A Certain Sort of Madness {book review}

OKAY SO.

You guys know that retellings are my weakness.  Put one in front of me, I will probably read it and odds are pretty good that I will like it.  So when Nicki Chapleway, a friend on Goodreads and an all-around cool person, announced that her next book was going to be an Alice in Wonderland retelling...

I got really excited.

And because Nicki is an awesome person and sent me a copy to review for you, that's exactly what I'm going to do!



Author: Nicki Chapleway
Genre: Fantasy/Fairytale retelling
Content: There's a lot of magic and some uses of h*ck and fr*ck if those bother you. 

Synopsis:
Alicia Hareton is crazy. But that’s nothing new. Her insanity is inherited from her mother, just like her magical abilities and her blood ties to the strange and alluring world of Amar. She’s spent her life on Earth and yet Amar has always called to her, an intoxicating melody that she cannot ignore. Returning to Amar would put her life in danger, but Alicia has never let such technicalities stop her before.
However, when her mother is captured due to her reckless actions, Alicia will do anything to rescue her. That includes trusting her grumpy, sarcastic imaginary friend, who claims he doesn’t know her and doesn’t seem that imaginary anymore. Or that trustworthy. Together, with the help of her cousin and a band of misfits, they partake in an extremely ill-advised heist on the faerie court in order to find a way to defeat the most powerful mage in all Amar, who also happens to be Alicia’s grandfather. But not everything in the faerie court is as it seems, and soon this unlikely group find themselves fighting for their lives as well as the lives of those they love.
In a world of madness and magic, the lines between lies and loyalty are blurred and sometimes the only option you have left is to let the insanity loose.

What I Thought:

My emotions are all over the place right now, tbh, but oh my word, I loved this book.
I did not expect this to be as funny as it was.  I haven't laughed out loud that much at a book that wasn't by Rick Riordan in a long time.  The sass!  The banter!  It was wonderful!  It was a heist story with the found family dynamic and y'all know that is my JAM.
I loved this take on Alice - Alicia was such a cool, different spin on the iconic character.  Olivia annoyed me at first but became hilariously relatable.  Dante is sassmaster supreme.  Eugene had me laughing the whole time.  I got so attached to all of them despite telling myself not to.
Also I have not just one, but TWO new OTPs.  Just thought y'all should know.
So if you want a fun, unique take on Wonderland that's slightly terrifying at times, you found it here.
Basically, all in all, Nicki,


Favorite Quote: tbh there are way too many hilarious wonderful ones so it's hard to choose but the most relatable is "I'm a mess. We're a mess. When did things get so messy?"

My Rating: 5 adorably helpful monkeys out of 5

About the Author:
Nicki has been writing since she was eleven years old. She published her first book A Week of Werewolves, Faeries, and Fancy Dresses at the age of fifteen, one year after she finished writing it. She enjoys reading, writing, swimming when she can, and fan-girling (in other words: obsessing over other peoples' stories almost as much as her own). She also enjoys watching TV, her favorite movies and TV shows include: Doctor Who, Avengers, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Nicki currently resides in Ohio with her family of eight and two dogs, Rylie and Zoey. She is now working on the next books in the My Time in Amar series- when she's not distracted by other stories (both hers and others'). You can contact her at http://pausefortales.blogspot.com

You can add it to your Goodreads shelf here!

I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a long time.  I cannot wait for book 2.  I'm so happy I got to read it, so huge thank you to Nicki for letting me read and review it! :D

~ Abby