Cover Image: The Unseen

The Unseen

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Member Reviews

I really did enjoy this read. For me, it was a solid 3 stars and that’s a good rating. It means I was entertained and would likely recommend to others.

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The writing was well done and easy to get into and read. This is the second book of the series and while I love the plot, and the author's take on Alice in Wonderland, I feel like there were too many characters than the author could handle writing. It would have been richly improved if there were fewer, and more developed. It would have cut down on the cluttered feel.

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I do love a good remake/remodel and so far every version of the Alice in Wonderland story has been up to the task. This is my first Jacob Devlin book and I can't wait to go back and read the first installment. Imagine all the fairy tale characters you are familiar with and then take their story one step further. What happens after the happy ending? This one is just as unique as the original in which is was based upon and I believe that Lewis Carroll would be happy with how his story has once again awoken in a new time and place. Perfect for the YA/ Tween/teen group with just the right amount of adventure and a dash of romance.

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A great sequel to The Carver! A gripping adventure that gets better and better with each installment.

Enzo, Zack, and Rosana continue their exhaustive search for their family members. As they end up in Wonderland, their journey takes a turn to the crazy and the unpredictable. In a place where nothing is what it seems, friendships and trust will be put to the test. On the other side, the lost relatives are stuck in the Old World with no way of getting out. King Bellamy declares no one can leave. They have to join forces with old allies and enemies to escape imprisonment, find their children and defeat Queen Avoria. The queen fled from Wonderland and left the power to the King of Heart. His mission: to break Enzo and his friends. As she grows in power, the threat of war between kings too. Is there still hope of stopping her before it’s too late? Can the war be stopped? At what cost?

The Unseen takes a deeper dive into the story of Enzo, Rosana, and Zack. The reader gets to know them better and the character development is incredible. Each of them has come to accept their identity and the truth about their parents’ lives and their identities. With the past behind them, they now have to take a leap of faith in their own destinies and take a journey that will test their friendship and their courage.

The plot is very engaging and very well developed, much like the first one. The adventure is exciting, filled with humorous moments and dangerous tasks. It keeps the reader on their toes. Devlin is a master of connecting worlds and not losing track of the characters and the plot itself. Each individual mission comes together beautifully to complete a bigger picture. It’s exciting to see how they all fit: everything is connected and in the end, there aren’t loose ends. A dynamic and amusing story while enough twists to leave the reader running through the pages. The story is addictive!

The author is a great storyteller: the way he builds this fairytale world is fresh and it pulls the reader into the plot without much effort. The references he uses gives richness to the story. Characters are given depth, a consciousness and a character that will change the view of how fairytale characters are seen.

His style of writing flows perfectly and raw emotion jumps off the words. The setting is a place that readers are familiar with but Devlin’s re-imagines them but at the same time, the feeling of going to that world is the same. Keeping track of the different storylines comes naturally and no extra effort is needed to understand or follow them.

I highly recommend the reading of the previous novel of the Order of the Bell series and its sequel! I can’t wait for the next adventure of Enzo and his friends.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Blaze Publishing and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

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I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
This is a story is a mix of alice in wonderland it is a great adventure, with a brilliant story-line!
This was my first book by this author, however I did enjoy it. It was fast paced and just alltogether an easy read. I give this book a 3.5 star rating!

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Another book where I only looked at the cover and not the summary.

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Anyone interested in Alice in Wonderland retellings should read this book! It's been a while since I read the original stories, but I've read a few retellings since then, and The Unseen is by far the BEST. It's funny, because it isn't TRYING to be a retelling, but the author captures the essence of the nonsense and oddity found in the originals (at least how I remember them) better than anything else I've read.

This book is the second in a trilogy. Like the first book, I liked some story lines better than others. As a whole, I think it's better written than the first book. I'm not sure which book I liked better story-wise though. I really liked most of the Wonderland story. There was quite a bit of teenage angst in it, which I wasn't a huge fan of. It never got terrible or anything, and I definitely see why the author focused on it (how it fits into the larger story of the trilogy). I guess I just didn't connect with any of the characters in this book the way I did with Hansel in book 1. His emotional journey was absolutely stunning, and while plenty of characters faced strong emotions in The Unseen, there just wasn't ONE that stuck out to me/that I really connected with.

