As a fan of Alice in Wonderland I always enjoy retelling of these classic. This is the second book in this series where we follow the main characters Celia and Tyrus as they go on Unexpected adventure and encounter a war between the white and red queens. This story has all the favorites including the Cheshire Cat. Fans of Alice in wonderland or retelling will enjoy this.

This book was adventure from the first page! You follow our two main characters as they are transported to Wonderland agian. They have to face challenges throughout and they grow with each challenge presented to them. This is a great way to continue this series. I highly recommend for children and adults to enjoy together. What a wonderful retelling of a classic.

I was concerned that after enjoying the first book that the second would not be so good. No worries, it was a great follow up. Looking forward to more from this author.

#secretsofthelookingglass #netgalley

This was a great story to read. I loved the storyline and the characters, definitely recommend this book!

Secrets of the Looking Glass is the second book in The Lost Wonderland Diaries and follows Celia and Tyrus as they venture into the Looking Glass, encounter their mirror images and become entangled in a battle between the Red and White Queen's Armies.

I'm a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and so I thoroughly enjoyed my read of J. Scott Savage's first book in The Lost Wonderland Diaries series. It had all the memorable characters I've come to know and love, like the White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat. Savage then spun the story into a few new and pleasant directions. This latest addition also did not disappointed, I loved all the new characters, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Humpty and Dumpty, even the Bandersnatch (from Jabberwocky), the Black Sheep Pirate Captain and Lia and Ty, who are mirror images of Celia and Tyrus with the bonus of having received their "best qualities," or Celia's math/logic skills and Tyrus's imagination.

What would a Lewis Carroll adaptation be without some clever wordplay, nonsensicalness, a few acrostics, neologisms and portmanteau words? There's even some clever riddles and I love how it focuses on language, including words like "abhorrence and "deferential." There are so many details that I enjoyed, the way that each chapter ended with the title of the next chapter. The inclusion of chess and emphasizing how it improves skills like visualizing, planning moves in your head, increases your ability to analyze an outcome of your opponent's move and react. Skills that later became important when the battle between the White and Red Queen began. And oh, don't get me started on the wonderful battle scenes. So much fun. Savage really has a knack of taking all the wonderful things about Lewis Carroll's works and combining them into his stories giving them the feel of the original works, while being something completely unique, humorous, and exciting.

Then there's our two main characters, Celia and Tyrus, who because their skills were taken away had to learn to adapt, and in the end discover that within them are more abilities than they've ever realized before, that there is more too them then just their logic and imagination. That having flaws was a strength. I will forever remember the expression a "fish in roller skates." Overall, this was a lovely story that I zipped through and has me now looking forward to a re-read real soon. *Thank you Shadow Mountain Publishing and Netgalley for the E-ARC**

Everyone knows the tale of Alice in Wonderland, her adventures and all the characters she meets along the way. Despite being a huge fan I do have difficulties with spin offs sometimes, as writers take the story and completely obliterate it. This was not the case. Taking the concepts of Alice, the Hatter, and many other characters the author was able to create such a great spin that I want to read it all over again. I want to read everything from before the Looking Glass and read about many more adventures to come. Fabulous storytelling from the beginning.

If you are a fan of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, this is the book for you. This is a very clever retelling that incorporates all the fun elements of Looking Glass. You encounter the Humpty Dumpty, Tweedles Dee & Dum, the Black Sheep, and even the beautiful scented rushes that Alice keeps rowing to collect; yet, they are presented with a very creative twist in a way that you wouldn't expect. There are lot of great puns and quotes from the book, including the Jabberwock poem.

If you're not a huge fan of Lewis Carroll, which I am not, this book is still entertaining. Though, I must admit, since I'm not a fan of Looking Glass, I struggled through the first half of the book. The second half really picked up, and I totally enjoyed the ending. Gratefully, I had read Looking Glass before I read this book, which helped. At the time I finished Looking Glass, I never wanted to read it again. However, Savage's retelling has made me question that decision. At some point in the future, I might venture Through the Looking Glass once again.

Secrets of the Looking Glass by J. Scott Savage

This was my first Savage series and it’s been a fun ride. I’m about as familiar with Lewis Carroll as the Disney movies, so many of the references were probably lost on me.

Secrets of the Looking Glass is the sequel to The Lost Wonderland Diaries and it makes for a fantastic addition to the story. Thrown into another adventure, Celia and Tyrus must play a massive game of chess and solve riddles in order to try and stop a war between the Red Queen and the White Kingdom.

I loved the adventure and fun in this book but I also loved the growth of the characters and the spooky black sheep.

Just like the first one this book does not disappoint, it was great to read more about the lost wonderland and see these characters navigate everything that happened to them along the way.
This is a series that I hope continues to grow I feel there are infinite possibilities to explore in the world of wonderland.
A favourite I will reread again and again.

I love this magical and enthralling story! It was an easy read filled with adventure, great characters, and an awesome world with unique concepts.

What a fun “after wonderland” tale. This version is very well done and you won’t want to put it down until the very end. Fun for both kids and adults!!

I loved the first book in this series, so I was excited to see that there was going to be a sequel based on Through the Looking Glass. The plot in this book was very enjoyable and it was great getting to follow along with Tyrus and Celia again in a new adventure.

This zany adventure was a great follow-up to the first book, with lots of riddles, wordplay, and characters that I was looking forward to seeing Savage's take on. I am not as big of a fan of the original book Through the Looking Glass as I am of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but I will say that Savage's version of this story was awesome. I'm glad that the adventure for Tyrus and Celia was unexpected, especially the ending.

It was great that so much of the plot dealt with the chess battles since chess is an important part of Through the Looking Glass, but that it was not bogged down in chess. Every instance of it in the plot made a lot of sense and it was entertaining to see how it fit into the story overall.

Loved the riddle battle with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle Dum, the poetry with Humpty and Dumpty, the different chess battles throughout the entire book, the wordplay (both physically in the book and in the story in general), and I loved the eerie scenes with the Black Sheep.

Also, I want to mention how much I love the fact that Tyrus has started a book club in this one and that they are reading Inkheart. Makes me want to read that book again. It's one of my favorites, that I first read in ninth grade. And I hope that this will lead even more young readers to pick it up.

What a great follow-up that added so much more to the world and to the characters as a whole! It was great to see Tyrus and Celia learn even more about themselves and grow as young people. I'm glad that young readers get to see such great character growth throughout both books in this series.
This is a series that I love and is a great retelling that I believe young and old readers will both enjoy.

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC of the book. All opinions are my own.*