Thanks to author, publisher, and netgalley for an advance copy of Ever Alice; Apologies it took so long to get here!

Ever Alice was okay. I always get excited to read Alice retellings/reimaginings and typically end up let down, and I'd say that was also the case with this one. I just wanted a little more. I enjoyed the premise, I'm not sure if the original books ever touch on anything that happens to Alice when she returns but I love the idea. Unfortunately it felt like After Oz to me, which is kind of the same premise only it's Dorothy's time after returning from Oz...and in theory those are fun ideas that just don't pan out well. As with After Oz, I found this to be very slow, very little action.

The book started very interesting and I was quickly invested in the story and the characters, however midway, it lost steam, and began looking like every other book in the genre. Not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

In this imaginative retelling, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland take an unexpected turn. After landing in an asylum due to her tales of Wonderland, Alice seeks escape. She follows the White Rabbit back to Wonderland, only to find herself embroiled in the court of the Queen of Hearts. Love, scandal, and intrigue abound as Alice faces an unusual mission—one that could lead her to the chopping block. Ramsay’s debut novel weaves whimsy, madness, and danger into a captivating tale for fans of fantasy.

Fun and quirky, Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay takes you on a wonderful adventure through the House of Hearts and the upside down world of Wonderland. Nothing is normal for Alice. Put in a mental hospital for her crazy ramblings about a white rabbit with a stop watch, she, unlike her mother, father, and sister, knows deep down that she's not mad.

Forced to transfer to a different hospital that participates in cruel tactics that 'treat' their patients, Alice is scared out of her mind and desperate to go home. The rabbit appears just in time to whisk her away to the palace of hearts, which is full of interesting people and creatures—"from the flower pickers to the pillow stuffers, from the pillow stuffers to the icing makers, from the icing makers to the tea stirrers, from the tea stirrers to the envelope lickers, and so on and so forth."

What I love most about this book is that we get inside the head of the villain just as much as the heroine. The Queen of Hearts is a character I absolutely love to hate. With her crazy ramblings and delusional beheading tendencies how can I not? Everyone should give this book a try! With the subtle and witty humor, I promise you'll get a good laugh.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

While the book started strong, I felt that it quickly lost steam and became very similar to other books in this genre. I wasn't really interested in the developing romance either.

I received this book a long time ago as an ARC. I never made the time to read it and I decided to rectify that this year. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Wonderland or surely the Queen would have had me beheaded for tardiness. If you enjoy fairy tale reimaginings, check out this fun take on Alice and her return to Wonderland. There are lines that will make you laugh aloud and other lines that will make you question your motivations in your own life.

I did not finish this book. I don't think it is for me. The story did not pull me in or captivate me in anyway.

I loved The premise to this but it just ended up falling flat for me. I mostly struggled with the writing style. It just wasn't for me. Overall, this one was an okay read for me.

It's a slightly darker Wonderland that we return to, but more due to that dear Alice had been locked in a mental asylum and seeing any struggles related to that, than that Wonderland itself is much bleaker. We see the story from both Alice and the Queen of Hearts' POV, which helped give a little more sense of Wonderland - at least at first. I was liking how the author was portraying Wonderland, with all it's quirkiness, in the first few chapters from the Queen's POV, but after that it seemed like she gave up on trying to write nonsensical or zany things and just went solely for plot. She just stuck "un" in front of things and called it good. It's Wonderland, I'm gonna need a bit more than that.

Having a Marilyn Monroe-esque character in there (Marilyn Montague?) was jarring, to be honest. Why was she there? It made zero sense. And it's not like even in modern-Alice times, Marilyn Monroe was around to influence Alice at all.

It's not a terrible "sequel" though it doesn't hold a candle to the original, but nothing really happens for a good chunk of the book and there wasn't enough zaniness to make up for it. The plot aspect ran strongly through the book, but with a large lack of actual action and events taking place. It's very slow moving, and ultimately, outside of the beginning and the end, not memorable.

While reading this book, I wasn't sure if I was enjoying it, but after I finished, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I feel like it was a very well-done sequel. This is NOT a retelling - Alice RETURNS to Wonderland several years after the original trips created by Mr. Carroll.
Overall, I DO recommend reading this one.

Stars 3
Would I recommend? Yes

Alice returns from her adventure in Wonderland and is so animated about an experience that seems far-fetched to her parents, that she assumed to be 'mad'. They ship her off to an insane asylum and as an attempt at escapism, she returns to Wonderland.

I enjoyed the experience of visiting Wonderland again but the story of this meandered just a bit for me. I loved the concept and the premise, but it lacked the same whimsical, magical feeling of the original. But of course my expectations were awfully high!

Did not finish. I appreciated the opportunity to read this book but it no longer held interest for me.

Well not too much to say here besides the fact I didn't enjoy reading this one. I am always down for a fresh take on a retelling of a classic fairy tale, but Ramsay didn't do a good job of developing Alice or the Queen of Hearts. The flow of the book was not very good and I thought the setting of Wonderland could have been done up a lot more than it was. The ending also was a head scratcher to me.

I have always been a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, so I approached Ever Alice with a little trepidation.

The storyline, I really enjoyed. There's quite a bit of courtly intrigue in there, with different plots and schemes and rebellions going on around the Red Queen. Alice gets caught up in it and has to figure out her place in it all, who she can trust, who she can't and how far she's willing to go to save Wonderland.

The elements in the asylums I also enjoyed. They were suitably dark and creepy and got genuinely worrying at times, as Alice was locked away and then sent for special treatment. The "Alice in an asylum" thing has been done before, but H J Ramsay did it well here.

What I really didn't like was the style of the storytelling. It was clearly aiming at a Carrollian nonsense, with people saying contrary things (news that had to be delivered quickly was "unimportant") and eating and drinking a frankly bizarre collection of foods. Characters from the two Alice books had been reimagined in differently courtly roles and beyond court, as the Walrus has somehow become Pope. There's unrest between the four card kingdoms, and some kind of religious war occurring too.

Honestly, I just felt it was a bit much. When Carroll introduced nonsense, there was often a reason given for it, a grounding in literature or language or philosophy (such as when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that words should mean what he wants them to mean), whereas in Ever Alice it was just a given that everything would be nonsensical. It felt like it was aiming for whimsical and just ended up being bizarre.

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

I loved reading Ever Alice.

Well-written with wonderfully crafted characters. Funny and quirky, this is a book I will enjoy reading over and over again.

I had to include the synopsis:
Alice’s stories of Wonderland did more than raise a few eyebrows—it landed her in an asylum. Now at 15 years of age, she’s willing to do anything to leave, which includes agreeing to an experimental procedure. When Alice decides at the last minute not to go through with it, she escapes with the White Rabbit to Wonderland and trades one madhouse for another: the court of the Queen of Hearts. Only this time, she is under orders to take out the Queen. When love, scandal, and intrigue begin to muddle her mission, Alice finds herself on the wrong side of the chopping block.

I love a good retelling and found this book fairly fun! Kind of reminded me of the once upon a time in wonderland show where it showed what life was like for Alice after she came back and was told she was mad. I thought it was a fun twist on a classic!

I think I liked the idea more than the execution. That's not to say this isn't a great read and what seems a very logical take on the Alice story. It's well written and could make a great mini series

I really liked that the book was told from both Alice and the Queen of Hearts’ perspective. Having the queen’s point of view was very enlightening. It gave her character more complexity and dimension.

I found that the style and tone of the book was a good continuation of the original. Obviously no one can compare to Lewis Carroll, but the author did a wonderful job in keeping with the spirit of the original while offering her own unique twist.