ARC REVIEW: Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons

Title: ALICE TAKES BACK WONDERLAND

Author: David D. Hammons
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: September 28, 2015
Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary:
After ten years of being told she can't tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she's going crazy.

Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real.

But all is not well in Wonderland.

The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful.

But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl?

Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows.

Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace.

With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Everyone calm down. There's no need to be mad," I said, my voice booming over the crowd. 

"But we're all made here, Alice, remember?" asked the Cheshire Cat. 

"Right. I guess that's okay. But I don't want to be mad."

So I was lucky enough to be told by Curiosity Quills Press that I had access to their complete selection of work to read and review. So this was obviously my first choice. For those of you that don't know, my favourite story is Alice in Wonderland and I have read just about every adaptation of that possible. I even watched the OuaT spin off that was specifically Alice in Wonderland (it wasn't that great). But while this one had merit, it still had some flaws imo.

I liked Alice. I thought she was a well written Alice and felt super in character for Alice in Wonderland. I thought she was a great heroine and I enjoyed that all the characters saw her as a leader even when she doubted herself. But I also liked that she had doubts because that made her feel human and real. I thought the other fairy tale characters felt too much like characters, except for Peter and the Lost Boys. Maybe it was because they had the most screen time (other than Alice) but they seemed to have distinct personalities and I could tell the difference between them.

At first I liked how all the fairy tales were coming together in this world but then it got messy. There was too much of "this character is part of this fairy tale, but also this one, AND this one" and it made it too bogged down and all the characters seemed to be jumbled because of it. It was hard to keep everyone straight and also to see them as real people rather than just story book characters.

Other than that, I was a huge fan. I thought the pacing was good, a little slow in the middle section butpicked up pace again fairly quickly. It kept me hooked and engaged which is all you can ask for in a book. I would recommend this one if you are a fan of the TV show Once Upon A Time because it really reminds me of that.