I have to say, when I picked up this book I was expecting a cute fluffy romance. Instead, this book was a lot darker than that. This book dealt with pretty severe depression and anxiety and it reminded me a little bit of Verona Comics. The writing was great, the characters were well thought out and felt real, if messy and complicated. I very much appreciated the f/f rep, and the positive portrayal of therapy in general. I think this is very important to include in books, but is often overlooked.

Overall I liked the book, but I did sometimes find myself getting the POVs confused. I also would have liked a little less hate and a little more love in the hate-to-love dynamic.

I was looking forward to this book because it sounded like a combination of lots of tropes I love, but unfortunately I just didn't love it. I think it could definitely appeal to other readers, but I found the characters exhausting to read about, and overall found this book really hard to get into.

A lot of the plot was driven by Iliana and Rhodes' hatred of each other, but I never really got why they hated each other, just that supposedly they really, really did. This meant that the romance between their internet personas didn't really work for me, because they straight-up hated each other in real life without much indication that there were misunderstandings or misinterpretations that meant that they would actually have gotten along.

The vast majority of the characters were just so hard to read about. There was a lot of drama and toxicity, and I couldn't bring myself to feel hugely bad for any of the characters. Rhodes has depression, which is absolutely something that has a negative impact on people, but it felt like she knew she was being horrible to people, like her brother when he was just trying to help, and just didn't make any steps to change her behaviour. Sarah, who was supposed to be the wonderful best friend, really didn't come across this way, and in general the only character I liked was Rhodes' brother, and that was partly because he's a dancer like me.

So far I've been quite negative about this book, but there were definitely things I enjoyed! I liked how the webcomic the two of them worked mirrored their interactions and relationships, and the webcomic itself and related Alice themes were really cool. I also liked how Rhodes and Iliana worked together at the end, which felt like the most cohesive moment of the book.

I personally didn't really enjoy this book, partly due to the book itself and partly due to the fact that it was marketed as a tropey f/f YA romcom when it really wasn't. It did have its redeeming features, but they just weren't quite enough for me to like this book more.

God I love this book so much! It is so good. The enemies to lovers is very realistic, and the chemistry is off the charts.

I was super-hyped for this book, because I love the enemies-to-lovers trope, I love the pen pal trope, and I was really in the mood for a fun F/F rom-com.

And that’s where it went wrong.

Because, despite the description in the very first sentence of the synopsis, I Kissed Alice is not a romantic comedy. And my completely wrong expectations are basically why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.

First of all, I Kissed Alice is not a fun, light-hearted comedy. I did not laugh once. Nor giggled. Nor smiled, really. In fact, this is a quite heavy book with messy, deeply flawed and unlikeable characters. Iliana and Rhodes are AWFUL, not only to each other, but also to their shared friend Sarah. But hey, Sarah is actually a pretty awful person too. There was just too much awfulness, and while I really appreciate that the writing took this real, raw and messy route, it wasn’t what I expected, wanted or needed and as such it really brought down my enjoyment of the story.

I do usually like enemies-to-lovers. But this was more enemies than lovers.

Which brings me to the second part of the term ‘romantic comedy.’ I did not think this story was romantic. Like I said, the enemies-to-lovers aspect was done with a very high focus on the enemies part. Not once in the book, unless maybe near the very end, did it ever feel like these two characters could maybe love each other, or have this great sexual tension in their scenes together. There is no banter that made me think ‘just shut up and kiss already’.

You could say that that all happens in the online part, since Rhodes and Iliana both have secret online identities as they work on an Alice in Wonderland webcomic together. This is the pen pal trope I like so much, people falling in love over conversations, bonding without even knowing what the other person looks like. But even that aspect of the story fell flat for me. You see, the falling in love with each other (online) pretty much already happened in the beginning of the book. We don’t see them bonding. We don’t see them falling in love. There’s really limited online conversations, and in a lot of them they are still mean to each other or ignoring each other. So unfortunately, this aspect of the story also did not convince me of the romance, or of the characters.

Though to be fair, the book still had some very positive aspects as well. I really liked the writing style. It was vivid and real and most of all, brave. It depicted the ugly side of people and the ugly side of friendships and family. There was talk about depression and anxiety and positive therapy representation. There is talk about class issues and privilege and I did like Rhodes’ journey as an artist. I actually really liked the view into an art school. And I liked Griffin, Rhodes’ supportive brother and probably the most (only) likeable character in the book.

And I really enjoyed the illustrations by Victoria Ying, which are spread throughout the book and depict scenes from the Alice in Wonderland web comic Rhodes and Iliana work on together as their secret online alter egos.

