A sequel to Alice in Wonderland, with dark themes; and secret magicians, giants and men that turn into wolves- what could be better?This series had me counting down the days that I could get my hands on it since I first saw it advertised by Titan books, and I had the horrible wait for both books to come out so I could blitz read the two of them back to back!

Well what can I say; these books did not disappoint. Suspense, mystery, excitement and a very quirky romance- these books just kept you turning the pages, and longing to know what was to happen.

As a mental health sufferer, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea of some psychotic symptoms being turned magically real- though I fear if that happened to some of mine!

If I had to give a negative for these two books, it would be the same for the both; they did not have chapters. They were both just 300+ pages full of writing, with no chapter breaks. This may not bother a lot of people, but I use chapters a lot; as they feel like natural stopping points. I found it rather intimidating not having those obvious places to stop, made the whole book feel longer.

However, this being said, by not having the chapter breaks, it kept the fast pace of the story, and kept the suspense high. I found I was easily reading for hours at a time, just trying to get to the end to find out what would happen.

Easily, ‘Alice’ was my favourite of the two, being full of mystery as both Alice and Hatcher try to remember who they are and their past. It was full of twists and turns that were not nessacarily expected, while constantly keeping the story moving forward.

IF I was to give a negative about the plot, its that at times, I felt that Alice’s magic was used as an easy escape. There were situations that could of been developed, and explored more, but instead, Alice’s magic was used to just get them out of it quickly and possibly not as excitingly as it could of been done.

‘Red Queen’ any I felt the last 50 pages let it down. The suspense of not knowing who the White Queen was, kept the story going along, not knowing what was going on with the missing children, and whether the White Queen was in fact someone you knew kept me turning page after page. However you then find out who she is, and it was rather unrealistic and an easy escape goat to wrap up all the storylines. I feel that this could of been done differently and given the prospect of a very exciting mystery for a third book.

Overall, despite the negatives I have mentioned, this was a good well-rounded two books. I’m not sure if there is going to be another, but I think that it is probably come to the best conclusion it could of come to with the two books as they are. I rated Alice 5 stars, and Red Queen 4. If you are after a quick dark little mystery story then I highly recommend these two.