This book reminded me just why I love Alice in Wonderland so much, it was wacky, confusing and just a joy to read. If you love Lewis Carroll's version I'm sure you'll love this as it does keep you wondering, even at the end, just what is real and what is actually happening. It's definitely one I'll be buying a full copy of as soon as I can.

I loved this take on Alice in Wonderland and feel that the author did the original story justice. The twisty plot and it being written in a way that pays homage to the original story was something truly special!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been so excited to start reading Ever Alice. When I first came across this book I knew I immediately wanted it because I love all Alice in Wonderland retellings. As a kid, Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite movies. Then when I got older I loved what Tim Burton did with the story as well. So on to my feelings of this book, I liked it a lot, but there were times where I found myself skimming over things. Maybe because I already knew the gist of the story. Some characters took different rolls and that made me sad, but overall I enjoyed reading this book. 

We follow Alice, who because of her story of wonderland has been put in an insane asylum by her parents. She has insisted that her adventures of Wonderland were all true, but not a single soul believes her. After being in the asylum for a while now and not getting better her doctor decides to take her to another asylum to get an experimental surgery that should get rid of her madness. At first, Alice is all for it because she just wants to have a normal life and get back to her family, but after seeing more that can happen to her during this procedure she decides she no longer wants it. With perfect timing, the White Rabbit shows up and tells Alice she has to come with him. 

Once she is back in Wonderland, which makes her feel so much better because now she knows she isn’t crazy, the rabbit and his friends have a mission for Alice. That mission is to kill the Queen of Hearts. Alice is torn because she doesn’t want to kill anyone but she also wants to help her friends. She decided to go undercover for them and help them in any way that she can. Once she gets closer to the Queen and others in the palace things get harder for Alice and she realizes things are not as they seem. 

I think H. J. did an amazing job bringing these characters back to life. I enjoyed most of the changed she made, except for 2. This was a fun adventure to follow Alice on and there were so many lovable characters. One thing that I absolutely loved was the incorporation of the Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll. It is one of my favorite poems. My kids have even memorized it! So every line or creature taken from it and put into the book was definitely a happy for me. 

I recommend this book for anyone who has a love for Alice in Wonderland and honestly everyone else! Go out and read it and let me know what your thoughts were!!!

Have you ever thought about what happened to Alice after she came back from Wonderland? Well, certainly H. J, Ramsey has. In her debut novel, she will introduce us to a 15-year-old Alice that still believes in the existence of Wonderland and who is kind of obsessed with the White Rabbit. Because of this, her parents sent her to an asylum so she can be treated on her “delusional” behaviour.

After reading this summary, I knew I had to read this book. However, I have to admit that at the beginning I had a difficult time trying to visualize a fifteen-year-old Alice. Most of the time I still pictured her as a little girl, I would have appreciated a little help from the author to be able to picture her as a teenager. I guess maybe a little more development on her personality would have been of great support. Nevertheless, I dare to say that Alice’s character grows throughout the story, I saw the change, all of it. The Alice we are shown in the end is not the same as the Alice that we are introduced to at the beginning. I am sure you will notice it, too.

If you have read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you know that word games are a must. But I never expected to find any of them in this book and I was very pleased when I discovered that the author had included this resource to in her work. My favourite was when the Prince of Hearts asks Alice about the man called Eng that has a land named after him, this was golden.

At first, I was not content with the addition of the prince because it was implied that Alice would develop some feelings for him even before properly knowing him, she just started to feel love after seeing the prince’s portrait. I thought that if it were a mere physical attraction then that would have been more real, but then we have to remember that during most of Alice’s teen years she has been secluded inside a mental institution, and because of this she was not given the opportunity to actually experience and acknowledge the changes that you are supposed to when being a teenager.

In this book the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter work as the Queen’s advisors, which was the first surprise for me, I would have never seen this coming. We will also be introduced to Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s daughters, a pair of identical girls that work as the Queen’s chambermaids, and I certainly had a blast after meeting the brother of Humpty Dumpty. I would not like to add some spoilers but I must tell you that there is an unbirthday celebration, a very good one indeed.