So while I had my issues with the characters and the romance aspect, those were mainly due to my incorrect expectations. Though it wasn’t what I wanted to read at the time, I can still appreciate the writing and the gritty aspect of the characters’ personalities. I just wanted a rom-com and I got something else entirely. Please don’t go into this thinking that it is a fun, light-hearted romantic comedy with likeable characters. If you can go into this book with the right expectations, I really do believe you’ll enjoy this more than I did.

Anna Birch brings the art world to life in I Kissed Alice. Unfortunately, there is plenty of drama in the art world to include back-stabbing, cover-ups, and malicious behavior. Did I mention that these are high school girls? Everyone in this book is lying to everyone - including themselves.

Personally, this book was a little too "angry" for me. I did not really connect with the characters as there is a lot of dislike and that is between friends. This does not mean that Alice won't connect with someone else. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Oh I loved this one so much! Enemies to lovers, secret identities, queer romance and fan fiction! This story was so cute and perfect. I loved everything about it and especially loved that we got bonus fan fiction and artwork! I highly recommend this one.

This is a must-read for sure. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, and it was executed very well in this book. The writing was easy to read and I flew through this book, eager to see what happened next. Iliana and Rhodes hate each other, mostly as a result of an incident sophomore year, yet are practically dating as their online identities that work on an Alice in Wonderland comic together. I love the contrast, and the emphasis on how perspective can shape your whole opinion on someone. There’s also a scene that shows that forgiveness doesn’t need to be given, and you have to just live with and accept the person’s reaction to your apology.

Also, I am in love with the portrayal of art and passion in this. Instead of just telling us Iliana likes tarot readings, Anna Birch shows us several times. It’s an important part of Iliana’s life, and taught me a few things about Tarot. I’m not well-versed in Tarot or Alice in Wonderland or even the art world, so its a testament to Anna’s ability that I found myself understanding their passions on some level and becoming invested in their pursuit of them. The illustrations of the Alice in Wonderland comic are one example. They are amazing and gave a beautiful glimpse into a world of fandom I’m not a part of.

Additionally, I became interested in the lives of all the characters, even Griffin and his former dancing partner. Anna does an excellent job of characterization and giving an insight into the struggles, flaws, hopes, and dreams of even side characters we might not be fully invested in. Sarah as a character is someone whose perspective I found myself craving.

Spoilers ahead: I wonder about how it’s said that Sarah is in love with Iliana, and also how she could have possibly had the same feelings for Rhodes. The main characters themselves seem to have little idea of Sarah’s positions on anything, and I wish we knew more about her and why she acts the way she does. It’s understandable that there are unanswered questions, as it wouldn’t make sense for the main characters to know everyone’s thoughts, but she’s a very interesting character and it would be nice if there were a scene or two to elaborate on her feelings a bit. Overall, this is a great book and romance, well worth the read.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: I Kissed Alice

Author: Anna Birch and Victoria Ying (illustrator)

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Lesbian/bi main characters (not sure exactly how they define themselves). f/f romance

Recommended For...: romance, contemporary, mixed media, LGBT, f/f romance

Publication Date: July 28, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 15+ (slight sexual content, language)

Publisher: Macmillan/Imprint

Pages: 320

Synopsis: Rhodes and Iliana couldn't be more different, but that's not why they hate each other.

Hyper-gifted artist Rhodes has always excelled at Alabama’s Conservatory of the Arts despite a secret bout of creator's block, while transfer student Iliana tries to outshine everyone with her intense, competitive work ethic. Since only one of them can get the coveted Capstone scholarship, the competition between them is fierce.

They both escape the pressure on a fanfic site where they are unknowingly collaborating on a graphic novel. And despite being worst enemies in real life, their anonymous online identities I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are starting to like each other...a lot. When the truth comes out, will they destroy each other's future?

Review: Oh. My. Bi. Heart. I loved this book so much! I immediately fell in love with the story and I loved the duel POVs. It was both exciting and cringy as the girls stumbled through their love story. The voices were very distinct and the writing well done. The book also mentioned periods… which WIN FOR PERIOD NORMALCY! The book is also in a mixed media format, showing the girls text messages and their comic they write and illustrate.

The only complaint I had was the confusing beginning. The book kind of throws you into the girls feud and you have to wade through it, kinda like their stuck-in-the-middle best friend.

Verdict: Definitely recommend!

Unfortunately, I really didn't like this book very much. Based on the cover and the blurb, I went into this one expecting a light and fun enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance, and this just.. was not that book. It is definitely sapphic, but nothing about this book was fun. With all that being said, even if I had known going into it that this was a much heavier book than I was expecting, I still don't think I would have liked it all that much. I really didn't like either of the main characters and I was honestly pretty frustrated by how each of them not only treated each other, but also every other person around them. This just very much did not work for me.

