Title: Ensnared

Author: A.G Howard

E-book edition, 384 pages

Published: January 6th, 2015

Publisher: Amulet books

4,5/5 stars

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

Finally, after being a lovesick girl in Unhinged, Alyssa the Badass Netherling Queen is back! She finally accepts her netherling side, and acts like one, sometimes even cross to her dark, twisted part. She uses her nether side to manipulate and get what she wants. She uses what Morpheus's had taught her and her Wonderland experience to deal with the netherling. And yes, she is still indecisive about Jeb and Morpheus, but mostly it's about "how to save them" instead of "who should I choose". In this book,her main focus is how to save her mother, Jeb, Morpheus and Wonderland. She acts like a true netherling queen that cares about her realm and her people.

Morpheus. He's still the dark, sexy, arrogant and manipulative Morpheus we knew. But in this book, we could see him working together with Jeb and eventually, respects him. We can see her soft side for Alyssa. But, he's still the master of manipulation, we never can guess his intentions and motives. But one thing for sure, he truly cares for Wonderland. Wonderland will forever and always be his priority.

"I do what's best for Wonderland"

"You are Wonderland"

 “If you’ll but be mine, your heart will forever be sheltered in my care. Yes, we will quarrel incessantly and fight for dominance. And yes, there will be ravishes of passion, but there will also be gentle lulls. That is who we are together. You’ll never need fear that your love is not reciprocated."

Jeb. He is not as annoying as he was in the previous books. Maybe because in the previous books he's just a normal human, so he doesn't understand how Wonderland works, the chaos and madness within the magic, and how intoxicating it is. And then in this book, his magic is mixed from Morpheus and Red, two of Wonderland most powerful creatures. It unleashed his dark side, but it also made him understand the chaos and madness. He even almost lost his mind trying to control the magic. It also made him understand more about the way netherling thinks and that made him willing to coorperate with Morpheus. We can also see that's he's not the naive, jealous human boy because he figured it out from the beginning that his powers are from Red and Morpheus.

World building: Solid and other worldy. Just like the previous books, A.G Howard provides very details description about Wonderland, that it's easy to imagine that we're in the world ourselves.

The ending is perfect for this trilogy, even though it's very similar with Clockwork Princess. I don't really like Jeb, but after reading this book and see his thoughts, I feel like he deserves Alyssa too. The epilouge is just perfect.

"And there, in the midst of blinding orange, yellow, and white flames, our forever begins."

If you're looking for a retellings, especially Alice in Wonderland retelling, this book is worth the try. It potrays wonderland in it's own dark twisted way.

Title: Unhinged

Author: A.G Howard

E-book, 400 pages

Published: January 7th 2014

Publisher: Amulet books

Rate: 3.5 stars

Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of.

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.

As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.

If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.

In Splintered, Alyssa came to the netherling realm.

In Unhinged, the netherling is coming to Alyssa's world.

Now, Alyssa is a netherling queed, and Red's army are coming for her.

This book mostly happens in the human realm. I love the way A.G Howard bringing the netherling to our world, how easy they blend into our world, waiting to pop out as our worst nightmare. I kinda hate the plot because most of the time, something weird (netherling alert!) would happened, and Alyssa didn't want to believe they actually happened. She thought the problems will disappear if she ignored it. Well, newsflash: they never disappear, they only get worse. By the time she made her move against Red, things had become so much worse. I know she wants some normality, enjoying her time in high school, being with Jeb, protecting people she loves. But she also has duties to wonderland. She's a queen after all. But in the end, she only made things so much worse.

Morpheus isn't exactly trustworthy, he sent Alyssa to dangerous situation more than once. But it was all to save his realm. He never actually left Alyssa alone, he'll always be there to save her. He won't let anything harms her. He challenges her, bringing out the best and the worst of her netherling side. He'll always want her netherling side more, but he also accept her human side, he even gets affected by it. In this book, we'll see that Morpheus is truly, madly, deeply in love with Alyssa.

Jeb. I think he's okay at the beginning of Splintered. Then he came to wonderland, met Morpheus, and had this whole trust issues with Morpheus (bc Jeb is jealous), which I think is ridiculous because, admit it, Morpheus is Alyssa's best chance to survive in wonderland. Morpheus knows everthing about wonderland, he knows how to fix things, he guides her. Jeb is Alyssa's knight in shining armor, but he know nothing about wonderland. Now, after he regained his memory in Unhinged, the whole same trust issues is back. Can he atleast respect Morpheus a bit? Morpheus never shows it but I know he have respect for Jeb.

Anyways, I think Jeb is too controlling and protective when it comes to Alyssa. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't trust him. Don't come back to wonderland. Alyssa is not some damsels in distress. Alyssa is a netherling queen, and her experience with wonderland and Morpheus have made her stronger. She can protect herself. And he kind of abandoned Alyssa for his career. Sure it's for London, but are you really that busy that you don't have time for your girlfriend?

Alyssa has been with both Morpheus and Jeb from the beginning. But I really wish Alyssa would stop being so clueless about Morpheus feelings. She always puts Jeb first, and I think that hurts for Morpheus.

There's a lot to discuss about the romance, the whole Morpheus vs Jeb issues because it played important part in this book. They represents two different element of Alyssa. Human vs netherling. Safety vs chaos.

I hate the cliffhanger! I really want to get my hands on Ensnared ASAP, but that book come out in 2015! I have to wait for a year to read it. But I really love seeing Alyssa embracing her destiny, and her netherling side in the end. Her acceptance will make her stronger.

Title: Splintered

Author: A.G Howard

E-book, 287 pages

Published: January 1st, 2013

Publisher: Amulet books

4/5 stars

Alyssa Gardner is the descendants of Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. For years, generations of women in the Liddell family (since Alice) has gone insane. Even Alyssa's mom is in the asylum. And Alyssa is next.

When a visit to her mother had gone wrong, Alyssa found out that wonderland is real which mean the curse is also real. The only way to stop the curse is to fix the mess Alice left behind in wonderland. 

With her long time mortal crush Jeb and her dark netherling guide Morpheus, Alyssa must travel to wonderland and fix Alice mess. But what if the real Wonderland really different from Wonderland in Lewis Carroll's book? What if the real Wonderland is a dark and twisted place?

Splintered is, hands down, one of the best fairytale retellings ever. Splintered takes us down the rabbit hole, into a dark, magical, disturbing Wonderland, a totally different Wonderland from the one we know, but still feels familiar. The description is really detailed and vivid, that I could imagine myself in the twisted Wonderland.

Overall, this is one of the best books I read in 2014. This book could be a stand-alone, but instead A.G Howard decided to make it a trilogy. The second book, Unhinged, is already out. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a book that's different and unique, and if you're a fan of dark-gothic novel.