How did Alice leave the asylum and goes back to Wonderland? This one is an easy question, right? I am sure you can imagine a way to go back to this extraordinary place. Why was she needed there? Well, you will have to read the story to finally know it, but all I can say is that the Queen of Hearts is having some issues with her reign and the presence of Alice is required. Will she come back to England in the end? Now, this is a tough one, if you were in Alice’s place, would you come back to your awful reality?

Even though I had some rough time in the beginning after I was able to finally settle in this new perspective of Wonderland, I enjoyed my reading and I definitely liked the book. As I have previously stated, I think that if we had a more detailed description of Alice then the book would have been a lot better. But please, keep in mind that this fact does not have a massive impact on the developing of the story. If you fell for Alice’s adventures as I did, then I do encourage you to read this book. In the end, you will be very surprised, I can assure you that the final revelation will leave you shocked. At least it did to me.

This just didn’t do it for me. I get what it was trying to do - another retelling but it just lacked any real depth for me. I could see some enjoying it but perhaps just not for me.

I really wanted to like this book.. I love Alice in Wonderland and I enjoy retellings of fairy tales. But unfortunately I didn't feel engaged to any of the characters and the story was slow paced. This wasn't my book..

The beginning of this book greatly reminded me of the TV show Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Alice, after returning from her first adventures and finding that no one believes her, refuses to admit that they were a fantasy. Her concerned parents send her to an insane asylum. When the White Rabbit shows up, claiming that they need Alice back in Wonderland, she is eager to return. The Red Queen has gone even madder than normal, and is beheading Wonderlandians left and right. Only Alice can stop her. Their plan: kill the Red Queen.

There were lots of things to like about this retelling, from the quirkiness and whimsy that comes with any Wonderland story, to the familiar characters we get to meet again, with a twist. The White Rabbit here is named Sir Ralph, and the Dodo's name is Charles. The plot also kept me intrigued throughout. A personal favorite aspect of the story was a re-imagined trial for Alice.

One thing I felt was lacking was the pacing of the story. It really plods along. Alice doesn't do much, and the story is fairly flat throughout. It was also quite a bit darker than the original Alice, which some people may enjoy, but really wasn't my cup of (unbirthday) tea. All in all, I felt it was worth a read for fans of Alice in Wonderland, but casual readers may want to try something a little easier to get into.

An entertaining followup to the Alice books. Definitely one Wonderlanders should add to their collections. It captures the madcap quirkiness of the characters but is missing some of the witty whimsical soul of Wonderland.

I am sad to say that I did not enjoy this novel. I saw this book up for review decided on a whim to request it days before its release date of August 1. I really believed that I could finish it in time and post my review last week, but ultimately I struggled to get through this book. It took me a whole week to get through the first half, which was about 150 pages. I was actively trying to get into the story, but I would have to stop every few pages. I feel like I let down you guys, but also myself.

The book was very slow at the start, with strange side-scenes and a lot of discussion that ultimately is important to the novel, but at the time it felt like just extra fluff. Once she gets to Wonderland, it starts to pick up, but is soon bogged down with strange decisions by every single character. I understand that the Queen of Hearts is meant to be mad, but why does every decision she makes have to drive home that point. This decision prevented me from connecting with any of the characters as just as I was getting to like them they would make some stupid decision and then their entire characterization would fall apart.

Most of the side character arcs feel very unfinished. Why does Bess act like this? Why does the Queen write down a to-do list of executions but still allows the criminal to walk free? There is an entire marriage ceremony that is talked about as a thing that happened and then the husband and wife are arrested and never heard from again. They are both major characters and their entire arc is never revisited. Obviously I have to dance around the spoiler.

