Let’s start from the top, er, front. I’m a sucker for covers, I do indeed judge books by them. Ever Alice‘s is simplistic in design, clean-cut and modern. The font is pretty, the colors stand out, but it didn’t really give me the ‘feels’.
Now the blurb, oh the blurb, that drew me in. I love a good retelling of classics with a twist. Alice has been deemed mad with her stories of Wonderland and admitted to an asylum. She begins to believe it herself too, until the White Rabbit shows up again. This time, the Queen of Hearts has truly gone mad, and they need Alice to save the kingdom. Throw in some love, political espionage and plenty of beheadings and you’ve got Ever Alice.
Overall, I did enjoy the story. I liked the popping back and forth between Alice and the Queen of Hearts. It was jarring at times, but the headings at the beginning of each chapter told you who you were with. (Though the headings themselves could be difficult to read in some places.) Seeing the Queen slowly devolve further and further into madness was the highlight for me.
The romance seemed…unnecessary, it distracted from the main plot. I didn’t care much for Alice’s love interest in the Prince of Hearts or the Mad Hatter’s romance with another lady maid. They seemed a bit superfluous to the story, especially the Mad Hatter’s.
BUT the clincher, the world. Wonderland is absolutely stunning and we get to learn so much about it without it being an info-dump. Throughout the entirety of the book we learn little tidbits here and there and wow, I could take a whole other book to just explore the different kingdoms. Please let just drop me off at the Kingdom of Hearts and I’ll take the rest from there, because I want to see it all.
Then we have the ending, it felt…rushed. I don’t want to give anything away, but I just didn’t feel satisfied with how things ended in Wonderland. You could see the endgame a mile away, but how we got there just didn’t feel right. What I did like about the ending, is there isn’t a true HEA (Happily Ever After), again I don’t want to give it away, but everything is not what it seems. That I am totally OKAY with. I love stories that end with a bit of darkness in them.
Final thoughts: I enjoyed the story. The dual POV was done very well and the world setting is just fantastic. Alice was Alice, I found I actually preferred the Queen’s character to her for a majority of the story just because the Queen’s story, and her unique POV was so well written. Alice just wasn’t endearing until after another character’s death when she actually decides to do something and that was three quarters of the way through the book. The ending of the Wonderland story just wasn’t satisfying, but the bit of darkness afterwards was just right.
I would definitely recommend this as a solid, quick and good read for lovers of YA Fantasy.
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