I was entirely torn on this. Throughout, I wasn't even sure if I was actually enjoying it; but I persisted. The characters never felt fully fleshed out. And at the end I realised why it seemed familiar; it reminded me of the film 'Suckerpunch', with the inner world vs the less preferential real word alternative. Interesting, but I'm still not sure!

I enjoyed the book and really liked it. Waiting to hear more from the author. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc.

The book starts off with Alice in an asylum. Her parents have put her there because of her "delusions" about Wonderland. But right when she is about to be irreversibly harmed, the White Rabbit shows up and whisks her back off to Wonderland. But this is not like last time she went there. This time Alice is given the task to kill the Queen of Hearts.

How is she going to do that? She must become one of the Queens handmaidens. The first question is: will the Queen recognize her? The answer: YEP! But with the help of another handmaiden and the White Rabbit, they convince the Queen that Alice is loyal and will be nothing but devoted to her.

Oh! I forgot to mention. The book is split into two different POVs: Alice's and the Queen of Hearts. The Queen is just as conceited and self-absorbed as you would expect her to be but it's so fun to be inside her head. I don't think diva is a good enough word to describe her, because she's definitely a borderline psychopath too.

So, the story goes on with Alice trying to figure out how she is going to end up killing the Queen, all while kind of falling in love with the Queen's son. And the Queen is just living her life, hacking off people's heads, and trying to not be haunted by her dead husband and former lover. Yes. You read that right. At night, the Queen is haunted by the heads (yes, only their heads) of her husband (who she killed) and her former lover (who she killed). It might be my favorite part about the book.

The Queen is also paranoid that there are people plotting to kill her. There is, but that's not the point. When she travels, she takes everything and everyone with her, she switches rooms each night so an assassin can't find her and kill her in her sleep, and she is generally just suspicious of everyone (MOOD).

Because the Queen (and Alice) travel throughout Wonderland, we get to see places that never appeared in the original tale. The description of each setting is detailed and frankly, beautiful. There are no such thing as eyesores in Wonderland. Everything is luscious and green and absolutely gorgeous. A+ for setting description for sure!

The story comes to an end with SPOILER ALERT!SPOILER ALERT! Alice (with the help of many others) killing the Queen and realizing that her home isn't with her family, but with her friends in Wonderland.

And if the book ended there, I would have cried for a half hour and been happy. BUT NO! It was completely ruined by the epilogue. I'm going to describe it exactly, so if you don't want spoilers, you probably want to stop here. Ok. The epilogue starts back at the asylum because GUESS WHAT? Alice never went back to Wonderland. The (asshole) doctors at the asylum performed a lobotomy on her and everything we read before this point has been a fantasy/delusion inside her head.

Am I pissed? YEP.

We couldn't just have a happy ending? Why? Like, yes, I realize lobotomies were a thing at that time. I've studied the history of psychology. BUT WHY RUIN A LOVELY STORY WITH THIS ENDING? It's equivalent to the cliche dream ending where the character wakes up and "oh, it was all a dream." If I had a physical copy of this book, I would have thrown it across the room.

I am giving Ever Alice 2 out of 5 stars. I read this book almost a month ago and I'm still upset lol.

Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay comes out August 1, 2019.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Rogue Press for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This story is kind of a sequel to the original story about Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. The story is very imaginative, interesting and innovative, and pretty closely follows the original story, although I have to say that it still does not reach it sufficiently. I understand that it is difficult to write the sequel of a classic novel like this and I am even more sure that I would never even tried to do that because of my fear of a failure.

I really don't have an intention to say this story is a failure because I enjoyed it, but I still prefer the original.. Anyway, it was a very good try to bring Alice "back to life" and it makes me do the re-read of the original story sometime soon.

Another fun visit to Wonderland!

