Yep, the same tale that Disney’s The Princess and the Frog was loosely based on. Mainly the kissing the frog and turning into a frog herself part, everything else veers off into a totally original and delightful fractured fairytale about Princess Emma (short for Emerald) and her adventures in honing her magic that include breaking a family curse, befriending dragons and finding that that onnoxious frog may actually be her prince.

In fact, it was pretty hard to rank this as if I were going to individual review each of the books, they’d each be a solid four so it was all a matter of which had more memorable parts/world/character development.

1. Once Upon a Curse: Emma’s family has been cursed for decades where when a female turns sixteen, any contact with flowers will turn her into a nasty, ugly hag, cruel to her loved ones and everyone else. A classic fairytale witch. Already, Emma’s grandmother and beloved aunt, Grassina have fallen to the curse and Emma desperately wants to break the spell. Especially as she doesn’t feel comfortable with accepting Eadric’s marriage proposal, knowing that if she ever touches a flower, her personality and love for him will disappear and she’ll drive everyone miserable. Not only does this story have exciting stakes between the curse, Emma’s sixteenth birthday and potential jousting disasters but it involves time travel. An easy to understand kind of time travel (as long as you don’t think too hard) that lets Emma meet her ancestors and find that not all the stories have been true.
2. Dragon’s Breath: The second book in the series seems to expand the world to me. It feels like a step up in not only introducing more lore, but there’s the road trip adventure across the kingdom where Emma and Eadric encounter the Dragon Olympics, the Witches Retirement Home and secret island of Oflet. The characters feel more dimensional as we see Aunt Grassina totally turned about by finding her beloved that she neglects her responsibilities, forcing Emma to step up while trying to help her aunt break Haywood’s curse. Eadric also gets a little development as he sets aside his macho prince act to accept Emma’s magical help even though her spells are still sometimes fails. Also loved the surprise ending that sets up the next book.
3. No Place for Magic: So much has happened since readers first met Emma and this adventure demonstrates how far she and everyone else has come. Now that Eadric’s parents know she’s the Green Witch, they want to forbid the match so Emma and Eadric go forward to his home-kingdom and end up having to save his kidnapped brother from trolls. Venturing past trolls, werewolves and cocktrices (I love how Baker never fails to find obscure and interesting monsters for the characters to face), Emma must learn to hold back on her reliance for magic. Not only to appease Eadric’s parents so they’ll see she’s not a stereotypical evil witch but to prevent trolls from tracking her through their special farseeing ball. It’s interesting additional challenge that shows Emma’s growth in confidence and magical abilities while reminding her of how special she is without it and just what made Eadric loved her in the first place. Plus all the other characters have their nice moments even her ultra-critical mother.
4. The Salamander Spell: This prequel tells Grassina’s tale during the worst week of her life-her mother’s cursed, her sister blames her for it, her father dies and turns out she has magic? Okay, the last one is not so bad but she’s not sure how to harness it in a way that can save her kingdom. This was a nice prequel but I admit, it felt a bit repetitive as it was similar to Emma’s journey (being expected to be not special/non magical, wishing she could do more, animal sidekick, annoying suitors, always criticized by Chartruse). Although, I did enjoy seeing the beginning of Grassina and Haywood’s relationship and the explanation of the Vili making it extra sappy.
5. The Frog Princess: As usual the first book, while a servicable intro to the world and the characters, always feels a little flat compared to the devlopement and more interesting twists of the other books. It plays it safe with a standard bickering boy-girl shapeshifting adventure while seeding themes, and plot points for future books.