The Looking-Glass Curse is a medium-burn reverse harem series that reimagines Alice in Wonderland. If you love adventures, brave heroines, and secrets to discover, dive into this series, pronto! This is a place that’s full of unexpected delights and horrors.
Title: The Looking-Glass Curse
Author: Eva Chase
Genres: Fantasy > Fairy Tales > Fairy Tale Retellings > Reverse Harem
Read Format: Kindle Edition
Total Pages: 990
Reading Date: 04th October 2022 – 16th October 2022
The Reading Order – How to Read The Looking-Glass Curse Series by Eva Chase
- 1 Wicked Wonderland
- 2 Wrathful Wonderland
- 3 Wanton Wonderland
Wicked Wonderland
Dive through the looking-glass into a Wonderland that’s lush, exhilarating… and deadly.
Five steps to getting over a nasty break-up:
- Inherit a mini-castle from your reclusive grand-aunt.
- Fall through a mirror into a decadent upside-down world.
- Get to know the smoking-hot locals. Prickly Hatter. Playful Chess. And the passionate White Knight… Wait, what was I talking about? Oh, right.
- Discover you possess powers that could win a rebellion against a tyrannical queen.
- Keep a tight hold on your head—and your heart.
When I tumbled into Wonderland, I only wanted to escape the epic mess my life had become. I’m not sure I can trust anything in this bizarre, intoxicating place. But the three incredibly enticing men I’ve met here might need me even more than anyone back home ever has.
Maybe a little heroism is all it’ll take to heal my wounds and theirs. As long as the Queen of Hearts doesn’t come for our heads first…
My thoughts…
It’s a retelling of Alice in Wonderland! This time, it’s not using Alice’s name but Lyssa’s. But she is also Alice’s distant relative. Lyssa accidentally stumbles into the wonderland by the weird mirror in her late aunt’s house. She meets all the strange creatures – Plants that talk, beings that are half human, half animal. She also meets the main heroes – The hatter, the Cheshire cat and the white knight.
However, this is a reverse-harem genre book, so it’s not exactly a teen story! But, the plots are decent, come with a magical world, dangerous political conflict, mysteries, and likeable characters, and are not just focused towards the goal of foursome (from what I gathered in all Eva Chase’s series). Anyway, I can’t wait to read how Lyssa’s story will play out compared to the original fairy tales.
Wrathful Wonderland
Four ways to piss off the Queen of Hearts:
- Have a name that sounds kind of like Alice.
- Change the decor in her favorite club.
- Destroy the magic she’s used to hold Wonderland in her cruel grasp.
- Fail to offer your head in penance.
I didn’t come to this bizarre, intoxicating place looking for trouble, but I’ve sure as hell found it. As the Queen retaliates viciously against the Spades’ rebellion, it’s up to me and the three alluring men I’ve allied with to save Wonderland before so many innocents lose their heads.
Easier said than done. With Hatter tapping into his inner Mad, Chess pulling a vanishing act, and the White Knight revealing secrets darker than I could have imagined, everything I counted on here has turned upside down. When the swords come out, will I even be able to save myself?
My thoughts…
I love Lyssa’s adventure in the wonderland! In this book, her willingness to venture into unknown territory to retrieve the artefacts and help the Wonderlanders is admirable. Of course, her courage is due to the presence of her trusty companions: the white knight, Chess, Hatter, Dee and Dum and Doria.
As we read through her journey, we can’t help but wonder what’s the secret that the white knight kept from Lyssa or how the ring will help in discovering the artefacts and what challenges Lyssa will encounter in her journey. Besides the dangerous adventure, the team must also find a way to rescue the prisoners.
The story is relatively entertaining, and the ending of this book will make you want to dive into the next book immediately! But I have one complaint: I think Chess now loses his personality. His talk had been cryptic in the first book, but it doesn’t seem to be now.
Wanton Wonderland
Three keys to claiming Wonderland’s throne:
- Win over the citizens (who are caught up in a drug-fueled daze).
- Recover the magical artifacts of my royal line (which are hidden behind a squad of brutal guards).
- Draw on the love of the three most extraordinary men I’ve ever met (one of whom is held captive by a tyrant queen).
Okay, I’ve got my work cut out for me. But my people and my lovers are counting on me. I won’t give up this wondrous land that feels more like a home than the world I grew up in ever did.
There’s a new queen in town. The Hearts and Diamonds had better get ready to bow down.
My thoughts…
You need to read this series if you love Alice in Wonderland retelling.
The last book in the series picks up where it left off in the second book. Lyssa is back in the Otherworld, being hit by a truck and woken up disorientated. But, there’s a more pressing matter than her health, especially when the looking glass is about to be packed for auction.
Lyssa has finally decided that she belongs to Wonderland, and nothing can stop her from returning to the world and saving her people. But, her last adventure will be more challenging with the impending battle with the Queen of Hearts, which will no doubt claim lives, betrayal will happen, and an unexpected situation will test Lyssa’s leadership!
I’ve been waiting for the Jabberwocks to be part of the solution since the second book, and I finally got it! The wrap-up is as expected; Lyssa got her happily ever after, but not all Wonderlanders get their happy ending. If you cannot let go of the world, worry not because Eva plans to write Doria’s story – the Hatter’s Daughter trilogy!
I messaged Eva to check on the series, and here was her reply: ¨So glad you enjoyed The Looking-Glass Curse! Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to Hatter's Daughter yet, but it is still on my list. (It's just a very long list, LOL.) If you're in my reader group (Eva-holics) or get my newsletter, you'll hear as soon as it's coming! 🙂¨
Before wrapping up the series, I always compared the similarities between the leading male characters’ personalities in Eva’s series that I’ve finished reading. Here goes what I thought about the heroes on their first impressions or actions towards the heroines.
Series: ❶ Dragon Shifter’s Mates ❷ Traitor of Villains ❸ Cursed Studies ❹ Bound to the Fae ❺ The Looking-Glass Curse
Sceptical: ❶ West – ❷ Malcolm – ❸ Jensen – ❹ Whitt & Nyle – ❺ Hatter
Erudite/leader to the team: ❶ Aaron – ❷ Declan – ❸ Elias – ❹ Sylas & Corwin – ❺ Theo
Protector/Overprotective: ❶ Nate – ❷ Connar – ❸ Ryo – ❹ August, Brice & Ronan – ❺ Chess
Overconfident/screw up: ❶ Marco – ❷ Jude – ❸ NIL – ❹ Madoc – ❺ NIL