Nearing the end of the novel, the story picks up and in the final 10% it is now going at lightspeed and everything is happening at once. Finally the novel ends with one of the stupidest endings I have ever seen, but this particular trope is better done than some I have seen. It was dark and foreboding and it actually raised my rating.

2 stars

This was an okay debut, but I don’t think I will pick up another of her books unless the premise is really intriguing. Do you guys have any recommendations for other retellings I could get into? Leave a comment down below and Happy Reading!

I found this book took a while to get going and I didn’t engage with the characters easily. I found the character of Alice really hard to like and felt that I wanted to skip her chapters of the book. I liked the humour which the character of Rosamund gave to the story and found her sections much more engaging. I think I would have preferred to not swap POV so frequently throughout the story and to stay with one character for longer.

2.0

You can read all of my reviews at https://www.NerdGirlLovesBooks.com.

Alice is now 15 years old and her tales of Wonderland has landed her in an asylum. Facing a radical treatment being imposed on her, Alice flees with the White Rabbit to Wonderland and finds herself in the middle of a rebellion. Even more concerning, the rebels want Alice to kill the Queen of Hearts.

I normally like retellings of classic tales (for instance, I LOVED Cinder, Scarlett, and Cress by Marissa Meyer), but I just couldn't get into this book. It started out slow and the pace didn't improve much throughout the book. I didn't like any of the characters, including Alice, and felt the character development and worldbuilding was lacking. People that really loved the original book will probably still like this book, but it just wasn't for me.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was my first by HJ Ramsay and I have to say I'm conflicted. The synopsis of Ever Alice pulled me in instantly and I couldn't wait to jump into the story. Once I started the book everything felt shoved together and slow. The pacing was snail's pace and the characters, even though I loved them, I wasn't able to connect on the level that I was hoping for. The ending sped up quite a bit and pulled everything together. I was pleasantly surprised at the end. I just wish I would have loved the start of the book.

Ever Alice follows fifteen year old Alice after her first time to Wonderland...but she’s in a mad house.

Wonderland and the story in general (both the original and the retelling) are both so mad, that at times the whole story feels like a dream. The author does such a good job at crafting a story that could truly fit alongside the original tale but is still unique enough to be its own. It’s humorous, and witty, and I really enjoyed reading about all of the old characters, and meeting new characters.

I found the story did drag a little bit, and the beginning was difficult to get into. There was also a bit of romance, that I wasn’t a fan of, but overall it wasn’t really present enough to be a problem.

Overall, I would recommend this to a younger audience, either late middle school or early high school. I myself, fall quite a bit out of that range and still enjoyed it.

I was a little nervous when I started reading this, I’ve never been that comfortable with modern uptakes on the old classics. However, this actually blew me away, a fantastic (almost) sequel to the original but way way darker!! A very clever read

Ever Alice was an ARC that I was really interested in reading, the concept really appealed to me, especially because Alice is a little older in this one and is a little more aware of everything that is going on around her. I was interested to see what impact that was going to have on the story and all of the characters. This book definitely didn’t disappoint, I think there was so much going on within this story and I really loved where the story was headed. I do have a small complaint which would be that everything happened really quickly and some of the stuff wasn’t really developed and explained well. But I did really enjoy reading the story!

I loved revisiting all of the characters and hearing about how some of them ended up. I will say that it Ever Alice was a little confusing in the sense that the different characters were given “proper” names and they were a little hard to keep a track off. Also I think that the most confusing element of the story for me would be the Mad Hatter element of it all. I loved him as a character in the original but his change of character was never explained and I struggled to reconcile who he was and his reaction to Alice’s arrival. I think in terms of all the characters they fell a little flat in one way or another but I think the plot pulled the story through.


I think the best bit of Ever Alice would definitely be all of Rosamund, or the Red Queen. I thought that she was hilariously written and some of the one liners she had were really funny, I also think that she was one of the more developed characters and I really found I enjoyed her parts of the story more than others! I also really enjoyed the writing of this book, I think it did a really good job of following Carroll’s original writing style and mimicked the madness of Wonderland perfectly.

