The first book I've come across in what feels like eons, that has me rushing to bed at night so I can read what's happening next... I'm not finished yet, but couldn't wait to recommend!

Ever Alice by HJ Ramsay
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.75 Stars)

I loved Alice in Wonderland and was really excited to read this book. However, I thought it was just okay. It took me a while to really get into it. I feel that the book started to pick up in the second half of the book but towards the end, I really did enjoy the book. THE END WAS JUST WOW. I just struggled in the beginning.

Alice is now 15 years old, is stuck in an asylum for being “mad” and is whisked off to Wonderland again to save the day. The original story of Alice in Wonderland is brought up in passing as bits and pieces of her past and the fact that she could not let go of Wonderland has driven her parents to seek medical help for her “madness.” Alice ends up seeing so many different doctors and she tells her story over and over again with Wonderland and the White Rabbit. Alice is about to go through an “unconventional” treatment that will “cure” her “madness” when the White Rabbit shows up and convinces Alice to come save Wonderland.

What could they possibly need Alice to do that is so urgent?? KILL THE QUEEN OF HEARTS!

What drew me into the book originally (besides the fact I love Alice in Wonderland), was the idea of Alice falling in love. I was really looking forward to reading a developing love story between Alice and her love interest but was disappointed. And I’m also not quite sure how I feel about the random Marilyn Monroe character in the book.

What I did like about the book was that we were able to get in the mind of the Queen of Hearts. It is as much her story as it is Alice’s. HJ Ramsay did a great job keeping the tone of Wonderland. Everything was backwards. Important news was of the utmost unimportance. Everything was weird. Two pieces of butter in your tea? You actually WANT a lumpy mattress and tea that smells like dirty socks? In Wonderland, yes you do. But what don’t you want to hear while in Wonderland? “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!” The Queen of Hearts is on a beheading frenzy! Can Alice, the White Rabbit, and their team stop the Queen of Hearts?

Overall, the book was enjoyable. I really did enjoy the chapters that were told from the Queen of Hearts’ point of view. It added another element to the story that I liked. If you can get through the slow parts of the book, and you enjoy the twists and turns of the maddening Wonderland, the end of the book will definitely make up for the slow beginning.

I received an ARC of Ever Alice from the Red Rogue Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I was quite disappointed with this book. Mostly because it had potential, but just fell really short of the mark.
Alice is now 15 years old and after years of telling people about her adventures in Wonderland her parents are starting to question her sanity and take her to see a specialised doctor at an Asylum in Switzerland. Sadly things are not quite what they seem at the asylum, but just when things appear to be at their worst for Alice a familiar white rabbit helps her escape the asylum and she finds herself back in Wonderland. What follows is actually quite an intricate tale of suspicion and treachery, reality and fantasy. I’m just not sure it works as an ‘Alice in wonderland’ tale.
I was impressed at first as the author really did seem to capture the essence of the silliness of wonderland, with some scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch or a Mel Brooks movie, but after a while it began to feel like the author was trying a bit too hard and it started to become a slightly repetitive and tedious.
The Character development didn’t really work for me either, especially The Queen of Hearts. For me she was a bit two-dimensional, and although the author tries to give her a bit of a back story it just doesn’t adhere to the character.
Some aspects of the language also grated on me. For instance, when parents are being referred to as Mum and Papa, it doesn’t sit well with me. It’s either going to be mum and dad or mama and papa. I know that is probably just a personal peeve of mine, but every time I came across that phrasing it just halted the story for me. Oh and don’t get me started on the Pop culture references! An actress named Marilyn Montague, who sounds very similar to another well know Marilyn, and a boyband called ‘Mice to men’. They may have been put in for humour, but they just didn’t seem to flow with the story.
As I said, in essence it was a good story, if a little predictable at the end, I just feel that using it as a ‘re-imagining’ of Alice left it with some expectations that it just couldn’t live up to.

3.5 stars

Hickory, hickory, dock.. ticktock, ticktock..

Reviewing this for #netgalley ! This is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with a unique twist. Alice's family think shes crazy and put her into a mental institution after she describes her visit to Wonderland. In this novel the White Rabbit is trying to convince Alice to go back down the rabbithole and to murder the Quern if Hearts (Rosamund). We get to see some of our favorite Wonderland characters and a few new ones as well. The book changed perspectives each chapter between Alice and Rosamund. I really enjoyed reading from Rosamunds POV. Overall this was an enjoyable read and unique retelling!

Thank you to Red Rogue Press for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
All I could picture while reading this was Alice through the looking glass with Johnny depp, it made for a very interesting read.

