Title: Mad About the Hatter
Series: N/A
Author: Dakota Chase
Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult
Length: Novel (190 pages)
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press (20 Aug 2015)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Blurb: This isn’t his sister’s Wonderland….
Henry never believed his older sister, Alice’s, fantastic tales about the world down the rabbit hole. When he’s whisked away to the bizarre land, his best chance for escape is to ally himself with the person called the Mad Hatter. Hatter—an odd but strangely attractive fellow—just wants to avoid execution. If that means delivering “Boy Alice” to the Queen of Hearts at her Red Castle, Hatter will do what he has to do to stay alive. It doesn’t matter if Henry and Hatter find each other intolerable. They’re stuck with each other.
Along their journey, Henry and Hatter must confront what they’ve always accepted as truth. As dislike grows into tolerance and something like friendship, the young men see the chance for a closer relationship. But Wonderland is a dangerous place, and first they have to get away with their lives.
ISBN: 9781634761505
Product Link: https://www.harmonyinkpress.com/books/mad-about-the-hatter-by-dakota-chase-324-b
Reviewer: Prime
Review: Mad About the Hatter is just a lot of fun with not a lot of romance, but a lot of friendship and adventure. Add to that this being something of a spinoff of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (there are elements of both these classics here), much like the book Wicked, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable read.
This is a young adult (Henry, the MC is some weeks off of 18) but honestly if you don’t like young adult fiction it’s really easy to switch that part off in your mind if you just want to read a gay romance with some classic characters.
Ok, so it’s clear that I loved this book. The characters are quirky, the plot is fun and somehow in between all that you see a normal sibling relationship (well, for siblings that find it difficult to get along anyway).
The story starts with Henry. He and his sister, Alice, do not have an easy relationship, despite the fact that their only other family is their possibly alcoholic father and mysterious/random Uncle Leonard.
The main problem is that Alice likes to talk about her time in Wonderland which Henry knows that logically could not have happened at all (but she has a husband and kids, go figure, I was siding with Henry there). Then his sister gave him punch and then…
We meet up with the Mad Hatter.
The story is set after the story of Through the Looking Glass. The Red Queen seems to be getting more insane by the day and is having people beheaded left, right and centre. When Hatter is sent after “Boy Alice”, we have the quirky adventure throughout Wonderland not unlike the original. We also meet other familiar characters, aside from the Red Queen, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat (I thought of him as Stephen Fry’s voice like in the latest movie) as well as that opium fiend Caterpillar.
As I said there is not a lot of romance, there is very little in the way of sex but there are some rather sweet moments between Hatter and Henry. I particularly liked the end but it left me thinking “but I want more!!!!” I was practically crying because it ended as I was thinking this too.
What more can I say? We meet some quirky familiar faces and sights, as well as some new embellishments by the author. A wonderful and fun read, particularly of any fan of the original story.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *