I know the character are in their late teens but this feels so much more like a children's series to me. And I don't mean that as denigration - ten year old me would have loved this, I think, and that's not denigration either! It's just so light and happy and you can be certain, reading, that even the bad things that happen will be fixed without a great deal of trouble or violence. The evil wizards, for example, are vanquished with buckets of soapy water mixed with lemon juice, and even then the melting is only temporary and they'll be back to their nefarious shenanigans in the next volume.

It's all just so friendly, and I enjoy the subversive nature of the two main characters. Fairy tales come with certain expectations, and both Cimorene and Mendanbar are sick of living up to the sillier, less reasonable beliefs that princesses and kings are meant to embody. Their quiet determination to go their own way is mirrored in many of the little references to typical story plots that have gone just a little bit skewed - the dwarf of the Rumpelstiltskin story, who cares very strongly for the children he ends up saddled with, the Wicked Uncle who's actually very fond of his nephew the prince, the dragon who wants stew and chocolate mousse to eat as opposed to human beings... it's what you'd expect from fairy tales if they were inhabited by people of good sense and general kindness. I think, in my review, I described the first volume as "good-natured", and honestly, that's still the best word I can think of to describe the series thus far.