Book Review
Title: Her Wonderland Kings (Complete Series)
Author: Stefanie Marie
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Rating: ***
Review: This review is going to follow the same structure as Cold Fingers and Surrender to Them, as I am going to review each book individually, so if you haven’t read this series or just want to know my thoughts on one book you can skip to the relevant section. This book is labelled as a reverse harem Alice in Wonderland retelling and as I loved other Alice in Wonderland retellings like Splintered by A. G. Howard I couldn’t wait to jump into this trilogy.
War of Hearts
In the opening of War of Hearts, we are introduced to our protagonist Alexandra Kincade, who is leaving her fiancée on the eve of their wedding. However, getting away isn’t easy and with Bryce chasing, after her Alex has nowhere to go until 4 mysterious men appear out of a sinkhole and come to her aid. We learn that Bryce is a shade something from the world the 4 men have come from and that they need to protect Alex for some reason and with some encouragement, she takes her first leap into freedom along with the 4 kings. The kings are Rhett, Emory, Caden, and Adrian and all seem really interested in Alex and why they were drawn to her during her escape from Bryce.
We learn that 3 of Wonderland’s 4 kings have been overtaken by the Nightmarcher, who Bryce was being controlled by and that is why the 4 kings now live in Adrian’s palace and he needs Alex’s power in order to save their empire which means making her his king which she isn’t too pleased about. As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Alex is getting to know they kings individually and how they work as a unit which is going to be important as they begin their journey to track down the jewels, they need to defeat the Nightmarcher.
As the group set out on their journey, they are beginning to train Alex so that she can control the Heartstone’s power and stop it from reacting around the kings, but this doesn’t exactly go to plan. When Alex gets to meet the first Queen of Wonderland; Alice she is elated as she might really learn her history, but this is all interrupted when the Nightmarcher makes an appearance for the first time. The ending of this novel was certainly interesting, but I didn’t like it at all as I felt it should have ended a scene earlier so that there was a huge cliff-hanger and a lovely reveal for the opening of book 2.
Betrayal of Hearts
I was very surprised to learn that nearly 40% of this series is dedicated to the first book as I expected the last book which is used to tie up loose ends and storylines to have the largest portion of the series. The opening to Betrayal of Hearts was entertaining but as I didn’t enjoy the ending of War of Hearts, I was just hoping that the story was going to go somewhere interesting soon or at least play more on some elements that were touched upon in the previous novel.
As we approach the halfway mark in the trilogy this story was turning into what I expected from the first novel with Alex deepening her bonds to the Kings despite not having all of her memories of them. However, I got a bad feeling when Jon Hatter turns up on the scene and Alex immediately feels like she knows him but doesn’t remember where she knows him from. It turns out that it has been six months since Alex left Wonderland and everything has gone to hell. The Nightmarcher’s army is upon them and it will take less than a week for them to reach the castle, so Alex has to learn to fight, harness her magic and collect the other stones before it is too late. During the time she was away, the Kings have become increasingly divided especially Adrian and Rhett. Despite all this Alex is determined to fight and prove herself to the people and she gets the perfect opportunity sooner than she expects. It also turns out that Alice transfers some of herself into Alex meaning that she can use skills that Alice had like sword fighting and can hear Alice in her head sometimes.
When Alex claims her second jewel for her crown things are getting darker as she is feeling a connection to the Nightmarcher and he seems to have some form of control over her that she can’t resist, and her own magic seems to be fighting her even more so since she has Alice residing inside of her and she is refusing to leave Alex to her own destiny. Hatter also plays a key part in putting some distance between Alex and her Kings except Carden and between Alex and the people she is supposed to protect. When push comes to shove Alex is faced with the most impossible decision of her life, whether she leaves with the Nightmarcher to keep her Kings alive or fight with them and watch them all die because right now she is nowhere near strong enough to defeat the Nightmarcher.
The ending of Betrayal of Hearts was so much better than the ending of the first novel and I really loved where the story was going. I am excited to see how Alex will fare under the Nightmarcher’s power and how she will get back to her Kings and unlock the power of the final 3 jewels and obviously the ultimate showdown between Alex and the Nightmarcher.
Queen of Hearts
The opening to Queen of Hearts, the final book in the Her Wonderland Kings series was interesting as we see the four kings head to Oblivion to rescue their Queen and the whole time they are being led by a unicorn, so it was exciting and hilarious in equal measures. As the Kings travel to find their queen, Alex is fighting to keep control of her own body and find a way to escape the Nightmarcher, but he is cunning and ruthless and plans to use a dark clone of Alex to retrieve the remaining stones before combining Alex’s half of the heart stone with his own and give Alex’s body to his own queen.
Alex despite being weakened and alone, she manages to control her power enough to save Adrian when the Nightmarcher makes an attempt on his life, it is enough to let them know that she is still alive and fighting to return to them. With less than 100 pages left in the series and Alex no closer to escape or rescue and the Nightmarcher and Alice growing impatient I was desperately hoping for a happy ending that we might not get. As Alex sees a chance to escape, she wants to take it but it will come at a cost, but that cost means little to Alex if it means she can return to her Kings. Now reunited but without her crown, Alex claims the third jewel but now the largest challenge lies ahead of them and the 5 buts now retrieve her crown and defeat the Nightmarcher before they can claim their happy ending.
As the ending of this novel and the series approaches, everything seems to be hurtling towards the climax and with Alex unravelling the mysteries of Wonderland and uses every resource possible, she seems almost ready to face Alice and the Nightmarcher again but with only a few pages left in the novel, I was quite nervous to see how it was actually going to end, especially since the Heart stone still hasn’t made an appearance despite Alex claiming all 4 of the King’s jewels. One scene was extremely heartbreaking for me especially after everything this character had done for Alex and the way his story arc ended left me in tears.
The ending of Queen of Hearts and the Her Wonderland Kings series was good, but I was left a little unsatisfied with it as I felt the final showdown should have been longer and played more on the sacrifice that Alex was going to be making. The epilogue also left a lot to be desired as I felt it should have focused on the aftermath, Emory’s brothers, the rebuilding of Wonderland, Alex being accepted as Queen and so much more that was just jumped over in favour of the classic happy ending. Despite all this, I still enjoyed the series, but it wasn’t a stand out read for me.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from Booksprout.
Comments