* I got this book for review from the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I wanted to love this book. But i struggled with the pacing a bit and was not super invested in the story. I thought this book was very long and it was very complicated. I did liked alice going back to wonderland as adult. It was enjoyable read. I also liked the fact the Alice had to save the day again. it was fun read, but not my favorite. ( )

* I got this book for review from the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I wanted to love this book. But i struggled with the pacing a bit and was not super invested in the story. I thought this book was very long and it was very complicated. I did liked alice going back to wonderland as adult. It was enjoyable read. I also liked the fact the Alice had to save the day again. it was fun read, but not my favorite. ( )

Everyone has been RAVING about this series, and I figured: I love fairy tales, I love Disney and I love Alice in Wonderland, so why not?

I wasn't as enchanted with this book as I had hoped. It was a really cool re-telling/addition to Alice in Wonderland's lore, but it just didn't hit all the right chords with me.

Let me explain:

1. This book is 500 pages long. It is WAY longer than it needed to be and droned on at times. That made this book super slow, and I am a fast paced kind of reader.
2. The Queen's executions and property stealing seemed random yet planned. I don't know why, but that part of the story kind of threw me off. It was weird. And we didn't even get to see too much of her...
3. The plot didn't grab my attention, if I'm being honest.

What I did enjoy:
1. Katz was a cool character. Alice having a love interest was new and very intriguing! I have to admit, I kind of liked it? Especially since this book didn't go full romance either. Just cute plot suggestions to add to her story.
2. Alice is a strong female lead with likes and dislikes and hobbies. I like that.
3. The story telling and writing style of Liz Braswell is wonderful. That definitely helped this story a lot.

Overall, this book makes me want to read the rest of the series, especially based on the reviews of other readers. Disney fans will enjoy it for sure!

Three out of five stars.
( )

Merry Unbirthday!
Unbirthday is a curious tale of what if. What if Alice was very, very late? We get to see Alice as an eighteen-year-old, novice photographer, grapple with Victorian era social expectations. As she searches her small college town for glimpses of Wonderland. What she finds is not the Wonderland she remembers, but a land painted in social politics. It takes a few chapters for Alice to resemble her 1951 movie counterpart. She has the same curiosity and seriousness, but has lost some of her stubbornness and logical thinking. Perhaps, because she has been focused on the arts, she does not consider Wonderland so irrational this time around. This is Liz Braswell’s own re-imagined sequel to Alice in Wonderland, and there are no references to Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. It is peculiar that her goal in this book is to have Alice be the hero, and save Wonderland. Hero Alice is not in many versions of her story, except notably Disney’s 2010 live action movie. Despite these differences, there is a lot to like in this book. Alice is a strong character, and Wonderland is a fun mixture of nonsense. A Merry Unbirthday present for Alice fans. ( )