Originally posted on Book for Thought.

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This pretty much sums up my thoughts on this book. I simply LOVED it!! If you've been here before, you'll have probably realised by now that I love fairytales and retellings with a passion. So this mashup of all the major fairytales was right up my alley. And boy, did I enjoy reading it!

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Ok, so you probably don't want to hear me go on and on rambling incoherently about all the things I liked about this book, so I'll try to keep it short and make some sense.

The premise is very interesting: after Alice left Wonderland, the Ace of Spades took power for himself, and started taking the wonder away from Wonderland in order to make it a more logical and rational world. When things start taking a terribly dark turn, the White Rabbit decides to go fetch Alice again, so that she may bring back everything that Ace has taken away. Of course, this isn't all too easy for poor Alice, who in the meantime has been labelled as crazy in her own world and had just managed to stop believing in Wonderland. And things take an even crazier turn when she discovers that the only way to defeat Ace is to journey to other mysterious lands where all the fairy tales she grew up reading are very real indeed, and very different too.

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I really enjoyed journeying with Alice. I especially liked to see her develop so greatly throughout the book. She starts out being very insecure, constantly questioning herself and her ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy, and feeling like she isn't up to the task that she's been entrusted with. But as she journeys on and makes new friends, Alice grows to be the leader she is supposed to become, a strong-willed woman who's not afraid of doing whatever it takes to save the ones she loves.

It's okay to be scared. You just can't let it keep you from doing what you need to do

The other characters were great, too! I particularly liked the new spin the author gave on old stories, and I had a great time trying to recognise the characters from the little hints to their identities spread throughout the story before they were fully revealed. It was really great to see all my favourite stories come together, Peter Pan with Pinocchio, Snow White with Robin Hood, all coming together in one great story. I really liked the romance as well, how it developed slowly and didn't take over the whole book, but was still cute enough to have me root for my ship until the very end. My only complaint (because I really should have at least one) is that I would have like to see more of the villains. I mean, there were several and they all had their role to play, but they weren't quite as villanous as I would have expected them to be. That being said, it did still all work very well within the story as a whole.

Overall, this was definitely one of my favourite reads this year, and one of the best retellings/mashups I have read! Really relatable characters, great world building and an adventurous quest make it a must read for all fairytale lovers out there.

And if you've already read this, you'll certainly understand why we must say goodbye like this...
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I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )

This was a truly great book! This has actually been one of my favorite retellings! So in this book, the Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and he is removing all the wonder from everything including the creatures. Ace wants to make Wonderland more like the world where Alice is from and he sends the White Rabbit into Alice's world to collect weapons and such. While the White Rabbit is there, he brings Alice back to Wonderland in hopes that she can stop Ace. After Alice's first trip to Wonderland as a child, her parents, doctors, and school counselors spend years convincing Alice that Wonderland was just a dream and that it was ADHD complicated by a serious case of schizophrenia that caused her to see Wonderland in the first place. Eventually Alice begins to believe them, so when the White Rabbit takes her back to Wonderland, she thinks she is going crazy and having an episode. She very quickly realizes that Wonderland is actually real and she isn't crazy after all, but she doesn't like what is happening to Wonderland and wants to help. The Mad Hatter sends her off in a flying machine to go and gather an army to defeat Ace. Along her way, she meets all kinds of different fairy tale (also mythological and folk tale) people and creatures like the Gingerbread Man, Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Davy Crockett, and so on. I really loved how all of these stories wove together and how certain characters were parts of multiple fairy tales. (If you watch the show Once Upon A Time, it works a lot like how Rumpelstiltskin was also the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and was also the crocodile from Peter Pan.) It wasn't all happy endings though because in war people die and in this fairy tale world that was no exception. While I was reading this book, it was totally playing out in my head as a movie, but the style of movie kept changing in my head. There were times that I saw this playing out as the original Disney animated characters. Other times I saw it playing out in my head as live action characters, and other times it was more CGI like Shrek! I highly recommend this book! ( )

I could have said...a girl travels to another world, incites a war in an effort to restore what's been taken, all while trying to get back to where she was taken. It sums it up in a round about way but much like the Ace of Spades, all the WONDER is sucked right out of it. So, I was back to square one...how oh HOW to share this tale!

I could have also went along the lines of...there's this girl, named Alice. Remember her? Well she gets kicked down a rabbit hole by her formerly good friend W.R. (White Rabbit) and lands in a topsy turvy version of what was called Wonderland. I know, right? How could it POSSIBLY get any more crazy? Well, it does. She meets the new ruler, the old ruler, the memory of the Cheshire Cat, the Hatter before and after the wonder is sucked right out of him, and a whole cast of Wonderland familiars. Then, oh but then she travels to Never Never Land and meets Peter (much more swoon worthy here) and the Lost Boys and Tinkerbelle who isn't really...and the crocodile who isn't really...and then Hook who is REALLY...and with that, I've no longer written a review, but another version of the book when I finished my verbal barrage.

In reality, the best I could do without giving everything away is this. It's a Young Adult Fantasy novel for those of the target age and WELL beyond. The perfect fit for those that aren't usually into this particular sub genre, such as myself. In conclusion, a magical voyage through the pages that reminds us that books are powerful portals to worlds and adventures untold...if only we've the imagination to explore them.


***review copy received in exchange for my honest review...full post con be seen on my site*** ( )

Alice Takes Back Wonderland is a packed story about a young woman named Alice on a journey to restore the Wonderland that has fallen apart since her last visit. Something I really loved about this story was the different tellings of other fairy tales with a twist, though some did come off as trying too hard to fit in the fairy tales.

A lot of the time, things felt forced and though the story is a bit more than 280 pages, some scenarios could have... (more via website) ( )

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

When I read 'returning to Wonderland' in combination with that lovely cover, I knew I just had to read the book.

And when I first started I really enjoyed it. I thought the part about Alice and her 'mental illness' was done very good, but this is only present at the beginning. She then steps in completely again and not once is the question whether it's real or not addressed in the remainder of the book although some weird things happen for sure.

Although at first I really liked the mash up of the different fairy tales and stories (it's so difficult to pull this trick in a nice way that doesn't feel too forced) it became less and less with the introduction of yet more characters. When Alice arrived in Neverland I was like YES, pinocchio OK, and the Kingdom of Grimm was a bit too much for me.

So, the high expectations I had after reading the beginning of the book were not met, but it was an enjoyable read nevertheless. Alice was not a very memorable heroine in this story, but if you liked the original (or the movie) you may want to return to Wonderland, even though it won't be as you remember it!

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review during this book tour. ( )