Like the others in this series this is enjoyable. The series is set in a town where fairy tale creatures and "real people" coexist although in this tale features a trip to New York City where reality and fairy tale and reality also mingle. The Grimm sisters solve a mystery and look for clues to find their missing parents. ( )

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After Puck’s serious injury at the end of the last book, Sabrina and the rest of the Grimms must take him to Faerie to heal. Thus Sabrina and Daphne find themselves returning home to New York City, but home isn’t nearly as idyllic as Sabrina remembered. There they encounter the obnoxious Faerie King Oberon, who turns out to be Puck’s father who banished him from Faerie, dwarves in the subway, pirates on the Staten Island Ferry, and mobster fairy godfathers, not to mention the Great and Powerful Oz working the shop windows at Macy’s. And somehow the girls’ mother seems to have had her hand in all kinds of aspects of Everafter society.

Even more bewildered, Sabrina attempts to retire from the fairy tale detective business, but when an important Everafter turns up dead with a Scarlet Hand print on his body, she gets drawn into the mystery again.

Most of this book is still Sabrina rejecting any aspect of Everafter society, and her being completely unable to let go of a strange “ideal” version of her parents she has kept in her head. Again this is very natural and realistic – and irritating as all get-out.

What made the book completely unbearable to me, though, was the mess Buckley made of Shakespeare. After he had already turned Puck into Peter Pan and fairies in general into Tinkerbell-like pixies, now the fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are all inter-related, can breathe fire, and are generally sleazy and all too human. I was peeved. Then when it turns out that Puck ends up being a Momma’s boy (after the entire play showed him taking Oberon’s side) with even more gross 11-year-old nastiness… well, I just can’t deal with it. Any minor chance that I might have bought these has completely vanished.

And after four books of Daphne’s incredibly annoying “palm-biting” when she gets excited, and refusing to speak to her sister when she acts like a “jerkazoid”, I need a change. The relationships between the characters (Granny and Sabrina, Sabrina and Daphne, Sabrina and her parents) are completely stagnant, and what’s worse, they’re annoying. Sabrina finally showed signs of becoming less annoying in the future, but I’ve pretty well lost patience with her. I continue to read for the amusing spin on fractured fairy tales (in this one, I particularly liked the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon and Mother Goose), but I cannot see myself purchasing any of them. ( )

This installment of The Sisters Grimm lives up to the others in the series so far. The Grimm Family has left Fairyport Landing, and is headed back into New York City to find a cure for Puck. Along the way another someone is murdered and a scarlet handprint is found. A mystery needs to be solved.

Definitely worth the read – this series is one that’s good if you’re looking for a fun and silly read. ( )