Queen of Hearts is the first in a series of fantasy books that follow the young Princess of Wonderland. Colleen Oakes has taken Lewis Carroll’s work as a starting point to build an interesting and coherent world. This book doesn’t take place in Carroll’s Wonderland, but in a place that is sort of Wonderland through a glass darkly. Part of the fun of reading is to see where Oakes has brought in elements of Carroll’s world in new and interesting ways. (No spoilers from me here.)

The main character, the Princess, begins the book understanding and mostly enjoying her place in the world, but things begin to go wrong… The book turns darker as Princess fights against opponents (seen and unseen) who want to dethrone her from her happy life. She has to get tougher and more resourceful as a result.

The book takes place from the POV of the protagonist, so we don’t get a lot of insight into the other characters. Secondary characters are often interesting, but not always as fully realized as the protagonist.

The magical kingdom of the book is drawn in detail, which holds together well. The descriptions of high-society court life as well as that of other, much lower elements of society are well done.

Oakes introduces the protagonist and some of the important secondary characters in the first four or five chapters. This is done through action scenes, giving us the information we need to absorb the world in an interesting way. The plot moves swiftly after the first few chapters, getting steadily darker. The book doesn’t give us resolution of the protagonist’s problems, but instead invites to read the next book in the series.

I enjoyed the book tremendously, because of the tight plot and swift action.  I definitely want to read more in this series.