This very entertaining series is well worth a read. I enjoyed the first book, The Accidental Sorcerer, most, but its sequels are almost as entertaining. In this world, things never quite go according to plan, and we swing from breathless tension to belly laughs and back again as we watch the crazy scenarios unfold.

As we have come to expect from K.E. Mills and her alter ego, Karen Miller, we find well-drawn characters, each with enough personal idiosyncrasies to keep a team of analysts busy for months. Theses crazy adventures involve Gerald Dunwoody, an eccentric third grade wizard who turned out to be a mage, and his trio of equally zany friends, Monk Markham, Princess Melissande of New Ottosland and the craziest bird on this or any other planet, Reg. Avian though she may be, Reg is perhaps the best-loved character in the series. She comes across as a small, feathered person, not a talking bird. Likewise, Gerald is one of those completely unbelievable characters who nevertheless makes the reader suspend disbelief cheerfully, because in spite of his incredible antics, he comes across as quintessentially human, with all the fears and foibles that entails.

Mills/Miller has a notable skill for depicting believable male characters. In the second book, Witches Incorporated, however, she chose to focus on the female of the species, by and large with considerable success. But there were times when the women and their antics did not quite ring true, and I found myself wanting to see less of them and more of Gerald. Perhaps this is a purely personal thing – Gerald already had my heart and I was disappointed not to see more of him in this book.

But he's back front and centre in book three, Wizard Squared. and we also get quite a bit of his friend Monk, who, it seems, has been lumbered with the job of saving a world. On an alternative version of their world, our quartet finds that whatever we know and expect ain't necessarily so. Other versions of ourselves might have taken other decisions and become something other: perhaps even something deadly other. A psychopathic version of a gifted mage does not bear thinking about, and thereby hangs a pretty good plotline.

Mills/Miller has an indubitable flair for inventive plots. She also has bouncy, chatty style. There are plenty of smiles and quite a few guffaws to be had along the way, and even a few tears when we realize the quartet will not be unchanged by the experiences they have on the alternative world. This is the 'darkest' book of the series to date.

The fourth book in the series, Wizard Undercover, picks up where book three left off. Just as things seem to be getting back to normal (although what's 'normal' in Gerald's world is open to question) an international crisis is brewing. Disguised as Melissande’s private secretary, Gerald sets off to save the day. As with all these adventures, though, there are many slips between intention and denouement!

There may be more books in the series, but Karen Miller is such a prolific writer that there's no telling what she will come up with next!