Quality of Writing: 8/10
Pace: 7/10
Plot Development: 9/10
Characters: 7/10
Enjoyability: 9/10
Insightfulness: 10/10
Ease of Reading: 6/10
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advanced reader copy of Ever Alice through NetGalley.
I have so many thoughts about this book that I don't know where to start. Let's start with what I loved, I guess.
- The twists. I didn't see most of them coming, but they were all so well thought out and surprising. I love being surprised like that. The ending was the best part, because it made everything click into place. It was so good, I started babbling about it to my mother.
- The Wonderland logic. Everything was "unimportant" if it was important and "disastrous" if it was wonderful. Their tea smells like dirty socks and the mattresses are best when lumpy. Of course, some of these things went a bit overboard, but I thought a great deal of them made sense.
- Everyone is mad. This book keeps you on your toes, and you surely feel like you've plunged into a rabbit hole if you don't remember that everyone is mad.
Now, for the one big thing I didn't like:
- The Prince of Hearts. He didn't exist for any other reason than to be Alice's love interest, and that wasn't even believable. The romance was utterly stupid, and I don't know why Marilyn Montague was written in either. The romance was way too "love-at-first-sight" for me, and not in a good way. If that had been cut out altogether, or just written better, I would have liked it more.
Overall, a wonderful take on Wonderland, and that ending really blew me out of my mind. If anyone wants to talk about it with me feel free! I just didn't want to let slip any spoilers here.

I'm a big Alice in Wonderland fan, and this book piqued my interest with its cover (I love the simple yet effective design!) and the blurb.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. I especially liked the ending, even though it was really sad. The "full circle" aspect was there in a very chilling way.

The story oscillates between a third-person-limited POV of Alice and then the Queen of Hearts, Rosamund. Rosamund is delightfully written–she’s unpredictable, prone to fits of passion, and overall ridiculous. Some may complain that Alice is written “too young” for a fifteen year old, but at the start of the book, she has spent three years in isolation in a mental asylum, so it makes sense that her development was slowed by lack of human interaction.

I also liked how the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter were incorporated in as Royal Advisors Ralph and William. It made the story more connected without being too convenient.

Some of the other characters, though, deserved more! Pedro’s connection was milky for most of the story, and Thomas….I definitely wanted a little more out of him. His motivations were never really clear.

While I enjoyed that the book kept things quite “Wonderland-esque”, with animals being able to talk, games from the original book, Rosamund’s propensity to behead people, some things were too far, or not explained. It seemed like in some spots, there was weirdness just for the sake of being weird, and not for the plot. I also didn’t like that there was a character named Marilyn Montague who was an actress. Too convenient, sorry.

Overall, though, the writer did a great job of making a whimsical yet sobering book–dark but not too dark–and making beloved Wonderland their own. It may not be a life changing tome or the best thing I’ve ever read, but I definitely enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading to know what happened next.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the idea that Alice is was crazy and was in an Assylaum. I wish more of the setting would have been there I thought it was a good idea. I think H.J. Ramsay was able to pull off the same type of writing style as the original Alice in Wonderland which made it feel like a sequel. There were parts that were slow or I wished some characters like the Mad Hatter were different, but overall was a fun read!

Good use of original story and the characters.
I think possibly just to whacky for me,and I just found it slightly irritating.

Ever Alice by H.J Ramsay is a sequel to the story of Alice which we all know from Alice in Wonderland.

Thankyou so much Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC .

Ever Alice refers the originals as past events happened and now Alice has landed in an asylum. The doctor is a cruel person who made her parents believe that she has to be admitted and needs some different therapeutic treatments. Alice wanted to escape from there and one day she escaped with the White Rabbit to the Wonderland and trades one mad house for another. In this story she takes orders from the queen of hearts and finds herself in a wrong side.

It was really a great read in which we gets inside the head of villian as just as Alice.The queen of heart is a character which I loved much. The Wonderland is as crazy as the original stories and Queen of Hearts is very much crazy with her ramblings and delusions.
I disliked some parts where randomly added characters have introduced and the characterization was just felt like a budding flower. Not well characterized Hatter too can be seen which I really dislike. Some of the Alice's chapters were also stretched too much which made boring to me.

The whole book is good with lots of twists and turns. Eventhough it was slow at first by the end there were so many unexpected twists and turns made the story to give 3.5 stars.

I thought Ever Alice was well done and almost provided as a sequel to Alice in Wonderland if you ignored Alice Through the Looking Glass. It did share some plot points of Through the Looking Glass both book and movie (Tim Burton version). While there have been many books that take on Carroll's iconic characters, I have never seen any version outside of his take his plot as solidly as Ever Alice did. While time has passed and characters have evolved, they are still familiar to any Wonderland fans. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it, but I do feel it was struggling to find a solid plot line and felt a little rushed at the end. I have no idea if this is intended to be a series or if there will be a second book, but there was enough left on the table that I feel Ramsey could expand the Wonderland universe even further.

