Ever Alice - H.J. Ramsay

Ever Alice was a finalist in the Book Bloggers Novel of the Year award and came 10th. If you want to find out more about entering the competition this year or being a panellist, read down to the end of the post!

Book Summary

Alice’s stories of Wonderland did more than raise a few eyebrows—it landed her in an asylum. Now at 15 years of age, she’s willing to do anything to leave, which includes agreeing to an experimental procedure. When Alice decides at the last minute not to go through with it, she escapes with the White Rabbit to Wonderland and trades one mad house for another: the court of the Queen of Hearts. Only this time, she is under orders to take out the Queen. When love, scandal, and intrigue begin to muddle her mission, Alice finds herself on the wrong side of the chopping block.

Alice's belief in the white rabbit and her adventures in Wonderland cause her family to think she has gone mad and send her to an asylum. There she starts seeing the rabbit again, who gives her the chance to escape from the asylum and return to Wonderland. The Queen is out of control, constantly ordering heads chopped off and the rabbit needs Alice's help to kill her.

One of the interesting things about this version of Alice is that we get to see the Queen's point of view as well as Alice's. While she is quite as mad as in the original, she actually justifies some of her thinking and I could understand her strange logic in some ways. She's so afraid of other people plotting, that she wants to behead them before they can hurt her.

The point of view switched between Alice and Queen Rosamund so fast that I sometimes found it hard to keep track of either side of the story. However the writing was good enough to keep it going. I really liked that it had some of the whimsy of Alice in Wonderland though it doesn't work quite as well as in the original. This story was much more serious but still had the quality of not quite knowing what was real and what wasn't. I think it is partly left up to the reader to decide.

I've made quite a simple shot for this one as you almost need something strong and no-nonsense after spending any length of time in Wonderland!

Fill a shot glass 1/3 with Grand Marnier and then gently pour over with 2/3 shot of tequila.

I received this book to read and reviewed as part of the BBNYA 2020 competition organised by the @The_WriteReads tours team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors.

If you are an author and wish to learn more about the 2021 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website (https://www.bbnya.com/) or our Twitter account, @BBNYA_Official. If you would like to sign-up and enter your book, you can find the BBNYA 2021 AUTHOR SIGN UP FORM HERE. Please make sure to carefully read our terms and conditions before entering.

If you are a book blogger or reviewer, you can apply to be part of BBNYA 2021 by filling out this form (also remember to read the terms and conditions before signing up)!

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the Folio Society (If you love beautiful books you NEED to check out their website!) And the book blogger support group TheWriteReads.