The Looking Glass Wars

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Alyss Heart lives in Wonderland in a place called Wondertropolis with her parents King Nolan and Queen Genevieve. But her Aunt Redd who was practically thrown out of the family when she was young is determined to take over Wonderland. On Alyss' seventh birthday Redd does just that. Both of Alyss' parents are killed in Redd's wrath and Alyss and Hatter (Genevieve's loyal assistant) barely escape through an emergency looking glass portal. Once out of the portal Alyss realizes that Hatter isn't with her. They were somehow separated while in the portal.

For years Hatter searches for Alyss while Alyss ends up being adopted by a family with two other children that make fun of her for talking about Wonderland all the time. Meanwhile back in Wonderland Redd is wrecking havoc sending anyone who believes in white magic to torturous camps to work until they die. Some of the Wonderlanders have formed an army called the Alyssians and Hatter is still on the search for princess Alyss.

Many years later Alyss is 20 years old, has pretty much blocked everything about Wonderland out of her mind, and is about to be married to a wealthy Prince named Leopold when Hatter finally finds her. All of a sudden she finds herself back in Wonderland about to fight the biggest battle she has ever seen. With the fate of Wonderland resting in her hands.

When I first heard about this book it sounded interesting. Frank Beddor got the idea to write it from the old fairy tale Alice in Wonderland. While this book heads in a different direction than the original fairy tale it is even more amazing. It was full of action and all the other elements that any great book has. The characters are all incredibly strong, especially Alyss. Redd was especially easy to hate which was awesome. I always love to hate the evil characters in books like this. This book is the first in a trilogy and the second book Seeing Redd is out now as well. So go go get your hands on them and read them! You won't be disappointed. Granted I haven't read the second book yet but I'm sure it's just as great as the first.