This book definitely lends itself to the nonsensical world the Lewis created. There are fun characters, even family members of characters we've all come to love. The story line toggles back and forth between Alice's perspective and the Queen of Hearts'. While I found it enjoyable, I didn't really think it was anything spectacular. But is definitely worth reading for any fan of Wonderland.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought it would be more of a re-telling of "Alice In Wonderland" but instead it's a continuation of the story and tells what went on after Alice returned home in the original tale.
Alice is now 15 and her parents are worried about her mental state because of what she says she's seen in Wonderland, so they send her to an asylum to be cured.
I was a little worried at first because the story seemed a little slow, but I stuck with it and I'm very glad I did!

I picked this up and put it down a few times but kept going because I like Alice retellings and also because there was enough humor to keep me interested. My main issue is that while I don't mind alternating narrators, I really can't stand when it's done every chapter. To me it's just plain annoying because you know no matter what is going on you have to leave it at the end of the chapter. That can be jarring in some instances, especially when the action picks up (which takes awhile in this book). But as I said, it is funny and has plenty of inside-joke moments and hilariously horrible characters. I'm torn on my rating and would say for me it's 3.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and Red Rogue Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for my eBook ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ever Alice reads more as a sequel then a retelling, and a welcomed one at that. The characters you know and love are all back, as well as some lovable additions to this oddball crew.

Alice Liddell, now 15 years of age has been sent to an asylum by her family. They don't know what to do with her since she returned from Wonderland and feel they are doing the right thing for her by allowing the doctor to use experimental treatments on her. She slips away with help of Ralph(our beloved White Rabbit) and is tasked to help in a plot to assassinate the Queen of Hearts. If accomplished, Ralph and his "Aboveground" movement would ensure Alice finds her way home.

Rosamund, our Queen of Hearts is haunted by the ghosts of her past... literally. She is visited by the floating head spirits of those she has beheaded, including past lovers and husbands. She has always been told by her advisors to be on the lookout for a coup, something that has lead to a paranoia she cannot shake. Rosamund is also very egotistical, convinced that everyone loves her and that she is never to be lesser than anyone, even the other royal houses in Wonderland. Can she search out the truth about an uprising, or will her paranoia reign supreme?

This world was so much fun to be a part of. Wonderland at it's finest, until you figured out the language and how the author wove it seamlessly it can feel a bit off. Wonderland is an upside down, topsy turvy land and the way the author is able to expand on Carroll's land was a welcomed surprise. The turn of phrases used as well as the odd rituals the people follow bring a great deal of life into this novel.

Ever Alice only recieves 3 stars from me because I cannot give half stars. Overall for me, it deserves a solid 3.5, but the ending left me a complete mess. One that was a bit obvious, however the way it ends up being revealed us beautiful and heart breaking. I highly recommend this read, but do prepare for a bit of a slow start. The final 40% will have you in it's clutches and won't let go until you reach the finale.

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.

"Ever Alice" follows a 15 year old Alice who has been packed away in an asylum by her parents. Though Alice keeps insisting that Wonderland and the White Rabbit are real, her family doesn't believe her. Now that she's older she still hopes she will be allowed to return home to celebrate her sister's upcoming marriage. However, things change again for her when she is taken to a new place that is dangerous to her. And when the White Rabbit shows again, Alice has a chance to return to Wonderland or be lost forever.

Ramsay decides to focus on not just a 15 year old Alice, but an older Queen of Hearts too. Honestly that ends up being a mistake. The writing between the two characters could not be more dissimilar. I ended up skimming a lot of the Queen of Hearts scenes because it was so repetitive. She's a mess and there's a lot of conspiracies surrounding her that I did not care one iota about. And I have to say that it doesn't get better when we switch to Alice's POV. This Alice is not that smart, but also sits around jealous because she has fallen for the Queen of Hearts son Thomas and wants him to pay attention to her. She's freaking 15 and hasn't even been around boys it would seem and her obsessing about Thomas and her "mission" just didn't get together very well.

Other familiar characters from Wonderland show up her, the Cheshire cat, The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, etc. and none of them shone. There is a plot line about the Queen of Hearts and why Alice is rescued by the White Rabbit that made zero sense. And it just felt like Ramsay wanted to mix things up a bit and make this book more similar to the Alice in Wonderland movies directed by Tim Burton. But with an even more shallow look at characters.

