on-the-sofa snuggle of a series from a uniquely talented author.

Tilly Pages is a bookwanderer; she can travel inside books, and even talk to the characters she meets there. But Tilly’s powers are put to the test when fairytales start leaking book magic and causing havoc . . .

On a wintery visit to Paris, Tilly and her best friend Oskar bravely bookwander into the land of fairytales to find that characters are getting lost, stories are all mixed-up, and mysterious plot holes are opening without warning. Can Tilly work out who, or what, is behind the chaos so everyone gets their happily-ever-after?

The second enthralling tale in the bestselling PAGES CO series.

Review:

I wrote on Goodreads: This is even better than the first book! If you’re looking for a light, magical escape right now, look no further. These books are charming, full of book magic and loaded with adventure.

I picked this book up on my honeymoon in Paris. It’s signed. And I didn’t realize it was a sequel. I ended up traveling all the way back to the same bookstore on the same day for their last copy of book 1. I’m so glad I did. These books are adorable. I thought I hit cuteness overload with book 1. But, I liked this one even more. The first book reminded me a lot of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This sequel reminds me more of Into the Woods mixed with Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories. Fairy tales are made to be broken, dissected, and twisted and Anna James does such a great job of it. Some of the humor even reminded me of Shrek.

Tilly and Oskar are developed friends now. I love their level of trust, honesty, and camaraderie. One won’t do something stupid without the other. I also like that the balance of power is more even. It becomes clear that Oscar also has a family of book wanderers. He’s meant for this life too. He doesn’t have to rely on Tilly for all of the fun, and I like that this makes things fairer. He’s not just her sidekick.

At first, I was a little overwhelmed with the politics of the adults. So much was going on at the library. I know I was supposed to feel that way. I was supposed to see things through the lens of a child. But, it made me lose too much focus and almost made me put the book down. I’m glad it didn’t. I loved the Paris adventure. I loved the fairy tale adventures. The gossiping bears, the helpful Jack, the ridiculous princes, the crack in the sky, all of it! I literally never put the book down for a second of the fairy tale parts…or the Paris parts now that I think of it.

There were some plot twists that kept me guessing with the adults too. I liked that the story didn’t really resolve as much as the first one did. This book definitely opened more things up for the rest of the series. I hope there’s more than one book to come after this one. Honestly, the whole book world that is created in these stories is just so fantastic and interesting. Mix in the politics, the limitations, the fictional characters, the magic, the travel, and everything else, and they’re just plain brilliant. I like that the characters aren’t simple either. I actually felt bad for the bad guy in this one. And there’s so many layers to each person here. I can’t wait to read more. I give this one a 10/10.