An interesting retelling of Alice In Wonderland, or rather what happened to Alice after her adventures. This novel begins when Alice is 15 and being treated in a mental health facility because of her time spent in Wonderland.
Despite being set in a grime place it was a fun read with a lot of old familiar characters.
I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in return for my honest review.

Ever Alice is an Alice in Wonderland retelling, set when Alice is 15 years old and sent to a asylum by her parents. They thinking she is mad after all her tales about Wonderland. Alice escapes the asylum with the help of the White Rabbit, going to Wonderland to assist in taking down the Red Queen from her throne.

In this retelling we also follow the perspective of the Red Queen, as well as Alice’s. The book has all the whimsicalness of Wonderland, with different kinds of creatures and rules in the world that does not make sense anywhere else. We even get a backstory of the Red Queen that I quite enjoyed. However, I found some plot points and character choices questionable. They didn’t really have grounds for their choices. The writing was also too direct and “childish” for me. But overall, it was entertaining and had some good parts even though the plot didn’t flow as I wanted it to. (Even though, Wonderland never flows smoothly anyway haha…). 3/5 stars.

Honestly this was not a good rendition of the wonder that is wonderland. I almost couldn't finish it. The magic of Alice wasn't there.

“Ever Alice” by H.J. Ramsay is a fantastic and dark sequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland

After coming back from Wonderland, Alice always believed in the white rabbit and her adventures. However her family becomes concerned the more Alice spoke of this fabled land. Was she mad?

After extensive visits to multiple doctors, Alice is placed in a mental asylum.

Meanwhile in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts suspicion of an underground revolt leads her to sentence the King of Hearts for treason. However once the king is beheaded, her paranoia continues to grows. This is shown when her sister, the Queen of Spades, comes to her for help, but is rather locked away.

Back at the asylum, Alice is not getting better. A much talked about Doctor in Switzerland has revolutionized a method to “fixing” the mentally ill. Alice agrees to see him with the hope that she can leave the asylum and go home.

Sir Ralph (aka the white rabbit) rescues Alice at the moment of her bewilderingly scary treatment. Although still serving the Queen of Hearts, he is part of an aboveground underground secret organization to dethrone the Queen of Hearts. They believe the true queen is the Queen of Spades. He also believes that Alice is Wonderland’s only hope.

Her mission: enter the Queen of Hearts’ castle, become a lady’s maid and kill the Queen.

Throughout the book there is a lot of activity in the story, jumping from many points of view, and keeping one on their toes.

The end of the story made me sit dumb-founded, wondering why the story ended as such. It was only when I discussed the overall book as well as the ending, that it did in fact make sense - in a bizarre Wonderland manner, interconnected between what is considered reality vs fantasy.

Star rating: 4

** I received a copy of “Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#EverAlice #NetGalley

I love the classics with a twist books. The cover description alone would have made me pick this book. HJ Ramsey must have a very good time writing this book as it is most definitely a wild ride through the story line. Using the Wonderland we know and an Alice that we don't, Ramsey has created an excellent read.

I very rarely read retellings so I was excited to read this one. The opening chapters were really promising. I enjoyed the alternating POVs between Alice and the Queen of Hearts. It is also funny in the tradition of Alice in Wonderland, with madness waiting at every corner of the beautiful paradise/ fantasy land.

However, about halfway through I started to think it could have been pushed even further. It could use a bit more madness, or be more philosophical, or more visceral. Perhaps I expected too much from this book but that is always a risk when reading a reinvention of a classic that is well-loved.

I needed to know the motivations behind the character’s actions. I am not a fan of insta-love and can only tolerate it depending on the situation but this novel has one of the worst— I just couldn’t imagine why Alice would even like Prince Thomas, and vice versa. There was also the part where Alice all of a sudden knew for certain who the traitor of the rebellion is, with no explanation whatsoever. No matter how mad Wonderland is, I was still looking for the logic which I believe is an essential element in the world building.

The nonsense is just that—nonsense. Most of the absurdity did not have the underlying creativity or philosophy of the original Alice.

I am still giving this a 3⭐️ rating because the novel is really good if viewed as fanfiction, but maybe not as the literary retelling/reimagining that I was hoping for ✌🏻

Big thanks to NetGalley and Red Rogue Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I often enjoy retellings and re-imaginings of classic children’s stories, whether they’re from fairy tales or are based on children’s books. Reading H.J. Ramsay’s upcoming, Ever Alice, I came to a realization, however. I don’t care for the story or characters of Alice in Wonderland. I didn’t care for the Disney movie as a child but as I got older, I thought it was because I hadn’t read the original story. I did eventually read the original story but I read it to my niece when she was a baby so I didn’t read it consistently. I’ve read a few books inspired by and using the Alice in Wonderland characters, but with the exception of Marissa Meyer’s Heartless, I end up finding them tedious. Ever Alice helped me realize that it’s really just that the stories aren’t to my taste. I can and do enjoy the fanciful, but the outright ridiculous, not so much.