Ever Alice

This is sort of a sequel to the story of the Alice we know. It begins with Alice being sent to an asylum because she believed in wonderland. It refers to the originals as past events rather than repeat them which I liked. When she is there the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred. The book leaves it open to which world is real. I did like that aspect but I also felt like it was just added in there to make the story a little different from others.

Things I liked.
It did respect and was similar to the original wonderland, full of nonsense. Wonderland was wonderful and the characters we know we're changed to fit in the wonderland in Ever Alice. Some changes I liked but others I didn't.
The Red Queen Rosamund, she was by far by favourite character. The chapters in her POV were great. She is very paranoid and so she should be because everyone wants the throne.
No on can be trusted in this book which was an aspect I liked. There are a few twists and turns in this book which I did not expect.

Things I disliked.
Randomly added character Marylyn Monroe, not sure why she was really there or why that name was used. Also the characterisation of some of the characters I also didn't really like for example The Hatter.
The romance - I'm not the biggest fan of romances but this felt like it was just thrown in there and i didn't really think it was needed.
Alice's chapters did bore me a little at the beginning but I stuck with it and it did get more interesting.

This is a book that overall I thought was just okay. This is a strange book, it felt like wonderland from the original while also feeling a little like a stranger. I didn't feel like it did anything new. If you really like the character of Alice then this book is for you.

Thank you netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh. My. Word.
I've loved this book from start to finish. It has moments light humour, moments I found myself chuckling away to myself, moments where I cried and moments where I was utterly shocked. I love retellings of Alice in Wonderland and Ramsay's style gives this story exactly what it needs in exactly the right places- hits the balance between light and dark and blows the reader away. The writing is so lewis-esque that is just a delight to read. Utterly fantastic - will be recommending this to everyone!!!!! Thank you so much

I wanted to love this continuation of such a beloved story. I gave it so many chances but in the end I had to skim read to get to the twist others had mentioned.
The issue with the book for me is that the tone and imagery jars with what I already know and expect of Wonderland.
This final shift would normally work if the plot and characters offered something new, however it’s been done before with Alice, Dorothy and even Buffy.
The book will find a willing and eager audience; fan favourites a back and relatively well written. Some of the book is told from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts and it is here where the narrative is at its strongest and kept me reading.

Loved this take on an old fairytale! Very imaginative and sequel like! Can’t wait to encourage my students to check out this Alice novel!!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderfully absurd take on Wonderland.

Alice is scheduled to be lobotomized after being institutionalized for talking about her adventures in Wonderland.

The White Rabbit rescues her and the adventure starts as Alice is tasked with killing the Queen of Hearts.

Ever Alice is a sequel/reimagining of the classic Alice in Wonderland story.

This was a fun and quirky book with a lot of twists and turns. However I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped. The book tried too hard to sound English but it was quite jarring the overuse of words like ‘Mum’ and American slang slipping in like ‘someplace’ and ‘gotten’. I wasn’t wxpecting the POV to focus so much on the Queen’s character and found her annoying (although that was the point!).

All in all this was a fun story and if you like reimaginings I’d definitely read it, but it didn’t hit the mark for me.

I received an arc of Ever Alice from Red Rogue Press in exchange for an honest review.

Ever Alice presents itself somewhat as a sequel to the original stories and refers to the originals as past events rather than retells them.
We’re presented with a story told from Alice’s point of view as well as the Queen of Heart’s view which was very refreshing and gave a brilliant contrast between the two characters.
This was an enjoyable read but as someone who is a big fan of retellings (with Alice as number one) I didn’t find it overall life changing but think as a book in it’s own right, ignoring the retelling aspect it’s a good read.
If you aren’t someone who is obsessed with everything Alice and rather someone who likes the sound of the story definitely pick this up.

I was incredibly impressed with how the writer managed to keep the level of madness in their writing consistent. Everything was backwards and wrong, with most ordinary items being replaced with something unbelievable, not to mention the sheer amount of crazy food and drink combinations. This version of Wonderland was very fun and captivating because of this.

The Queen of Hearts was definitely my favourite character she was written absolutely brilliantly and it was great to be in her mind. This version of her was a much more intensified show of madness showing how deeply the Queen was affected rather than just an evil queen who wanted everyone beheaded.

There was also a Marilyn Monroe reference in the book and although completely random it was absolutely hilarious and I was crying reading it, it completely surprised me and was perfectly slipped in.

I didn’t feel like too much of the story was original which is very hard to accomplish in an already overdone retelling. I found similar aspects to the Disney film and Tim Burton’s as well as Christina Henry’s ‘Alice’ retelling.
However, I was surprised by the amount of twists and turns in the story, no one could be trusted and at times it felt like anything could happen. As parts of the story started to parallel the original story of Alice there would be a snap change and the unexpected would happen.

