Book Review: War of the Cards (Queen of Hearts Saga #3)

Release Date: November 7, 2017
Author: Colleen Oakes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Length: 352 pages
Source: Purchased Book

The final book in the twisted YA trilogy re-imagining of the origin story of the Queen of Hearts.

Dinah has lost everyone she ever loved. Her brother was brutally murdered. The wicked man she believed was her father betrayed her. Her loyal subjects have been devastated by war. And the boy she gave her heart to broke it completely.

Now a dark queen has risen out of the ashes of her former life. Fury is blooming inside Dinah, poisoning her soul and twisting her mind. All she has left is Wonderland and her crown, and her obsession to fight for both. But the war rages on, and Dinah could inherit a bloodstained throne. Can a leader filled with love and rage ever be the ruler her kingdom needs? Or will her all-consuming wrath bring Wonderland to its knees?

This is not a story of happily ever after.

This is the story of the Queen of Hearts.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Dinah feels as though she's lost everything in her life, her mother and brother are dead, her kingdom was viciously taken from her, and now the boy she loves doesn't love her back. The fury growing within her is more volatile than ever as she heads off to go reclaim her crown. I really liked seeing more of Dinah's dark side in this installment, while there's still a bit of a moral compass there, she's closer than ever to being a villain and I soaked up every minute of it. I really enjoyed the complexity of Dinah's character and how the choices she makes in this story affect the rest of her journey. Even though she's destined to become the cruel and villainous Queen of Hearts there are things about Dinah's future and about where she ends up by the end of this story that really caught me off guard and surprised me.

Romance: So, I have to say that I really loved how the author handled this romance from the very beginning. Even though Dinah's feelings for Wardley feel very presumptive and obsessive since the very beginning, it's obvious she does truly care for him, and I love that the author showed that even though he wants to he can never feel that way about her. It felt obvious from the beginning that that rejection would be what set her off and ignited her fury, but the nuances of the how everything comes together and just how far Dinah's feelings go really surprised me. This romance, or lack thereof, isn't over yet and even though Dinah's heart is crushed, that doesn't mean she'll give up.

World Building: So, going into this book I expected it to end with a hardened and furious Dinah taking the throne and ushering in the reign of the Queen of Hearts. I expected that to be where this story ended, but Dinah becoming Queen is just the beginning. A lot of this book deals with Dinah's reign and her struggle to be a good leader that Wonderland needs. Even though I had different ideas for where this story would end going in, I loved how this all unfolded more and more. Okay, so in my review of the previous book in this series I decided not to let the fact that the connections between this series and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are extremely thin affect my rating of the story, however, there's one connection in this story and a sort of justification for why it's so different that really bothered me. I mean, it all just sort of fell apart for me and cemented the feeling that this series would be better without the ties to Lewis Carrol's books.

Predictability: So, as I said before this book turned out drastically different than I initially thought, but in addition to that there are a lot of amazing twists and turns in this book. I mean, there's one that even though I was able to predict it relatively early, when things started happening related to that twist, I was so excited to see the path to its revelation. Everything played out perfectly and even though I knew the main twist, how everything came to be was still a revelation that I was excited hearing. There are a few other great revelations and while the predictability of those varies, I never felt like any of the twists lacked impact or were extremely easy and almost boring to predict.

Ending: So, I'm not quite sure how to talk about the ending of this book. I mean even if I don't give away specifics if I say things ended for Dinah like I expected then it's a spoiler, mostly, and if I say they didn't end up the way I was expecting, well that's also a spoiler. I will say this, the final climax of this story is amazing and much less action-packed than I expected. There is an epilogue to this story that ties up all the loose ends, while (possibly unintentionally) creating some new loose ends. I enjoyed the epilogue a lot and really enjoyed where and how the author chose to end this story.

Rating:

I want to give this book five stars. You have NO IDEA how much I want to give this book five stars because the story is fantastic and it definitely doesn't fit the YA mold in the best possible way, but it REALLY didn't need to be tied to Alice's Adventure in Wonderland in any way. The connection is so thin, mainly being names and titles, and the justification that we get for it in this book, while I like the concept, doesn't work with just HOW different everything is.

Book Review: Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)

Release Date: January 31, 2017
Author: Colleen Oakes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Length: 336 pages
Source: Purchased Book

The queen will rise.

Dinah has been exiled from Wonderland. The vicious father she always feared has framed her for the brutal murder of her brother and turned the kingdom against her.

Now hiding in the lush and mysterious Twisted Wood with only her war steed at her side, Dinah is faced with a choice. She could leave Wonderland forever or return and fight her father for her throne—a fight she knows would only result in bloodshed.

When a chance encounter with one of her father’s long-lost enemies brings Dinah more allies than she ever could have imagined, war starts to feel inevitable. But before Dinah can lead her people into combat, she must confront certain truths about her heart and her destiny—no matter how dark those truths may be.

Revolution is rising in Wonderland.

Dinah’s battle has begun.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Dinah, the former Princess of Wonderland was driven from her castle and her kingdom after her father, the King of Hearts, framed her for the murder of her brother, the Mad Hatter, and now she just wants to escape her possible fate of losing her head to her father's Heartsword. While we see that there is a fury within Dinah, that's obviously foreshadowing her eventual role as the mad and bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts, it's still incredibly easy to root for Dinah. If not for circumstances out of her control she would have made a wonderful, fair, and just ruler. I want Dinah to succeed, but I also know the pain she'd cause if things turn out the way they do in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Romance: So, much like the first installment, if not even more so, romance doesn't play a huge role in this story. After leaving Wardley to whatever fate her father decided for him after letting her go, Dinah is full of guilt. She stabbed him to save him, or so she tells herself, but even a stab wound might not save him from her father. So, I really don't know what to write here that wouldn't give things away. All I can say is that Wardley and Dinah do interact in this book, at some point, and that the feelings Dinah has towards him play an integral role in her character development. I do wish that Dinah's feelings for him didn't seem so obsessive and clingy, but at the same time, they're supposed to, very obviously so. I do enjoy how the romance plays out in this book from a technical perspective, as it tackles a topic not seen very much in YA romance and I'm interested to see how things will develop in the final installment.

