I loved this last book in this series. I didn’t realize it was the last! The next books are next generation. I am really sad. Emma has to learn that she is just as awesome without magic. It’s hard when she has come to rely so much on magic to not use it to solve all her problems. I liked this challenge. I like the newest magical creatures introduced. As well as some hilarious new witches. Emma and Eadric are just so adorable. I seriously connect with Eadric and his love for food. They are so protective of each other and are really good at communicating how they feel. Even when they have disagreements they talk it out and express their love! So many fun moments with all our favorite characters and couples.
The narrator Katherine Kellgren is Queen. I love all her audiobooks. (She did enola holmes, my lady Jane, and the very nearly honorable league of pirates too).
SPOILERS and book notes:
Emma transforms into a green dragon to get around so often that everyone is used to it now. Ghost grandpa is moving in with now nice witch grandma in her gingerbread house! How cute! Eadric likes eating the frosting roof so Emma needs to help repair it lol. The mom (Queen) is being dumb about magic… and about Eadric…. And about her dad being a ghost…. I love what GMA said to the Queen: "You're taking her side, just the way you did when we were girls." Grandmother nodded. "Yes, I am, but I take your side when you aren't around and your sister questions something that you do.” “I always give my girls the benefit of the doubt.” Eadrics parents don’t like Emma. She is a “evil witch”. Awww Haywood and Grassina had their wedding ceremony in the swamp!!! I love this. So simple and beautiful. the mom complained the whole time though lol: “as long as you both shall live," said the priest. Glancing pointedly at Queen Olivene and the ghost of my grandfather, my mother added, "And after they die, too, if they're anything like my parents." And I love what Eadric says: “"I'd like a simple wedding like this. I could talk to the priest after the ceremony and ask him to stick around to do ours.” But Emma wants his parents blessing before they marry! Jorge escaped the dungeons!! Lil the bat and Garrid, a vampire, was her mate. Hehe “"Could you put this away for me?" Eadric grinned. "As long as you pay the fee." "All right. I'll even pay in advance." Hooking my finger into the neck of Eadric's tunic, I pulled him toward me and kissed him squarely on the lips.” Then coral the mermaid comes and visits them and asks if they will watch the annoying crab Shelton. Some cool thoughts from Emma about what makes ourselves confident and feel valued. That’s why we base our value on our identity as a child of God. “I was irritated that no one seemed to think that I could get along without my magic. It was true that it had become an important part of my life, but it wasn't all there was to me. I was a lot more confident than I used to be and more capable and … I realized that most of what I valued about myself was tied to my magic one way or another. If I couldn't use it, would I be as confident or as capable?” Ralf is back! The little dragon! I’m Eadrics kingdom they don’t like magic so she needs to help without them knowing she is helping haha. Help fight the sea monster. Eadric defeated it though. Eadric is seriously the cutest: “I was fighting to keep my eyes open when he lifted the flap to my tent. Swaying on my feet, I gazed bleary-eyed through the opening, too tired to take another step. Eadric swung me into his arms and kissed me on the cheek as he carried me inside, setting me on the bed in the corner.” All the maidens in the land are so mad he is off the market. The 4 witches are hilarious!! Remember Oculura (the eyeballs) and Dyspepsia (the grump). Now there is Klorine (she speaks like an echo (loud and with awkward pauses) bc she lives in a cave with only an echo for company lol) and Ratinki (the oldest and smelliest). It’s hard in Emma’s dragon form to ever want to change back. In her dragon brain she can’t think of a single advantage of turning back into a human. All except Eadric. He is the love of her life no matter what form she took. So she changes back for him: “then I thought about my dear, sweet Eadric, who never failed to hold my hand when he thought I might be frightened, who always tried to come between me and danger even when I didn't need him to, and who cared how I felt about nearly everything. Eadric was kind and strong and brave and honorable—the kind of knight that other knights only claimed to be. He was also the love of my life, no matter what form I happened to take. Although staying a dragon meant that I'd be free to do whatever I wanted to for the rest of my life, I already had something even better waiting for me in a tent, snoring so loudly that I could almost believe I heard him from far away. I could be a dragon now and then, but I knew that I could never leave Eadric for long.” She fought werewolves by hearding them with her fire and picking them up by their tails and relocating them. Now they have to face a drunk giant lol. Bradston (Eadrics younger snotty brother) was kidnapped by the Queen of the trolls. They are going to rescue her! Poor Emma. But she has Eadric! “Back home in Greater Greensward I was respected more for being the Green Witch than I'd been for being a princess. Here I had the feeling that being a princess was the only thing that kept them from throwing stones at me. When I turned to say something to Eadric, his jaw was set and he looked angry. It seemed he had heard them, too.” And he has to guard her from his own soldiers bc of this: “"Trolls!" I said, throwing off my blanket. Grabbing Shelton, my shoes, and my cloak, I slipped under the tent flap and would have stumbled over Eadric if there hadn't been a full moon that night to light up the clearing. He was sleeping on the