Review: 3 Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
Anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love retellings of fairy tales so I was definitely intrigued by Marie Hall's Kingdom series. The premise of this group of books is that villains from classic stories such as Peter Pan and Little Red Riding Hood are possibly just misunderstood and need love too. These bad boys of fairy tales all have the same fairy godmother who is determined to find them happiness in any way she can even if it involves making their lives a bit uncomfortable. I love it when authors take a different approach to such characters and really think outside of the box which definitely happens here.Her Mad Hatter provides a new twist on Alice in Wonderland and delves deeper into the psyche of the Mad Hatter. Fate has proclaimed that Hatter's soul mate is Alice, but the problem is that Danika (his fairy godmother) has had a hard time figuring out which Alice is the right one. She has brought many to Hatter, but none of them has provided him with the stability and love he needs. So it should come as no surprise that he is vehemently opposed to trying again. This all changes when Danika brings Alice Hu into Hatter's life and gets destiny rolling.Alice Hu is the great-granddaughter of one of Hatter's past Alices and is a big reason why he is against trying to find his soul mate. Thankfully, she is nothing like her ancestor and is a kind-hearted person who only wants to make people happy. This is shown in her new business, a gourmet cupcake shop known as The Mad Hatter's Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe. As a reader can tell, this Alice is obsessed with the story of Alice in Wonderland and even believes she had a past encounter with Hatter during a particularly trying part of her life. I really liked Alice and thought her willingness to go with the flow helped with the all the craziness in the plot.Hatter was a fascinating personality as well. Marie Hall had a lot to live up to when she reinvented such a classic character and I thought she did pretty well. Readers get to see the reasons behind his madness and how it connects to Wonderland setting which was amazing in its own way. I liked that his mental instability wasn't easily fixed and that the darker aspects of such a mind were shown. This was helpful in the effort to truly understand Hatter and why he reacts to Alice the way that he does. I did like how genuine he was even when he mistrusted Alice. He is truly a good guy inside and couldn't completely hide it. I did think he went overboard with the trust issues especially towards the end, but I think he made up for it.As a couple, I thought Alice and Hatter were nice, but I found myself wanting more. This book is on the shorter end when it comes to page length and I think that hurt the development of the romance. It just seemed like things moved so quickly once Alice entered Wonderland. I am all about people connecting almost instantly, but I need moments to show me that a couple will work outside of the bedroom.Overall, I did enjoy this twist on Alice in Wonderland despite my issues with the love story. The characters were interesting and I did like them all except for Alice's cranky great-grandmother. I am definitely going to try more in this series especially with such fascinating fairy tale bad boys waiting in the wings.