Mad about the Hatter by Dakota Chase

Finally! I'm here with a review of Mad about the Hatter by Dakota Chase. Yes! I know! A review! First off, I was given this book for free by Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Genre: LGBTQIA, Fantasy, YA
Pages: 237
Type: Standalone
Publication Date: August 20th, 2015
My Rating: 3/5
Synopsis: 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.
Review:

   I was intrigued by the book in the very beginning. I mean, the cover is gorgeous and the concept was cool; what more did I need?

Turns out I did need more.

This book took off to an amazing start with me. It was wonderful and magical and Hatter was sarcastic and hilarious! Everyone was so interesting because hey, it IS Wonderland! It was most definitely interesting!

While I loved Hatter from the very beginning, I had doubts about Henry, Alice's brother. He just seemed stuck up and not wanting to believe in anything! I mean, I get it. He doesn't know where he is and he's finding that what he thought his sister had been lying about (wonderland) for ages actually is true! But he was so rude about it! He did redeem himself a couple chapters later so all is well there.

Hatter was mad and awesome, though. And THAT reminds me of a song called Mad Hatter by Melanie Martinez. It literally reminds me of this book. The world was very developed and detailed. Everything was extremely vivid. Unfortunately, I felt that the book was too short and descriptions too long. In fact, that was a problem I had with the book. It was very short and there was no wow factor in the story. I felt like everything in the book was like, "Hey, this happened. OK. This happened and then this. Great."

There wasn't any suspense or major twists. It was like a lazy river when it really could've been a wild, untamed sea. I think that if Chase had lengthened the book, we would've enjoyed it much much more.

The ending wasn't very satisfying. There was no intrigue, no 'what if?'. It was all just THERE. No stopping, no puzzles, no gripping my chair. I do think that the ending could've been better.

The book was pretty cool about the whole LGBTQIA element. I expected more from that side, but what I got was pretty negligible. Chase didn't emphasize much on the fact that both her characters are bisexual. Instead, she emphasized on the task at hand. I loved that Wonderland people didn't make a big deal out of Henry and Hatter. I loved their relationship. The romance was slow and steady. In the start, I felt that it was a bit fast. But soon, it was going super slow. And this is a short novel. So that's something to say! The relationship was very realistic.

In the end, I feel that Dakota Chase's strong points are characters, and descriptions. Her weak points are plots, pace, and twists. I think Chase would be able to write much better contemporaries than fantasies.

All in all, I recommend reading but keeping in mind all these things I just talked about. It's worth a read.

Cover Guessing Challenge

Hello! Today I'm going to be doing the book cover guessing challenge! As the title suggests, you need to guess what the book is all about just by the cover. Then you go back and see what the book is REALLY about. I was challenged (that word feels so weird!) to do this by Sania over at GRAPEFRUITBOOKS. So thanks, my friend! I decided to do this with Sania. So she has picked out some books for me and I have no idea what they're about. I'm gonna guess and then she's gonna rate me. I'm gonna give you guys exactly what I said to her in our emails when she rated me.

BOOK 1: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kate. 
My guess: Cheerleader dies because of a goth guy. So now she hates all goth guys but then this one comes along and she just can't hate him. She's slowly starting to fall for him. But there are complications since he is human and she is ghost.

Goodreads says:
Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star… and newly dead.

I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot body, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?

Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker.

I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation?

My Results: So I got a 90 per cent. It was very close except the girl wasn't killed by goths. 

Book 2: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross. 
My Guess: A girl with a mission who needs to wear red dresses and attend balls she doesn't really want to go to and wear steel corsets because she's just that badass. Over this time she falls in love with either the enemy or her partner in crime.

Goodreads says:
In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one... except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch...

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on even if it seems no one believes her.

My Results: 79 per cent. There's more to it but she is on a mission and she does fall in love with her enemy. 

Book 3: Splintered by A. G. Howard.

My Guess: A retelling of Alice in Wonderland where Wonderland isn't what everyone thinks of it as. It's a dark, twisted place and no one is safe. Everyone hates her but she falls in love with a Wonderlander. (Is that what they call people who live in Wonderland? :P)

Goodreads says:

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence.

Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own. 

Results: A solid 95%. It's really about Alice's descendant. There's a love triangle. 

Book 4: Naked by Stacey Trombley. 

My guess: About a girl who was either sexually assaulted or was sent into sex trafficking and everything went downhill. She's now dealing with consequences of something that drastic.

Goodreads says:

I could never fit in to the life my parents demanded. By the time I was thirteen, it was too much. I ran away to New York City…and found a nightmare that lasted three years. A nightmare that began and ended with a pimp named Luis. Now I am Dirty Anna. Broken, like everything inside me has gone bad.

Except that for the first time, I have a chance to start over. Not just with my parents but at school. Still, the rumors follow me everywhere. Down the hall. In classes. And the only hope I can see is in the wide, brightly lit smile of Jackson, the boy next door. So I lie to him. I lie to protect him from my past. I lie so that I don’t have to be The Girl Who Went Bad.

The only problem is that someone in my school knows about New York.

Someone knows who I really am.

And it’s just a matter of time before the real Anna is exposed… 

Results: 89 per cent. There is some sex trafficking and stuff. 

Book 5: Paper Weight by Meg Haston
My Guess: About freedom, puppets or a girl who loves paper weights.

Goodreads says:
Seventeen-year-old Stevie is trapped. In her life. In her body. And now in an eating-disorder treatment center on the dusty outskirts of the New Mexico desert.

Life in the center is regimented and intrusive, a nightmare come true. Nurses and therapists watch Stevie at mealtime, accompany her to the bathroom, and challenge her to eat the foods she’s worked so hard to avoid.

Her dad has signed her up for sixty days of treatment. But what no one knows is that Stevie doesn't plan to stay that long. There are only twenty-seven days until the anniversary of her brother Josh’s death—the death she caused. And if Stevie gets her way, there are only twenty-seven days until she too will end her life.

In this emotionally haunting and beautifully written young adult debut, Meg Haston delves into the devastating impact of trauma and loss, while posing the question: Why are some consumed by their illness while others embark on a path toward recovery?

Result: 0 per cent. I was waayyy off! 

That's all! I challenge you since I don't know who to! 

The 90s Tag!

Hey, I haven't posted a review and I know that! I'm sorry! I had these reviews planned out; but I'm in a sort of reading slump. I need to finish those books! But anywho, I was tagged to do this by the ever-so-fab Theepika @ ItsTheepika. Thanks buddy! (That was so pretentious!) And just like Theepika, I wasn't really born in the 90s. I was born in the 21st century. To be exact, 25th Feb 2001.

1. She's All That: A book couple that are an odd pairing, but fit together perfectly. 
Eleanor and Park. They are opposite but still fit so well! Well, opposites do attract after all.

2. 10 Things I Hate About You: A book/series with which you have a love/hate relationship. 
I'm gonna go with Fifty Shades of Grey. Yes, I have read that book. Only the first one. And I did sort of enjoy it but I also kinda didn't. So...

3. Clueless: A character that is completely clueless but you love them anyway. 
I'm going with Tessa from the After series by Anna Todd. Tessa is just so innocent and clueless, it's kinda hilarious!

4. Titanic: A book that made you cry.  
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. Man, I couldn't read more than half of this book properly, because my eyes were bleary. This book is the death of me. I love it soooo much!

5. American Pie: A book that made you laugh. 
The book I'm currently reading, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. It's hilarious!

6. Can't Hardly Wait: A book with a crazy party. 
Ok. I don't really understand what this question means. A crazy party?! I don't know, can't think of any crazy party. Maybe one in Delirium by Lauren Oliver. That was pretty crazy and not in a good way!

7. Cruel Intentions: A character you can't fully trust. 
Definitely Snape!

8. Drive Me Crazy: Favorite boy-next-door couple. 
Lola and Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.

9. Scream: A book with a memorable villian. 
Sebastian Morgenstern from The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare.

10. The Craft: A book with witches. 
Harry Potter, Heir of Fire and The Witches.

That is all for this tag, I'm not going to be tagging anyone. You can do this if you want.