Alice has struggled since her return from Wonderland. Her parents finally broke down and had her institutionalized for treatment. When Alice’s doctors bring her to another hospital in Switzerland for an experimental procedure, the White Rabbit appears before it can be carried out and she’s whisked back to Wonderland where the Queen of Hearts’ reign of terror and paranoia is getting out of hand and Alice’s old friends give her a mission: kill the Queen of Hearts.

Ever Alice alternates its narration in the perspectives of both Alice and Rosamund, the Queen of Hearts. As far as their narrative voices, they are distinct enough and consistent with the absurdities that characterize Wonderland. I remember enough of Lewis Carroll’s original tales to find Ramsay’s depiction of Wonderland in keeping with the source material and there is enough of a plot that can be soused out from the absurdities and plenty allusions to Alice’s first journey through Wonderland, to keep fans of Carroll’s work entertained. I’m just not one of them. The inversions and twists of Wonderland are what keep an otherwise simple plot going but they also muddy much of the thematic resonance that I need as a reader to remain invested.

The Alice portions of the narrative—particularly those later in the novel—where she reflects on the situation she left behind with her family were the ones I found most compelling. Betrayal—perceived and actual—crept up throughout the story as the Queen of Hearts is quick to eliminate those whose actions she sees as a threat to her person or thwarting her wishes. The asylum framework that sets up Alice’s narrative was something I had greater hopes for than materialized as I read. It turned out to be more of a jumping off point that was only alluded to later, rather than something that appeared more consistently. I think it was meant to be more of a twist in its later appearances than it was to me, as the way it was used seemed the only logical conclusion. But where so much of the rest of the story laughs at anyone trying to impose logic, this was where I truly would have appreciated a subversion of what made sense.

Ever Alice will be available for purchase August 1, 2019. For those who already enjoy Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, I expect they will find the novel compelling. I, however, have removed a number of other Wonderland-set works from my To Read lists as I have learned how thoroughly I don’t enjoy such stories.

Really enjoyed this whimsical book that is so written in the style of Carroll. Fun characters, opposites, the White Rabbit, forbidden love, traitors, and magic.
Just the perfect dash of "Drink Me" to go back and visit Wonderland.

Unfortunately this was not for me. My main reason for DNF’ing this book is that I was just kinda bored..
Barely anything happened in this book. We read from both Alice’s and the Queen of hearts perspective. The queen of hearts part is basically her continuously saying to behead someone, and that’s about it. Alice was asked by people to kill the queen, which she doesn’t want to do, but she still helps these people. So she becomes a maid of the Queen, and is just afraid most of the time.
I stopped reading this book around 60%, I feel like there was some kind of action coming, but by that time I was kinda dreading picking it up, that I just stopped.
Another thing that kinda annoyed me was that I think that the author tried to do the same weird and whimsical writing as Alice in Wonderland. And for me it just did not work. Little things like saying unimportant instead of important, kinda annoyed me..
It is a fun twist on the original story, so I do think this book will fit with some readers!

‘Ever Alice’ is A 'What If' twist to our favorite classic Alice in Wonderland.
Alice's stories and drawings about the White Rabbit and the Wonderland land her in a mental asylum. She is said to be hallucinating and fantasizing about this different world. She is kept locked and is about to undergo a dangerous medical procedure. That is when the White Rabbit rescues her once again and helps her escape to Wonderland.

But Wonderland has changed too in the past years. Queen of Hearts is more paranoid and thinks everyone is out to take her crown. She beheads anyone at the slightest suspicion and thus people are actually plotting to kill her. Alice is recruited as the newest member of a secret organization and sent to the castle as Queen’s Lady’s Maid to help kill her.

I absolutely loved the plot. This is an ingenuine thought process and H.J.Ramsay has executed it well.
It is a perfect combination of contrasting elements. It is funny at places and despairing at others. It was nice to get re-acquainted with some lovely characters from the classic. All of them are really well crafted with new elements added to how we know them. The court intrigue, the love angles, murders..these keep you on your toes.

The only thing I didn’t like is that the author has tried too hard to make it curiouser. Use of wrong/opposite adjective to make it like Wonderland has been mixed and it created a confusing effect.

Otherwise, it’s a nice angle to what would have happened to Alice story. The who-done-it part kept me reading and turning the pages. It was interesting to keep guessing if Wonderland is real or just a figment of Alice’s imagination.

This book certainly captured the whimsy of Wonderland and I found the idea very creative, but the execution of the plot was lacking for me. Alice as a character felt dry and lacked agency, and I was more interested in the Queen but felt she could also have been developed more. I also felt the ending came out of left field and didn't really fit with the rest of the book. The plot was quite dry and monotonous and I never really felt engaged with what was going on.

I had so much fun reading Ever Alice. Thank you Netgalley for providing me an Arc of this book for an honest review.
Ever Alice starts off with Alice being in a mental institution for going "Mad." This book is basically a sequel written by a different author on what happened to Alice after she got home from Wonderland. In this book we meet all the famous characters that we met in Alice in Wonderland except they all have different names. Like the the Queen of Hearts whose name is Rosamund. This book was adventures at times made me laugh a lot and just brought me back to my childhood. I highly recommend this read.