ground in front of my tent, his hand on Ferdy's scabbard. Knowing him, he was probably there to guard me.” I love this speech from Emma! “"Is this what you think our marriage is going to be like? You'll make all the major decisions and tell me what to do? Grassina and Haywood have made all their decisions together for the past few months, and they weren't even married yet. I thought married people were partners who helped each other. If we're going to get married, you'll have to understand that I love you and I'll never let you walk into danger alone. I want you to be safe just as much as you want me to be. I'm going to help you in any way I can, and if that means going into a troll mountain, so be it.” The trolls have a magic seeing ball! “It locates the witch it was meant to find as soon as she uses her magic.” Bc of this she can’t use magic on their rescue mission! Oooo the mystery: “Someone made a magic-seeing ball to see me. To focus the ball, you have to include something that belongs to the person you're focusing it on. What could they have used that was mine?" I love how amazing Eadric is with making her feel good. And that he comes up with non magical solutions to their problems. And that she thanks him by kissing him hehe. She had turned them invisible to escape the trolls, but since she doesn’t want to use magic to alert the trolls again they have to remain invisible through out their journey! They can only see each other if they are touching, so they have to hold hands! Hehe Eadric had to save her from drowning but she had to use magic to make them visible again! “Grabbing the back of my gown in one fist, he dragged me to the log and held me until I'd draped myself over it. "Thank you!" I gasped. "You don't know how happy I am to see you." "About as happy as I am to see you," he said, and he kissed me. "Don't you two ever let up?" grumbled Shelton from his perch atop the log.” They ran into a cockatrice den!! “They have the head, legs, and wings of a rooster and the body and tail of a snake. They're so ugly that you'll turn to stone if you look one in the eye. They can even shatter rock and wither plants with their ugliness."” They are only scared of weasels. And toads hatch them by taking yokless eggs from a rooster and burry them in a dung heap. They also met a friendly nice banshee in an abandoned castle. (Banshee warn people they are going to die soon) “When Eadric pulled me into his arms and held me tight, I could feel that he was shaking. "That's such a relief!" he murmured into my hair. "I thought she was here to make one of her announcements. The last time I saw a banshee was the day my grandfather died from a hunting accident. A banshee came before we knew that his injuries were serious. When I saw her tonight, I thought it meant that I was going to lose you. I couldn't bear that, Emma." He kissed me on the lips before I could reply, a tender kiss that banished the last of any despair I'd felt from the banshee.” Now they are being attacked by vampires in a room but they have to incite them in. Lil sees her beloved vampire Garrid so let’s him in! They are married! I didn’t know that! And so he introduces her to all his family vampires! And they have a celebration haha. They are too cute. They found the troll queen delirious and he has 4 heads! Each with different names and personalities and control different parts of the body. She found the magic finding ball and it was her hair in it! She thinks Jorge got it somehow… but there is another one! They found Bradstan and he had the chicken pox and gave it to the trolls lol. The trolls kidnapped him but found him soooo annoying they are glad to be rid of him lol. And Emma felt bad for the trolls! She cursed him that he can’t leave his mother side until his 21st bday. Awww Eadrics and Emma’s wedding is so beautiful!! All their favorite people are there! Even rAlf the dragon!! The witches! But the fairies might cause mischief… but he was the handsomest man in the room. The three building blocks of a good marriage are love, loyalty, and friendship! Awwwww: “Eadric squeezed my hand once more and I returned the pressure, knowing that all three building blocks were already ours. The priest hadn't said anything that we didn't already know. Eadric must have thought so, too, because he winked at me and grinned. After that I missed half of what the priest said because I was looking into Eadric's eyes and remembering how they had looked on the day we met. He had been a frog and I'd thought he was obnoxious. Back then I never would have imagined that I would marry him, or that I could love anyone so much.” And then they were married!!! Eek! But then trolls attacked the castle. Jorge and Olebald the wizard with the pet metoo are behind this. They promised the troll queen she could marry bradston. Now they want Eadric bc bradstons so annoying! But they need to kill Emma first bc she is married to him! And then Emma transformed into her green dragon to defend him! And she battled the troll as a dragon! Lesssss gooooo. And when she won by tricking her into thinking that Eadric could transform into a dragon too (but really it was just an illusion). Then Emma told her about an available prince named Jorge and how to find him lol. Now Eadrics parents like her! That ending so adorable: “"I can tell you what you mean to me with just one word." "Let me guess," I said, smiling up at him. "Maybe I make you happy because you no longer have to enter kissing contests to find the best kisser? Do I bring excitement into your life because I can whisk you away to exotic lands on my magic carpet? Or do you find me delightful because I can conjure food whenever you're hungry?" "No, that's not … Wait, what was that last one?" I laughed and shook my head. "Never mind. So tell me in one word, what do I mean to you?" "That's easy," said Eadric. "Everything!"