TW: depression

I Kissed Alice is a f/f enemies-to-lovers story about Rhodes and Iliana, two high school seniors who share a best friend, and who are competing against each other in an art competition for a coveted scholarship prize. Unbeknownst to both of them, they are falling in love with each other online as they anonymously work on an Alice in Wonderland fanfic comic together. This book is way heavy on the “enemy” part of this story trope, and the stakes are realistic, and high.

This is not the light, fluffy read I was expecting, but it was a good story. I enjoyed the pacing. I always wanted to keep reading more after the end of each chapter. Birch did a good job creating tension and believable conflict between our two main characters, although it could get REALLY negative and antagonistic at times. Even though every character has flaws I was still rooting for their success, ultimately. I also appreciated the depiction of Rhodes’ depression in the book. I identified with Rhodes’ mental and emotional struggles and feelings, and thought Birch did a great job with that aspect.

I did find the relationship with Sarah to be toxic, unhealthy, and manipulative, mostly due to the way Iliana treated her. The whole tone of the book sways more towards negative. I enjoy reading stories with unlikable characters, but to me, Iliana was just straight up not a good person and she didn’t seem to change much. Which is fine and may have been Birch’s intent. However, the parts where Iliana realizes “oh, this is happening because of me, it’s basically all my fault. Oh well, I’m still mad at [insert name]” just didn’t sit right with me. I ended up being more worried about how Rhodes would fare in a relationship with Iliana rather than being happy they ended up together.

Iliana and Rhodes hate each other, but they share a best friend, Sarah - who just wants her best friends to get along with each other. Based on the description, I was expecting them to have a rivalry about their art, or over a scholarship - but really they just are jealous over the other for her relationship with Sarah, and also Rhodes may have left Iliana behind to get arrested. I DNF'd about a third of the way in, because the friendship triangle felt really unhealthy and toxic.

"Hearts are fickle things. Hate is complicated."

I Kissed Alice was a journey. I usually find it very hard to buy into enemies to lovers as a trope in contemporary fiction because it's hard to invent a conflict that makes the dynamic believable. However, Anna Birch DELIVERS. The conflict she creates for this book is incredible. It's tense and engrossing and you can't stop reading. It's believable because it stems from human mistakes and assumptions and it's not based on one petty interaction; there are months of interactions that build to this hatred and the way it's revealed feels very natural to the pacing.
Another reason why the dynamic works so well is because the characters are realistic. They were human. They had hopes and fears and struggled with their own insecurities. Knowing these insecurities made the interactions have more depth because you could understand why each character responded the way they did. Plus you know an enemies to lovers story is good if you pause partway through to genuinely ponder what will make them see past their differences to fall in love.

In the end, the romance progression was integrated into the story flawlessly. It's easy to put differences aside when you have a common goal and it made complete sense to the plot. Anyways, I rest my case, the character development individually and in terms of the relationship was great. Near the end, there was a bunch of scenes that were just sapphic longing and I just... *dreamy sigh*

I do wish that Sarah wasn't as much of a front and center character because she was incredibly toxic and annoyed me most of the story. However, I will concede that her involvement did help make the dynamic believable because I've been jealous of my friends' relationships too. It was just more of a personal annoyance that made her scenes feel aggravating.

Overall, I enjoyed the message of this book. The fact that people can be misunderstood and think situations are worse then they are... These are human things to do and watching the two main characters deal with that and grow was incredible. I enjoyed that they were able to take their differences and recognize where their biases went wrong and find common ground. It felt very pride and prejudice-esque in certain ways and I loved it. Plus the art throughout the story is PHENOMENAL. It added an extra depth to the online interactions and made the romance between their alter-egos come to life. I digress, this story is fantastic in so many ways and sapphic readers are in for a treat with it.

The first half of this book was difficult to get through, but it really picked up for me in the last quarter to make this a moderately enjoyable read.

It's a f/f enemies to lovers, which in theory I love, but it was just... a lot of hate, and a lot of choppy drama storylines, and a lot of girl hate which made it harder to enjoy. I can get behind the enemies thing, but there was something about this particular rival-ship that just felt wrong to me.

It was a bit hard to differentiate between the different perspectives, and I had to keep reminding myself which POV I was currently reading from. The writing was enjoyable enough to read, but it just didn't have me sucked in.

