Seeing Redd

Alyss of Wonderland's rule has only just begun, and already those who prefer chaos to peace are threatening to destroy everything worth imagining. Trailed by newly appointed royal bodyguard Homburg Molly, Alyss is doing her best to keep pace with the non-stop demands of being queen while attempting to evade Molly for a few private moments with Dodge.

Alyss' life is a challenging mix of duty, love and tough decisions, and then a series of phantom sightings set fire to an urban myth of Her Imperial Viciousness' return and have everyone...Seeing Redd.

Has Redd somehow freed herself and her chief assassin, The Cat, from the confides of the Heart Crystal? If not, then who has resurrected Redd's brutal foot soldiers the Glass Eyes and set them loose to attack Wonderland on all sides?

Battles rage, looking glasses explode, and the Alyssians once again unite to defend White Imagination in this fast-paced follow-up to the New York Times bestselling The Looking Glass Wars.

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Last week, I told you about book one in this series and how much I completely adored it. I confess that I loved this one only slightly less. It was another book that once I started reading, I couldn't put it down, and even after I did, I'd find my eyes straying to the book because I wanted to know what would happen next. Unlike the first book, which in some ways could stand alone, this book certainly has a cliff hanger ending. Thank goodness I have the final book already! I need to dig it out of my travel bag so that I can drive into it.

Like book 1, this book  is filled with action. In fact, for poor Alyss, the action seems to never stop. I could see everything laid out in my head (thank you, Imagination!) and it felt as if I were watching everything through one of the fantastical devices that the Wonderlanders used in the book. If I have one complaint, it's that about halfway through the book (estimating from memory), there is one spot where a bunch of time passes but the narrative doesn't adequately make that clear and for a paragraph or so, I was a bit confused and actually went back and re-read that page to make sure it wasn't in my head. All in all, it wasn't anything that I couldn't get past, so I'm not dinging this book much for that.

If you've read book one and loved it (and I don't know how you couldn't have), get book two. If you don't have this series at all, don't wait until the Looking Glasses are all smashed, go and buy them. You won't regret it and if you do...well...I dunno...

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments, and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.

The Looking Glass Wars

Alyss of Wonderland?

When Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, must flee through the Pool of Tears to escape the murderous aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!

Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss' story and he is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland so she may eventually battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions surrounding mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.

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Once upon a time, I went to a convention and I met this man who was incredibly passionate about the books that he had written and after a bit of begging and pleading on my part, he handed me the first book and let me take it home to read. This is the result of that fate meeting.

As a girl who has long believed in magic and the power of Imagination, I was thrilled to find out that the great power in the land of Wonderland was Imagination. I was even more thrilled that as I read page after page, I just kept getting pulled further into a story that is as fertile as any garden I have ever planted. Frank took characters that so many of us grew up on and he reimagined them in ways that most of us never would have imagined and yet somehow, it works. I will warn you that this book may be darker than some might be expecting. For me, that just made it all the more real. In life, nothing is always roses (pun intended?) and sweet smelling things. The fact that this book is full of political intrigue, every day life and the struggle to hold on to who you are when nobody believes in you is what makes it a wonderful read.

From start to finish, this is a book that I couldn't put down. I've now read it twice since he handed me that book nearly two years ago (somehow my original review got lost) and both times was exactly the same. I picked up the book and was pulled into the book faster than someone who jumped into The Pool of Tears. I'm only sad that due to travel and being mislaid, my book is a bit the worse for wear. Perhaps just the excuse I need to invest in a hardcover copy.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments, and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.