Alice decides to stay at the Hatter mansion, even going so far as to get a job there. She slowly becomes closer to Elliot, until the day she witnesses him doing his job (killing people for Blood). That awakens doubts in her, which deepen when Elliot tells her he'll kill her sister for hurting her and making her unhappy. Alice leaves and ends up traveling with Ace to Heart Castle. He gets lost, so she joins up with Peter when he shows up, but Peter ends up locking her up to keep her from leaving. The volume ends with Elliot heading to the castle, and Vivaldi about to order Alice beheaded.

I'm really not a fan of the Alice and Elliot pairing. It's either too goofy and focused on Alice's love of Elliot's ears (it often feels like she enjoys tugging Elliot's ears more than she likes him as a person) or too focused in Elliot's violent nature. In this case it's more of the latter. Elliot announcing that he'd kill Alice's sister for making her unhappy was horrifying, and a good reminder that the people in Wonderland have a very different and far more violent way of approaching the world than Alice is used to (that said, there are non-killers in Wonderland - it's one of the reasons why I like the Julius and Alice pairing so much).

This volume also had a bit of the ear-tugging stuff that I hate. Alice tugged Elliot's ears until it hurt him, and readers were supposed to think this was cute. I do not. He makes it pretty clear that he doesn't like it, and yet she doesn't stop. Volumes that pair off Elliot and Alice really do tend to highlight the worst in both of the characters.

There's a bit in this volume where Nightmare tells Alice "Anyone who meets you will take an interest in you and eventually fall in love with you." I think this is probably supposed to be good and comforting - Alice has gone from a place where the people she loves keep inadvertently hurting her to one where they are guaranteed to love her - but instead it strikes me as being both horrifying and depressing. It probably doesn't help that I played Doki Doki Literature Club! not long before reading this. It really highlights just how awful the "someone is guaranteed to love you" aspect of romance visual novels would be if the characters were actually aware of what was going on.

The artwork was at least relatively nice, although the use of screentone was a bit odd.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

A delightful twist on the original 'Alice in the Country of Hearts' series. Instead of Blood Dupre being the main love interest, Elliot March is the beau Alice has fallen for. Elliot is adorable and sweet but also vicious and deadly. Falling for a double sided man is at best confusing, at worst, painful.

Volume one ends on a cliffhanger with Alice in danger, leaving the reader wanting the next volume.

Note: The Alice in the Country of Hearts series is based on an Otome dating game. The resulting manga (by the same title) has spawned many different spinoffs. This is one of those stories.

This spinoff has 2 volumes. ( )

Strange, disturbing, intriguing and seemingly insipid. Yet once you begin to read them you must wonder if they aren't in fact deeply rooted in archetypes and/or existential metaphor. This is a world where things make no sense. A world where everyone likes or loves Alice. A world that seems to hyercontextualize the bad elements of humanity and its hierarchal structures.

I like this series as a RA choice, because it has elements of both the romance and stupid humor that are usually separated into "guy" and "girl" categories. ( )

More stories from the Country of Hearts. This time, Alice falls in love with Elliot March and runs afoul of Vivaldi. The artwork is a little different--Cheshire Cat Waltz is still my favorite.