Having Alice’s last name be ‘Liddell’ I found a little pointless, it was only brought up once and it felt a little like ‘I know the origin, I’ve done my research’ rather than there being any reason for that choice.
Alice Liddell was never suggested at being mad or needing to go into an asylum (as Alice Liddell in the book does) it’s just suggested that the story was written for her entertainment or that she was the muse and inspiration for it.
I found it a big leap to then almost suggest that the original Alice Liddell (who was a real person) thought she went to Wonderland, was mad and now has to be locked up in an asylum.
Other people have retold Alice with the asylum point of view but by using the real name, to me, it made it a lot more suggestive that this child was really like this and I didn't find it needed.

The idea of a romance really drew me into this book and I have to say it did disappoint me. I didn’t feel like it was well thought out at all, it didn’t add to the story and was kind of just thrown in like ‘Oh by the way she fancies this boy’ and no further development.

The English traits and Americanisms played in my head a lot. I may be wrong but I got the impression that the author wasn’t British. Alice was written as British and I was very impressed how throughout the whole novel any mum was referred to as ‘mum’ or ‘mummy’. However, early on while in England, Alice uses the words ‘hot buttered biscuit’ and it’s very petty to dwell on, but I was immediately picturing a warmed rich tea biscuit covered in butter which any Englishman would know is not a great image.
There was also one sentence that confused and got to me, it was when a male described getting ‘kicked in the knickers’. This is not an important plot line or spoiler but it really played on my mind, like what on earth did he mean. Knickers of course is an english word for a lady’s undergarments and I immediately pictured the man in frilly woman’s knickers which i don't think was the intent. Then I considered it being a spelling mistake for ‘knackers’ meaning a delicate male area and it just really stuck in my head as to what the author meant.

I preferred the Queen’s chapters to Alice’s view. I did feel throughout the book that Alice didn’t really need to be here. Yes it’s an Alice retelling but I was confused at why she had to go back to Wonderland in the first place and then while there she didn’t really change the story for me. Towards the end we are presented with an explanation as to why this is but for me the book wouldn’t be dramatically changed if the author ctrl+F her name and then deleted.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book. It was fun and the Wonderland created had great depth, not to mention I never knew what on earth was going on with everyone and who would be the next one to reveal a secret. I wouldn’t reread but I’m happy I got the opportunity to read it and if anything should attract you to this book it has to be the mesmerising madness of the Queen of Hearts.

If you enjoy the synopsis definitely pick it up but if you’re looking for a different side to the Alice story you already know well, I don’t think this book will greatly add to your reading experience in my opinion.

I loved Ever Alice. This is probably one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. The whole idea behind this book was so unique and fun that I think it would be difficult for anyone to dislike this story. All of the characters were well developed and likable. The book itself was told from the perspectives of three people, two of them being Alice and Rosamund (the dreaded queen of hearts). The third POV character was a doctor and we only heard his thoughts for a page or two near the end. His knowledge of affairs concerning Alice was very cleverly woven in to clear up a question or two the reader might have had. Or perhaps to raise a few, if they hadn’t been preceptive enough to catch the clues sprinkled throughout the story. The plotline was paced well and fantastically crazy. I constantly found myself dreading the approaching ending yet unable to stop reading at the same time. Anyone mad enough to pick this book up won’t be disappointed.

This book is so hard to rate because on one hand it was just okay but that ending turned it into something else entirely that I really enjoyed but is that enough to save it?

“Ever Alice” finds our infamous heroine trapped behind the walls of an asylum and with a new treatment threatening to take away her memories of Wonderland she finds herself thrown back into the looking glass and on a secret mission to kill the Queen of Hearts.

So this book sets up an interesting idea that’s been played with in other works of fiction and the one that stands out most in my mind is an episode in season 6 of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” where the lines between fantasy and reality blur and you’re left wondering which world is real.

Wonderland was just as maddening as it’s original interpretation though there were some choices that left me scratching my head, most notably was the random Marilyn Monroe character. I got her as someone who was supposed to play that role in the story but what was with the very on the nose similarities between the two? It felt really strange especially since the author was going for a bit of a Wizard of Oz “it wasn’t a dream it was a place and you were there, and you were there...” type feel only with Monroe being born well after the year in which this takes place. I don’t know that was too sharp of a contrast for me and I found myself snapping out of the world whenever she made an appearance.

Like I said above this book is just okay and it’s not until the last few chapters that it became something I really enjoyed and maybe I need to reread it and see how much or little foreshadowing is in the book leading up to the reveal but as of now I’m sticking with my rating.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**