Sidequested: Book 1
Ale Presser
Illustrated by K. B. Spangler
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Published March 17, 2026
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Sidequested: Book 1
The course of true love never did run straight…For fans of The Owl House and Critical Role comes the first volume in the lighthearted and epic adventure SideQuested!
Magic makes the world go ’round, but no one in Charlie Goldskin’s world knows precisely where magic comes from. This isn’t Charlie’s problem. She’s the adopted daughter of a woodcarver and is training to be a librarian. It’ll be a quiet life, but that’s fine with Charlie as magic is summoned through conflict and she would like to avoid that, thank you very much!
Then her birth father shows up to take her from her village and bring her to the King’s court.
Prince Leopold is gifted in the noble arts of diplomacy and combat, but he’s never met anyone like Charlie. Falling in love with her wouldn’t be an issue, except he’s already engaged, and his fiancée is the daughter of a very powerful evil witch. Charlie, panicking, decides to break the news to Princess Robin…but then she finds love at first sight, too. To resolve this love triangle, the teens are sent on a quest to discover the source of magic! So much for Charlie’s plans for a quiet life…
My Review
This was so much fun to read! I love that it starts out as if an NPC (non-playing character) has gone on a quest in a tabletop adventure. The early scenes especially seemed to harken back to role-playing game rules and expectations. I loved the playfulness of that approach, and the fact that the first other character Charlie meets is a vulture who thinks Charlie is about to be eaten.
The story takes some common fairytale tropes and turns them upside down while still delivering stakes and great characters. I’m a huge fan of this book. It looks like it began as a webcomic, and now I even want to look that up and find out more about that, too.
Dungeons and Dragons fans and readers who enjoy upbeat fantasy graphic novels will not want to miss this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
Romantic tension between characters.
Spiritual Content
Some characters can do magic. Some animals can talk. Dragons exist.
Violent Content
Situations of peril.
Drug Content
An adult character drinks wine.
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