The flow was not that good. I think jumping back and forth between Alice and the Queen of Hearts wasn't a good idea. When Ramsay gets to the ending though is when things take an even more strange turn. One wonders if the author is hoping to turn this into a duology or what.

The setting of Wonderland was flat to me. I just finished "A Blade so Black" and I had the same issues while reading this book that I did while reading that. This book reads as if the author has just a low level knowledge of the Lewis Carroll works and doesn't do anything new with them and or doesn't expand on them in different ways. Besides people talking in an exhausting way, there's not that much there with Wonderland.

The ending was a letdown and I was just glad to put this book down in the end.

I could not get into this book. I only made it about halfway and did not finish it. I liked the different take on Alice in Wonderland. I was really drawn to the premise of her being in a mental institution this whole time. Thank you to the publisher for letting me read this Arc via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Do you love Alice in Wonderland? Do you love additional information on stories you love? I love re-imagining stories that I've fallen in love with. Give this book a try and see what happens after the story you know.

Wow! What an amazing retelling of Alice in Wonderland! Sticks close to the orignal yet is original itself, especially love the ending! I've always loved wonderland retellings but this is the best one I've read in awhile!!

2.5
this book was not my cup of tea. i was really intrigued by the synopsis of this book and i thought i was really going to enjoy this, but i sadly didn't. it was described to me as Alice post wonderland. she told her stories about wonderland and that got her into an insane asylum... she gets out and gets back to Wonderland, except this time it's to the queen of hearts court. and this time, she has to kill her.
i just didn't like how Alice was portrayed in the book. alice's adventures in Wonderland is one of my all-time favorite books of all time, so i wasnt expecting this to be at that level, but i was expecting this to be at least good. nevertheless, i think you should give this a try. it just might work for you.

I was pretty excited to read this book as I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland and I always love seeing the different ways that people interrupt and re-imagine this classic.

This re-imagining, or rather continuation, takes place years after the original story. The story starts with 15 year old Alice living in a asylum, her family have given up on her “growing out of” telling stories about her adventure’s in Wonderland and so have sent her away to an asylum after being promised that Alice could be “cured”. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if she was.

In a final attempt to cure Alice she travels to Switzerland, to Prefargier Asylum, where Dr Burckhardt is offering an experimental procedure that promises to remove all thoughts of Wonderland from Alice’s head. Moments before the procedure is about to begin, Alice escapes from the asylum to Wonderland with the White Rabbit’s help. The only catch is that he wants her to kill the Queen.

I really enjoyed this retelling. I especially liked the nonsensical phrases throughout the book. They really reminded me of the source material. Which I loved.

Also the way that it was written in third person dual point of view was really interesting. As it offered both Alice’s view of events alongside the Queen’s. Giving two different takes on the story and offering two unique sides to Ever Alice‘s plot.

Many of the characters from the source material appear in Ever Alice accompanied by a new cast of characters. Wonderland has changed since Alice was last there, the Queen having gotten worse. Beheading anyone she believes to be a traitor, or does something to her disliking. I felt like the Queen, Rosamund, was one of the stronger characters in this story. She had a very strong characterisation, more so than many of the other characters. What I mean by this is that I felt that Rosamund’s character was the most consistent in her thoughts and actions. As she believed wholeheartedly that her actions where completely justifiably. Only very briefly did her belief waver, and often only for a short amount of time before she convinced herself of her own “brilliance”. Which is seen in her chapters in the book.

Alice’s character, however, was more unsure. She is dragged into the mess that is Wonderland and asked to kill the Queen. Something which she does not want to do, she does not want to become a murderer even if the Queen wants her beheaded. Alice is thrown into the thick of it when she is initiated into an organisation to kill the Queen and then put into place as a lady-in-waiting thanks to Ralph, the White Rabbit, one of the Queen’s three advisers.

