Into the Madness by A.K. Koonce

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Title: Into the Madness
Author: A.K. Koonce
Series: Villainous Wonderland #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 14, 2019
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 247
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fairy Tale Retelling
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

I didn’t fall into a place of wonder and madness...I was taken!

This world is a perfect, enchanting wonderland. The people here are just as alluring...

But we all have our secrets...

Like the white rabbit who’s leading a rebellion right under the King’s nose. Or the sweet March Hare who’s actually an enemy spy. Or my one true ally in all of this, a killer who’s so feared they won’t even say his real name...

As for me, I have more secrets than all of them combined. Because Wonderland is waiting for the beloved Alice Liddell...

And I’m just the bitch pretending to be her!

This is a reverse harem series, recommended for readers 18 and over.

My Review:

3 stars — There were a lot of intriguing elements in this story, but in the end I was just confused…and like, everything from vaguely confused to seriously confused.  And that just took me out of the story, and didn’t make me want to continue in the series.  I actually almost DNF’d at 74%, but then that seemed stupid, so I continued.

There were some fantastic one-liners, and snarky quotes I highlighted.  I could really see some of the genius in some of the things that Ms. Koonce was doing.

Unfortunately, I was never a huge Alice in Wonderland fan, so if there were subtle nods in a lot of places, then I didn’t follow them.  I’m the kind of person that hates being in the dark, but if I’m going to be, I want to be thrown some bones here and there…and I felt like sometimes I’d be thrown bones only to have them taken away from me later.  I stopped trusting anything I learned.  And my impatience for answers got the better of me on more than one occasion.

My other problem is that I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters.  I’m not saying I didn’t connect with them at all…they each had some glimmers of depth that intrigued me…but in the end not enough for me to root for any of them.  I still don’t understand the point of what they’re trying to achieve, so then I don’t understand the stakes, and the desired outcome.

Madison was cool, but ultimately not someone I could imagine being friends with.  She was very hung up on sex…which is fine, but then I hoped we’d get more steamy scenes.  I did enjoy the little we got there.

I did NOT see what she saw in Alixx.  I mean, I got the heart stuff, but OMG, he was not a good person.  And I only sort of got Kais…he didn’t have a lot of redeeming qualities either, and I’m not sure why she trusted him.  Light was pretty much the only one I got.  I got his pain, I got his coping, and I enjoyed the few sweet moments.

Basically it was just too much, with not enough clear.  I LOVE when things are clear, and so that frustrated me.