World Building: Now that we're out of the Castle of Wonderland, the real world building can begin. Now, I still stand by my feelings in the first installment that the connections to the world of Wonderland are extremely thin, I mean, all you need to do is change some names around, maybe the odd easter egg or two and this could be completely separate from Wonderland while still telling the same story. Now, I decided not to let that affect my rating since after the first installment I've not only said my piece about it but also realized I should take this story for what it is. In this story, we discover more about the world beyond the castle and specifically discover who the Yurkei are and their connection to Wonderland and Dinah discovers more about herself, whether she likes it or not. There are some nice little Wonderland easter eggs, that, while I'm still not a fan of how they're handled, I couldn't help but enjoying nonetheless.

Predictability: So, even though I've technically read this book already (having read the SparksPress version) and having read it more recently than having read the SparksPress version of the first installment, I remembered very little about the story other than a few main highlights at the beginning and end. That being said, even when it came to the twists I knew were coming, I was still blown away by them. There's one scene, that I've read before, I knew what was going to happen down to a T, and I didn't cry for the first time. I bawled like a baby during that scene (maybe because I was listening to the audiobook?) and I was shocked more by that than anything. This book has some great twists and turns and all of them hit true for me.

Ending: So, the ending. Honestly, I don't know what to write here that isn't a spoiler. The ending of this book is a bit unconventional as there isn't really a typical final climax. There's a lot that happens at the end of this story, but there wasn't really any suspense or tension, however, the ending was still fantastic. It hit all the right points and led up to a wonderful epilogue. There's definitely a clear course for the next and final book and while there wasn't really a cliffhanger to this story, I'd be surprised if you weren't chomping at the bit for the final installment.

Rating:

This was a near perfect second installment. It took everything set up in the first book and expanded and evolved it into a beautiful and exciting fantasy for the ages. I've been waiting for years for the final installment and can't wait to sink my teeth in!

Book Review: Queen of Hearts (Queen of Hearts Saga #1)

Release Date: May 3, 2016
Author: Colleen Oakes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Length: 306 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Only queens with hearts can bleed.

This is not the story of the Wonderland we know. Alice has not fallen down a rabbit hole. There is no all-knowing cat with a taunting smile. This is a Wonderland where beneath each smile lies a secret, each tart comes with a demand, and only prisoners tell the truth.

Dinah is the princess who will one day reign over Wonderland. She has not yet seen the dark depths of her kingdom; she longs only for her father’s approval and a future with the boy she loves. But when a betrayal breaks her heart and threatens her throne, she is launched into Wonderland’s dangerous political game. Dinah must stay one step ahead of her cunning enemies or she’ll lose not just the crown but her head.

Evil is brewing in Wonderland and maybe, most frighteningly, in Dinah herself.

This is not a story of happily ever after.

This is the story of the Queen of Hearts.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Dinah is the future Queen of Hearts, when she comes of age she will take her place next to her spiteful and hate-filled father until she marries. This is a responsibility Dinah has prepared her entire life for. However, when her father introduces a newly discovered illegitimate daughter to the people of Wonderland, it sends Dinah snowballing into discoveries of the dangerous political games she never fully understood before. Dinah is a very likable character, a girl who hasn't yet been tainted by the world and has a very optimistic outlook on life. However, as the story progresses she is exposed to the seedy underbelly of Wonderland and her eyes are open for the first time to what being Queen one day will mean. We don't see much about the telltale Queen of Hearts from the Alice in Wonderland story, but it's obvious that something is awakening within Dinah, something that could ignite her change from sweet naive girl to the bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts.

Romance: So, there is romance in this book, though honestly not that much of it. Throughout the book Dinah has feelings for her childhood friend, Wardley, but they've never really discussed their relationship or their feelings for one another. Dinah dreams of marrying him and for him to become her king and save her from having to rule alongside her father, but not much comes from it, in this book at least. There are moments when I truly do like them together and think they would make a good couple, but there isn't a lot of romantic tension or really any actual chemistry there.

World Building: So, I've read this book before, when it was published by SparksPress, and on the whole, my feelings for the book remain the same, especially when it comes to the lack of "wonder" in this Wonderland. There are no talking animals, no nonsensical whimsy, it just feels like a standard fantasy world with a few differences from our world, such as pink snowfall. That being said it is a rather interesting fantasy tale, but on the whole, it's hard to find the connective tissue between this story and the Alice in Wonderland tale many of us are familiar with.

Predictability: Like I said, I've read this story before and honestly there isn't all that much difference between the two versions of this story. There's an extended epilogue and possibly a few more small changes, though I'm not entirely sure since it's been a while since I first read this tale. If you want to read my initial thoughts on the predictability of this story click here.

Ending: So, like I said there's an extended epilogue to this tale that honestly doesn't add all that much extra, though we'll see if/how it entwines with the second installment, but on the whole, the ending is really well executed. There are really climactic and tension-filled scenes near the ending that seems like it would have been the perfect place to end the story, but the author takes it a bit farther and ends in a more plateaued place that helps to set up the next leg of this journey and catapult our heroine into the right place to be.

Rating:

So, my rating hasn't changed since I first reviewed the story, though instead of leaving off half a star for the pacing, which didn't bother me at all this time, though I've read the story before, but the fact that it's so hard to connect this to a familiar Wonderland, and if the author had just changed a few names and basic world building things this could have been a completely different world.