Reader's Review: "Chasing Rabbits" by Erin Bedford

Synopsis from Amazon:

Alice was wrong – Wonderland wasn’t so wonderful after all.

Kat never expected to be back in her hometown, but when house sitting turns into a mad rabbit chase, Kat finds herself with a whole new set of problems.

A two headed bird with a Game of Thrones obsession, a party full of tea addicts, and a Cheshire Cat who could seduce the pants off her grandma? And if the citizens weren’t bad enough, their prince was off his rocker.

This wasn’t your run of the mill Wonderland. This was the Fae world, where rules are rules, and some things are exactly as they seem.

Chasing Rabbits is a twisted modern day Alice in Wonderland with a dark fantasy twist and is not suitable for readers under the age of 18. Follow a sassy heroine as she is guided by her fun loving new friends, sexy alpha males, and dark villains.

Check out what happens in THE UNDERGROUND by reading CHASING RABBITS, an urban fantasy readers are comparing to Christine Feehan and Nalini Singh.
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My Review:

This book hit all the high marks for a dark, twisted, not-your-grade-school-classic fairy tale!

Bedford makes it very clear from the start that this is going to be a very grown-up sort of book--but at the same time, it didn't strike me as your typical "adult-smut" rendition--namely because Kat is a suitably flawed, dimensional, fascinating, sympathetic character to focus on. She's not looking for adventure, she doesn't have strange dreams of a handsome stranger who lures her into dark holes, she doesn't stumble blindly from one plot point to the next--Kat is all of us college undergrads, short on money, hopelessly thrust into this "adult" life, just longing for a steady job with a reasonable income that will provide us with the structure and stability that we enjoyed as kids. I definitely identified very much with this aspect of her character!

In addition to creating a very realistic main character to serve as the narrator for the story, Bedford built a rock-solid plot, and her take on Carroll's "Wonderland" (re-named "Underland", as it often is) is absolutely vivid and trippy. More magical and less outright satirical, Underland features the Fae Courts of Seelie and Unseelie (the White and the Red) with the traditional emphasis on impeccable appearances, deal-making, and downright smoky levels of attraction! The new take on the Cheshire Cat--a half-breed, more humanoid than cat anymore--and even the Hatter and the Hare at their never-ending tea party were excellent nods to the original, while Bedford subtly grafts her own story into the mix: the Unseelie prince lost his betrothed, and all the Fairy Court mourn her as dead, and it seems Alice had something to do with it--but though there have been hints that she returned to Underland at some point, no one seems to know where she might be, and there are those who would prefer that she not be found at all. Kat is joined by a brownie and a rabbit-like "opalaught" on a mission to at least recover from Alice the means of returning to her own world... But in the meantime, she is forced to make deals with various Fae that seem to pull her into finding the secret of the prince's dark past, or threaten to keep her in Underland forever!

And THAT TWIST AT THE END WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! I cannot say more for fear of spoiling, but ohhh YES it was a doozy that made me excited to see what other shenanigans await in this series!

A ravishing tale from start to finish, told in truly exquisite detail. CHASING RABBITS earns a solid *****4.5 STAR***** rating from me (less a half-star for the "attempted rape" scene--I couldn't skim fast enough, really, and it was more disturbing than actually effective to the plot, I felt... so, just to reiterate, NOT a wholly exemplary tale to let your teen-aged kids read unawares...) and if you're an adult reader looking for a splendid callback to the innocence of yore, with so many delectable riddles that will keep you guessing all the way through, spine-chilling imagery, and spectacular imaginings, look no further! Erin Bedford's CHASING RABBITS will have you plunging down the Rabbit Hole before you can say "Curiouser and curiouser!"

Further Reading: (Dark Fantasy/Fairy Tale Retellings/Mythology/Strong Heroines)
The Firebird Fairy Tales--Amy Kuivalainen
       -The Cry of the Firebird 
       -Ashes of the Firebird 
The Portal Prophecies--C. A. King
     -A Keeper's Destiny 
     -A Halloween's Curse
Tales of the Fallen--Katika Schneider
       -Devotion
The Runespells Series--Sarah Buhrman
       -Too Wyrd 
The LouisiAngel Series--C. L. Coffey
        -Angel in Training 
        -Angel Eclipsed 
-Beasts of Babylon--E. A. Copen 
Lord of the Wyrde Woods--Nils Visser
     -Escape From Neverland
     -Dance Into The Wyrd 
The Shaudrey Universe Series--J. E. Mueller
       -Fire's Song 
-The Seventh Crow--Sherry D. Ramsey
-A Spell in the Country--Morgan Smith
The Untamed Series--Madeline Dyer
       -Untamed 
       -Fragmented
The Vemreaux Trilogy--Mary E. Twomey 
       -The Way 
       -The Truth 
       -The Lie 
The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
        -Foul is Fair
        -Street Fair 
        -A Fair Fight 
        -All's Fair