I was most invested in the storyline of this one. The charactes didn't quite have me hooked, but I cared enough to root for things to work out for them. It was an interesting storyline, and by the second half of the book, it really had me wanting to keep going. Whereas in the first quarter, I had been debating putting this one down.

Overall, this didn't do too much to me, but I'm happy to see more and more f/f stories getting some of the tropes we know and love. This may be exactly the thing some people are looking for, but it didn't quite do it for me.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“I Kissed Alice” is a young adult contemporary/romance book centered around the two main characters – Iliana and Rhodes – and their relationship with each other.

The two of them are students at an art conservatory, are competing against each other for a scholarship, and have a bit of a rivalry with each other because of it. However, they also communicate with each other behind anonymous usernames on a fanfiction site as they work together on a webcomic via the Internet, not knowing who the other person really is behind the screen. Eventually, they both reveal that they’re both trying to get the scholarship, and since everyone who has a chance at this scholarship attends an event in Nashville, they agree to meet up in person while they’re both in that city for the event. When Rhodes realizes who Iliana really is, she goes offline and the story they’ve been working on together comes to an abrupt end, and their relationship – both online and in real life – is tainted. On the day the scholarship is given out, the two of them talk to each other in-person again, where they make up with each other and eventually kiss after Illiana reveals that she has feelings for Rhodes.

I loved the relationship between Iliana and Rhodes, and the fandom aspects added in throughout the story made the plot even more interesting to me than it already was.

This is maybe the most disappointing books I read this year. Cute contemporary, romance between two girls... yeah, it sounded great to me too. But I had so many issues with this book.

For one - this was no cheap, 'well they kinda think the other is annoying' enemies-to-lovers. The animosity here pulled no punches. Perfectly toed the line with drama as rough & convincing as it can get between two real-life teen girls without crossing into bullying or inexcusable things. As much as I don't care for drama, again, I have to point out that this is the spitting-fire trope that we've been waiting for, especially in f/f. But again - is not a romance. They take forever to start repairing this.

And next - the main characters were nothing short of infuriating. I was always rolling my eyes at Rhodes's stubborn, pretentious-artiste attitude, and Iliana's constant making everyone out to be such a horrible enemy when she was obviously the biggest shit-stirrer there. It made the bulk of the book agony for me, but they thankfully learned their lessons at the end. Again I HATED it but Birch really went out here and made the kind of grating personalities required for a convincing animosity, so how can I even blame her???

Besides these subjective things though, the first while felt weirdly unclear to me, and sometimes a characters' personality & secrets was more revealed in terms of breadth rather than depth so I wasn't quite buying it. (view spoiler) I also 100000% never bought the romance, because we were rarely given any kind moments between Alice & Cheshire in the first place. I think they forgave each other organically, but again, barreled right into smooching when I don't think they...deserved it?

Regardless, I think people will be surprised by this, and hopefully pleasantly...kudos to the author for really going for it, in creating these nuanced, annoying, flawed, and ultimately sympathetic characters, taking this trope to the next level.

I would like to thank @Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the opportunity to read I Kissed Alice. Here is my honest review.

Adorable!

In the beginning, I thought this was going to be a tropey YA romance full of angst and assumptions and misunderstandings. I was eye-rolling with the best of them when I started Chapter 1, a bit less when I read Chapter 2, and so on. It turned out to be one of the sweetest, most gratifying romances I have read in ages and favorited up there with Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda.

The characters of Rhodes and Iliana go through tremendous growth in the story arc, and it just made for a wonderfully satisfying story. When these ladies meet online, they fall for each through a webcomic based on Alice in Wonderland; only it's set in space (totally cool), and the Queen of Hearts has fallen for Alice (not too much of a spoiler/also cool). The illustrations of the webcomic in the story support the characters, their drive, and their personalities. I could have read an entire comic about them, and I am still praying that one is coming in the future.

These two ladies who have fallen for each other have no idea that they share a BFF because their online personas are who they are inside, where their gruff exteriors that they show on the outside are always abrasive toward each other. Watching these two round out the edges, let the guard down, and just simply grow into the skin their in was such a treat. I am so thankful that this was recommended to me and that I was able to get my hands on the ARC.

Perfect summer read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I Kissed Alice sounded right up my alley, involving queer love and fanfic creators who (unknowingly) are collaborators on an online comic, while competing for a scholarship in real life.

I love the detail that went into conveying snippets of said comic, with simple, yet appealing illustrations. I also loved the interstitial online conversations, highlighting “Alice” and “Cheshire’s” relationship, as well as having other readers commenting and interacting occasionally, creating a truly immersive experience.

