Love this book! Quite a different spin on Alice in Wonderland. Characters are relatable and storyline well thought-out! Definitely a keeper.

An Alice adventure is always intriguing to me. Such great potential. The Wonderland story was good, not great. I had hoped for more tie in to Alice and her mental health in the real world. I felt it was a great opportunity missed.

(I give Ever Alice 3.5 stars)

'Ever Alice' is a retelling of 'Alice of Wonderland'. It takes place a few years after the classic story, and it finds Alice in a mental asylum. She manages to flee, returning to Wonderland, and finds herself embroiled in a plot to kill the vicious Queen of Hearts. This story features many characters from the classic Lewis Caroll tale, as well as some new figures.

Although I felt like this story has a predictable ending, I appreciate that it takes a slightly darker turn from the regular 'Alice in Wonderland' story, and it kept me interested until the very end.

This was an amazing twist on Alice and Wonderland. I absolutely loved this book. As a huge fan of everything Alice in wonderland this book was no exception. It had everything magical about it. Thanks for the opportunity to review this book I enjoyed it so much. This was so awesome.

This was so jumbled and confusing that I couldn't stand it any longer. They made Alice seem like a doddering fool and the Queen of Hearts was a total doofus.

3/5

Genre: Retelling
First Published: 2019
Pages: 347

Thank you Red Rogue Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alice came back from Wonderland but she isn’t fully back in the real world afterwards. She continues to talk of her adventures, the characters she met and how different the world beyond the rabbit hole is. Years pass and Alice is still talking about Wonderland and no matter how many doctors her parents take her to, she sticks to her story.

This is how Alice ends up in Asylum, locked away and medicated, left behind by her well-meaning family.

When the White Rabbit suddenly turns up and urges Alice to come back to Wonderland, she is glad to be proven right that she didn’t imagine him after all.
The Red Queen has gone absolutely mad and is beheading so called traitors left and right and someone has to stop her. Ralph, as the White Rabbit is called, is convinced that only Alice is up to the task of killing the queen and so she finds herself in the middle of a secret mission, unsure how to be an assassin.

I read the title, saw the book cover, read the word asylum and I just had to pick up Ever Alice. I wanted to love it so much but in the end it was more of an ok read. It isn’t bad and I think it picks up Lewis Carroll’s world well, but it just wasn’t for me.

I was hoping for something darker and there to be more of a focus on Alice in the asylum but about 80% of the story took place in Wonderland. I’m not the biggest fan of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass because I find Wonderland to be too much. It’s so ridiculous that it’s a pain to read about. I think that’s what I liked the most of H.J. Ramsay’s sequel. Wonderland still is crazy and over the top but he tones it down so that the plot doesn’t get lost in it. I found the Red Queen intriguing and even though she wasn’t likeable her thought process was a lot of fun to read. In the end I could have done without Alice’s point of view as she was an angsty teen in Wonderland and didn’t bring much to the story.

I am very conflicted about what to say about Ever Alice. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. I was glad when it was over but I didn’t skim pages to get to the end. I think in the end it’s an average read and might be better suited for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fans or people that actually read the entire blurb and are more aware that it’s a Alice in Wonderland Again story and not a coming of age drama.

If you are a fan of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, appreciate psychological factors in stories, and love a mind blowing ending; this book is for you. Ramsay did a beautiful job orchestrating everything I love into one novel.

The story is set in the late 1800’s, where Alice is a patient in an asylum. She was admitted by her parents after she kept talking about a White Rabbit and Wonderland. Shortly after, the White Rabbit appears and brings Alice back to Wonderland to help them get rid of the evil Red Queen. The story follows Alice’s perspective, as well as, the Queen’s. I was impressed with how each perspective was written and how Ramsay was able to clearly distinguish the different voices of the characters and how differently they think.

I will say, I was not convinced I was going to enjoy this book based off how slow the beginning was. I was about to DNF it at 25%, when suddenly the story grabbed my attention. From there, the plot took off and it was hard for me to put the book down. The ending was well worth the slow beginning—since it was critical to the overall story— and left me completely mind-blown. I could definitely see myself reading this again sometime in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Red Rogue Press for the ARC!

In this book, Alice is 15 and returns to Wonderland.

At the beginning of the story, she's living in an asylum, since her family believes she's mad. She hates being called "mad". She insists that everything she lived in Wonderland was real, but no one believes her. She's hopeless, but then the White Rabbit shows up and she realizes that it's time to go back to Wonderland to help her friends, who are still suffering under the Queen's command.

"Ever Alice" is like a sequel to the original story, preserving the main elements and bringing new ones too. I like the fact that it was told from Alice's and the queen's points of view, because we were able to get to know the thoughts and feelings of them both, and sometimes that's the only way to fully understand the villain.

It was a good read. I think everyone who loves the Wonderland universe will enjoy it too.

The only reason I'm not giving more stars is because it wasn't the kind of book that I wanted to finish in a day.

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!

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