I fully expect book three to be even better, and I can't wait to read it. I'm really hoping for even more excitement, more danger, and more surprises. Overall, The Unseen is a fun, entertaining read!

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I finished this book a couple of weeks back but its still pretty fresh in my head, which I think is a great reflection as to what a good read it is.

The story picks off where the last one finishes. The kids are in WONDERLAND where they find Gretel and Jepetto. 
The Unseen is a much easier read than The Carver, it wasn't to over complicated like the first book and honestly was a much more enjoyable read.
Yes there were some flaws, like some characters sat in a jail cell for the entire book, but nothing major. 
The story progressed at a great rate, as did the first, and lacked the manic pack-the-book-with-as-much-as-possible aspect that can also be found in the first.

Most of all I loved the big Wonderland themes in The Unseen. One of the most standpoint things in a book for me is the world building and this did not disappoint. 

A great adventure, with a brilliant story-line and for once romance taking a back seat.

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I wasn't thrilled by the first book, so barely did more than flip this one open. Sadly wasn't for me.

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Wonderful sequel! Might be best to approach with 'The Carver' still fresh in your mind, as there are many fairy tale characters to follow, and new ones to get to know.

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I was a little disappointed with this one. I really adored the first book, The Carver. It had a light hearted campy feel to it with funny bits of banter between the characters. In The Unseen, my favorite character, Pietro (Peter Pan), spends most of his time locked up in Florindale prison, and the kids, Zack, Rosana, and Enzo take center stage. I like these characters very much, I just found myself missing Pietro licking cheeto cheese off his fingers and begging for Starbucks.

Additionally, The Unseen has a much darker feel to it then The Carver. While there are some dark parts in the first one, I never got the sense that any of the characters was in any real danger. It’s a fairy tale world after all and theoretically, everyone should be getting a Happily Ever After except the villains. While not described in graphic detail (it is mostly glazed over and happens off stage), there is a hanging in this book and it took away a little bit from the feel good fun I was expecting.

That being said, there were still many parts I enjoyed. I loved Chester, the Cheshire cat who thinks he’s a dog, Matthew Hardinger (Mad Hatter), king of Spades, Gepetto the Carver, and Gretel, the girl with magical tears. I loved the tour through Wonderland and was happy that the author included so many nods to the original Wonderland while also making it his own.

There was a lot of action which kept the book going at a fast pace. The kids begin to come into their powers, and we see them put to good use against the King of Hearts. Rosana has an invisibility cloak and Enzo has a magical carving knife which carves figures of the people/objects he needs to find or follow to accomplish his goal.

Although I didn’t enjoy the sequel as much as the original, I am still looking forward to and will definitely check out the third book (I think this is meant to be a trilogy). The author has a wonderful imagination and I can’t wait to see what the third book entails. I also want to note that I think this book is intended for an audience younger than myself, and would still recommend it to younger fantasy fans, especially anyone who enjoyed The Carver.

Thank you to Blaze Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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It is a wonder that I even read this second book as I only though the first book to be okay, but since the sequel was already in my possession and I was curious to see if it would turn out to be better than the first, I gave it a go.

Was it better? Not really. It continued pretty much in the same fashion with way to many characters to follow, improbable turn of events and no depth. It was very easy to see through the plot choices the author made and as I said in my review of the The Carver, I’m sure it will have an audience, but not with me.

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Haven't read Carver yet, but after reading this, I for sure will be getting it to read!

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In all honesty I don't think this book was for me. I just couldn't get into the storyline this time. Maybe I wasn't in the right mindset to read it. I might give it another go at a later date. It took me weeks to read because I kept putting it down. Unfortunately like I said I just wasn't into it

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