Alice is the character that changes the most. Starting as a quiet-ish girl unsure of herself after her time in the asylum that grows into a more confident and self realised individual. Her decisions and mindset changes a number of times throughout the story. From not wanting to travel back to Wonderland and wanting to be cured, to changing her mind to go with the White Rabbit at the last moment. From not wanting to kill the Queen to wanting to kill the Queen.

Unlike Alice in Wonderland, Ever Alice feels less dreamlike and more like reality. There is a clear and concise development of plot and events, new and wonderful things do not just appear and dazzle or awe Alice like in her original time in Wonderland. Possibly due to the fact that she is older and spends more time in Wonderland, many of the peculiarities of Wonderland become seemingly normal.

As I mentioned before I liked the throwbacks to Alice in Wonderland; I liked that such things as the “drink me” potion to make one small, the Queen’s love of beheading people, the Mad Hatter’s tea party, the croquet game to name a few. But what I really liked was that Ramsay took a lot of these elements and expanded on them. As well as create new oddities, such as pats of butter in “tea” that isn’t real tea and a game of skittles with penguins and armadillos.

There were a few things that I didn’t like about this book. I wasn’t 100% happy with the ending, but I did appreciate the mirroring the ending in Alice in Wonderland in Ever Alice. As well as showing what happened after Alice’s return to Wonderland in Switzerland and what had happened to her family. I personally am not a huge fans of these sort of endings in general. But I understand why this part of the ending made sense to include.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I thought was a really great and fun re-imagining of Wonderland and a very interesting continuation of Alice in Wonderland.

I rarely read retellings but Ever Alice felt like a sequel to Alice. Ever Alice is about what happened to Alice after she left the Wonderland. It was surprisingly a fun read for me.

The plot is good. The writing style is good which gave me a pleasant feeling to keep on reading. At the half way through the book, I was still unsure about how the book is going to end and that made want to keep on reading.

So many characters that I'm familiar were in the book. And some of the characters annoyed the shit out of me but I stayed until the end because the plot is good. The best part is when Alice met Rosamund, The Queen of Hearts. Alice was given an order to kill The Queen of Hearts so that she could go home. She was hesitating at first, but did she do it? I really liked to read from their point of views.

I liked the ending of the book. This retelling is much more than I expected. It was a total win, fun and creative.

Thanks NetGalley for sending me this eARC copy in return for an honest review.

As my name is Alice, I often get lumped in with the Disney Alice in Wonderland stuff. However this was a breath of fresh air! It ‘finished off’ the story a bit, only Alice is in an insane asylum because really who follows white rabbits down a hole and meets the Mad Hatter?! I really enjoyed this and would thoroughly recommend it!

I was really excited to read this book. The idea was creative and mostly carried out very well. I unfortunately wasn't too connected to the characters or the writing style, but I still feel that it's an enjoyable story. I just wish it had been a little more developed.

A curious, mad, delightful, twisted tale of girl named Alice. I love a crazy story about the mad children's story Alice in Wonderland, the darker the better. This definitely fits the bill. With notes of intrigue, murder, beheadings, madness, and smelly tea, there is plenty to love about this story that picks up with Alice in an insane asylum at the age of 15 due to her "Wonderland nonsense". Wonderland is not done with her yet, as the Queen of Hearts is mad and beheading everyone and they need Alice to kill her. But is Alice strong enough to do it or is she just as mad as the rest of them. This story as old and new friends, as well as enemies that will keep you on your mad little toes.
**I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.**

Sorry for the late review. We've been moving and reading has been second fiddle.


I loved this book. It's the most interesting retelling of Alice I've read in a long time.

I will do a more thorough review later, but for now everyone should read this book!!! Read it, that's an order.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to review this book

Alice in Wonderland is one of the stories that got me into fantasy and reading. When I read the synopsis for this I thought it would be right up my alley but alas I am reminded why I am picky about my retellings. Ever Alice felt like it wasn't fully there yet. I thought that it needed a few more things to smooth out the writing and bring the characters to be more realistic while also being similar to their original incarnation created by Lewis Carrol himself. While this book may not have been for me, it may be for others.