However, I feel a bit conflicted as to the story itself. Iliana and Rhodes aren’t horrible characters (although their POVs aren’t super distinct from one another), but I felt like they were more “enemies” that didn’t quite work transitioning into lovers outside of cyberspace, given how hostile they were to each other. And given the initial reason they hated each other, which has nothing to do with them competing, but instead is focused on their jealousy of each other’s relationship with their mutual friend, I found it very underwhelming.

I think certain people will like this, particularly if they don’t mind an angstier YA read. But it’s just a case of it being not for me, even though I had every hope it would be.

From about 20% into the book onward, I kept asking myself why I had ever thought that this was going to be a light, fun romance and then remembering "Oh yeah, the description. And the cute cover design. And even the title!"

Instead this was a fairly negative, enmity-focused display of insufferable characters and weak plotting. The dual narration didn't seem well utilized; I don't necessarily need the same scene from two perspectives, but referencing events initially told through one character's perspective and contextualizing them from the other seems a pretty basic move. Spending the majority of the book just going back and forth between talking about why they hate each other and then further antagonizing each other neither moved the story forward well nor endeared either character to me. Rhodes and Iliana did experience some growth and quite late in the story began to recognize their own flaws and assumptions, but I was baffled by the use, design, and treatment of Sarah, who began as their alleged mutual best friend. The theory offered by (primarily Iliana's) narration is that Sarah has actually been troubled and troubling the entire time and that poor Iliana and Rhodes are her targets, but that seems false in the face of Iliana's negative view toward her throughout the book, her lack of care/attention as a friend, and her enduring refusal to own up to any of her faults in terms of their relationship. There was a scene with Iliana's mother where I thought things would turn around but...not really. Overall, the only character who I enjoyed was Rhodes's brother Griffin, and the relationship when it finally came around didn't spark anything in me at all.

The writing itself was fairly good, with occasional sparks of excellence. However, it seemed to do quite a lot of talking around things - Rhodes's situation in particular never seemed to be thoroughly explained, just referenced enough to vaguely grasp at what's happening - and expected readers to either understand parts of the world through osmosis or not care about them (there was never a good explanation/scene setting of their school, Iliana vaguely mentions family members but there's barely any interaction/characterization there). I'm fine with character-based writing, and often prefer it, but you really have to build out the world at least a bit. I also don't know that the comic panels added much other than to break up the reading experience a little.

(Also, the absolute most bedrock part of the plot - that these two mortal enemies randomly happened to meet and start collaborating in the enormity of the internet - requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief.)

Maybe hardcore rivals to romance lovers or Alice in Wonderland fans will be interested, but expectations should be managed in advance.

This is a f/f enemies to lovers romance, both of our heroines are narraters, which I enjoy.

This book has a school setting, where the main characters attend a prestigious art school and are competed to win a scholarship. Our heroines are two artists that hate each other irl, but are unknowingly very close online. Their online alter-egos Cheshire and Alice create fan fiction comics about Alice in Wonderland. The comic is set in space, and the Red Queen and Alice are romantically involved.

I didn't enjoy that our heroines spent nearly the whole book being enemies, the drama was super petty, or our two heroines' best friend Sarah. Many of the conflicts that arise in the book are because Sarah is a whiny, petty, and overly sensitive person. For example, one of the main conflicts in the book occurred when the two heroines were fighting, Sarah tried to butt in and was told that she didn't matter RIGHT NOW. Of course, Sarah couldn't stop crying because she wasn't the center of attention.

I think this book is meant for younger YA readers from the ages of 13-15. I think that individuals in this age group may relate more to the dialogue in the book.

I would formally rate this book 2.5 stars since I liked part of it, but I really couldn't stand Sarah (and didn't like one of the heroines).

This is a debut novel, and I look forward to future works from the author.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of "I Kissed Alice" by Anna Birch. The best part about this book was the gritty realness of it. The people in this story were deeply flawed and so were their relationships and that made it feel authentic and resonated in a real way. I liked that the experimental, rebellious actions that many teenagers do in real life also had real consequences and that, just like real teenagers, the characters in this book were highly concerned with their schoolwork and how it would affect their futures, and that affected the main plot line of the story. I also thought it was cool that the main characters in the book were gay, but that was simply who they were and coming out wasn't a major plot point—they were merely living their lives.
The romance actually didn't do much for me. Much of their physical interactions felt forced and awkward—maybe because it was so realistic. But I loved the realness of female teenage relationships, including how truly horrible they can be to one another. It showed every aspect of how sometime girls ignore and shove their problems beneath the surface, sometimes face them head on, sometimes forgive each other, and sometimes have to let each other go. Those relationships were where this book shone.