Ever Alice is a very interesting story taking place in the aftermath of Alice leaving Wonderland but Wonderland not leaving Alice. I have yet to actually read the classic Alice In Wonderland but have it on my shelf and after this I'm more interested in picking it up.

I think its really interesting that a lot of the retellings of Alice in Wonderland deal with people in the mad house. This one was strange and pretty well done. I loved the story from start to finish and the setting of Wonderland with its weird and strange feeling was great. Without giving anything away once we get to Wonderland this one a little weird there were a few characters that just felt out of place and the pacing of this one was off. Overall, I really did still enjoy this one but I wished some of it would have had a real Alice in Wonderland feeling. It seemed that this retelling took a lot of the original story and deleted it. This one was a give and take in its retelling and my love for the story.

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 mad house 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.- Goodreads

Writing retellings is hard. There is a massive expectation and way more pressure to do a good retelling than it is to create an original story. The reader wants the feel of the original story while also being introduced to something new. Alice in Wonderland is a story that has been retold constantly, so the expectation is way up there . . . at least for me.

Ever Alice was a good attempt but it was very boring. Alice is older, still a teen but older. She remembers her previous visit to Wonderland and she doesn't really want to go back but feels that she has no choice. The way the author spins reality verses imagination was actually done really well. I was convinced of Alice and the world. But things were just too slow for me and I had to put the book down a few times and go to something else.

However, I am glad that I finished the book because I was not expecting the ending. The ending was the best part of the book because it was answered the question that burns in your head from the beginning of the book. Is Alice mad? This loaded questions receives a load answer and I am here for it.

I wish there was more to this book; more not necessarily action but more something to give it that edge . . .to push it near excitement. Alice was boring but to be fair, she wanted to go home and she wanted to go home with her mind in tact.

Overall, this was an okay read. I'm not mad for reading it. I am a bit glad I did.

2 Pickles

Thank you to Netgalley for an eArc.

This book was at times funny, but for the most part, it seemed to be trying (and succeeding) at being suspenseful. The ending felt a bit rushed, but otherwise, the story was well-paced.

I don't really have much to say about Alice. This story, as well as how it treats the characters, will definitely appeal to readers who liked Alice in Wonderland.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Rogue Press for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the synopsis for this book, I was so eager to read it. This is a tale of after the famous Alice in Wonderland and how her life has drastically changed since that magical experience and I loved the idea of it starting with Alice being held in an asylum.

However that was as far as my love went for this book unfortunately. I felt that the story was quite bland in all honesty and was a bit of a disappointment. I felt like the plot was choppy and very rushed at the end.

Another big problem I had with this book is that I felt like Alice was very much a secondary character in her own story. She made no real decisions about her life, allowing other people to decide what she was to do until the very last section of the book and for me, that was too late for me to feel emotionally connected to Alice.

Rosamund’s chapters were enjoyable at the beginning but then it just felt very repetitive and just felt very bland. I honestly would have liked to have read more about her childhood and her relationship with her sister rather then read conversations she had with her dead lovers.

I wanted to like this book, I wanted to fall in love with a re-telling of Alice which touched on how her life had changed after Wonderland but I honestly couldn’t find myself connecting with the story or the characters.

This book was such a magical read that it had me hooked from the very beginning. The writing style is so good that it honestly felt like I was reading more about Alice's story.

This novel allowed us to see Alice from an altogether different perspective, whilst learning even more about Wonderland and all that goes on within it.

Throughout this story we get to meet quite a few new characters and they truly do help to make this quite a remarkable tale. I especially liked the nod within to other fairytales and love the idea that it is a shared universe.

I would happily read more books of this nature, as after finishing this story, I am curious to see what else could happen both with Alice and within Wonderland.

An interesting reimagining of Alice in Wonderland.

Everyone thinks Alice's story of the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit are crazy and her parents have set her to an asylum to recover. No one believes a word she is saying. She desperate to leave and agrees to undergo a new, potentially dangerous treatment, when the White Rabbit turns up and take her back to Wonderland.
The Queen of Hearts is out of control and they need Alice's help to end her reign of tyranny.

This is a quirky, crazy book with lots of wonderful upside down Wonderland nonsense. The writer has definitely put their own spin on a classic that is both faithful and original. Really enjoyable and makes me want to revisit the original.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review

I wanted so much to like this book. And there really is a lot to like. In the end, I think it's an issue of me just not being right for the book.

The writing is whimsical in a fairy-tale sort of way. It kept the reader distant from the characters, which is one of the reasons why it didn't click with me. I never truly felt a connection with them. Alice was a likable character, and Rosamund was fun to dislike. However, reading every other chapter from the villain's perspective got old pretty fast. None of the characters felt particularly three-dimensional. The White Rabbit was probably my favorite, though.

The premise of the story, and especially the ending, were super creative. The world building was excellent. The author did a great job preserving the Wonderlandian madness, and I can tell she put a lot of time into developing the story.

I did enjoy the theme of Alice finding a place she belonged. The asylum is terrible, and that part was written quite nicely. I think this book would be great for a big fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Since I'm lukewarm about it to start with, this book failed to charm me like it would a diehard fan.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.