I don’t have many complaints about Ever Alice, because I actually really enjoyed reading it. I think my big gripe with the story would definitely have to be the characters. I mentioned above that they all fell a little flat to me, and although the plot and story pulled them through I felt as though they were a little rushed. I wanted more time with them all to learn about their motivations and what was going on with them personally.

I would recommend Ever Alice in a heartbeat! I really loved the plot and revisiting Wonderland, the book kept me hooked even with some slightly 2D characters. I hope there is another book to build on everything that happened in this one.

I love Alice and this was such an amazing take on the classic tale! I loved the plot, the pacing, everything!!! If you love Wonderland, then read this!

I generally enjoyed my return to Wonderland. The world-building had a lot of same whimsy and backwardness that was set up in Carroll's original, mixed with the character building that is common in more modern novels. The plot was twisty and a bit dark, and I liked that you never could really figure out what was going to happen next.

The addition of Rosamund's (the Queen of Hearts's) point of view was refreshing, and was probably my favourite part of the novel. We got to see what made her tick and why she constantly wanted to behead people—and whether there were consequences to her actions. It rounded out the story nicely and gave a little more depth that I feel Alice, as a character, was missing.

The "real world" plot around Alice and the asylum made the story (strangely) more believable, and the conclusion went somewhere that I never expected. I was thoroughly impressed.

My one big criticism is that the author couldn't quite mirror the similes and the language that Carroll perfected, and sometimes I had to think about it so hard that it brought me out of the story. For that reason, it took me much longer to read this book than it should have, because I kept getting pushed out and didn't feel compelled to go back into the story.

If you're a fan of Alice, however, even just the movies, I think you would appreciate where Ramsay takes the story. That's worth it in itself.

3 stars

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

Ever Alice was a wonderful reimagining of Alice in Wonderland that builds off of the classic written by Lewis Carroll, and takes place years after the original story, when Alice is now 15 years old.

Alice's family did not believe her stories about her original trip to Wonderland, and after visits with many different doctors, her tales eventually land her in an insane asylum (1800s style). When at the age of 15 Alice is told she may be able to get released, following an experimental procedure at another asylum, she agrees, but is rescued at the last moment by the White Rabbit, who takes her back to Wonderland on one condition - she must agree to kill the Red Queen.

I thought this novel was SO well done. It includes all the flavors and original Wonderland ridiculousness of the original Alice, but with court intrigue, romance, scandal, and treachery involved - plus the continuing question of madness.

I enjoyed reading this Alice in Wonderland retelling. As a reader, it constructed a question in my mind if Wonderland did exist or if Wonderland solely created inside Alice's mind. It is quite difficult not to have that question cross your mind, however, as you proceed through the book you will be surprised with an unexpected turn of events.
This retelling is unlike other retellings. It is not your classic expectations when it comes to retelling. This book is quite dark yet exciting.
Adventure, thriller, and retelling all in one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Ever Alice by H.J. Ramsay. I’ve voluntarily read and reviewed this copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ever Alice takes us back to Wonderland. Alice is now 15 years old and has been placed in a mental institution for all her talk of Wonderland. In the meantime in Wonderland the Queen of Hearts keeps herself busy with daily beheadings. When the White Rabbit convinces Alice to come back to Wonderland, he wants her to do one simple thing: Kill the Queen of Hearts.

Ever Alice is a dark and intriguing spin on Alice in Wonderland. The writing is fast paced and the story build-up is done nicely. The switch of POV between Alice and the Queen of Hearts makes for a compelling story. The Queen of Hearts is a great villain even funny at times, which makes her POV the most interesting to read.

The ending was absolutely amazing. Dark and twisty, it makes you question everything - which is the great thing about being in Wonderland ofcourse!

I did miss the whimsical, magical and weird bits about Wonderland but the dark and twisty bits made up for that. Highly recommend if you enjoy reading retellings