Alice makes Nightmare accept an invitation so that he can maybe make friends, but it's actually a father hoping to arrange a marriage for one of his daughters. Alice feels jealous and distressed. Then Alice goes off to work as an assistant in Joker's circus, and Joker

Extras: A short in which Alice frets over the fact that Nightmare doesn't seem terribly interested in having sex with her. (Spoiler: he's interested, but he's being a gentleman.)

Alice is incredibly annoying, pouty, and jealous. She forces Nightmare to accept an invitation he was going to reject, and then gets jealous because she's not as pretty as the Faceless woman being shoved at him. Never mind that most of the role-holders barely seem to notice or remember individual Faceless, and never mind that Nightmare only met with the woman and her family because Alice herself insisted.

This wasn't worth the time it took to read it and if I were a Nightmare/Alice shipper, I'd be unhappy (oh you poor Nightmare/Alice shippers, you got nothing but crappy volumes, I'm so sorry). It didn't feel like this trilogy was written with any sort of plan in mind. Stuff kept happening, and then Alice and Nightmare fell in love. The end.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Alice feels awkward after Nightmare confesses that he loves her. He's behaving normally and hasn't even asked her out, while she's desperately trying to keep him from telepathically peeking into her head and seeing how he affects her. She learns about a mysterious locked book in his library that's supposed to show you whatever you want to see. She finally manages to open it, and

Extras: An Alice in the Country of Hearts short with Nightmare, and then an Alice in the Country of Clover short with Blood.

This trilogy is frustrating. The first volume was filled with what felt like filler stories. The second volume is suddenly all about some book that was never even hinted at in the first volume. Alice remembers her tutor but doesn't seem twisted up by his physical similarity to Blood. Instead, she's all upset about

The romance is meh, and I still hate the artwork. Job does okay with larger panels but apparently can't be bothered to draw/ink more neatly in smaller ones.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Nightmare, who is weak, sickly, and often coughs up blood, wants to prove that he can be relied upon, so he goes on a survival trip with Alice. Then he agrees to play the violin for her, but no one shows up because everyone's afraid of him. Alice tries to help by

Extras: A brief story with Alice and Boris, set in the Country of Hearts. Then, in Country of Clover, a story in which Alice runs an errand for Blood and is followed by Peter.

I really, really hate Job's art style. It's messy, and people's faces look odd.

Also, this story is boring. First the survival trip, which felt like filler (who starts a story with filler?),  then the failed concert, and then a cruise. I know that this series is going to include romance between Alice and Nightmare, but it feels forced so far. And Nightmare is an inconsistent and confusing character.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

With Blood's help, Alice escapes Joker's prison. She learns that Vivaldi is Blood's sister and that they

The issue of Alice's choice isn't completely resolved (the regret and guilt that led to her envisioning her sister as Joker's prisoner is still there by the end), and there's a sense of impermanence to her life with Blood, despite the evidence that she's building a future with him. The move to the Country of Diamonds was very brief, very rushed, and kind of confusing.

Although I was disappointed about how fragile Alice's happy ending felt, I still enjoyed the sweetness of it (even if it didn't really fit the tone of most of the previous volumes in Circus and Liar's Game). There was some recognition that, the longer Alice stayed in Wonderland and the more she built a life there, the more the rules would apply to her as well. Both Alice and Blood made it clear that they wouldn't tolerate replacements – if either one of them died, they wouldn't accept a new “Alice” or new “Blood” created with repaired clocks. I suppose that's as close to a "happily ever after" as you can get in QuinRose's Wonderland.

All in all, this was a sweet ending for Circus and Liar's Game, but I disliked how unfocused the series felt. There were too many mysteries (and I'm still not satisfied with the explanation given for Alice's visions of the funeral) and, although Blood was a fascinating character, the romance wasn't given enough room to breathe and grow. Also, art-wise, I'd like to say that Fujimaru normally does a great job but sucks at drawing guns.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Alice tells Peter that she has chosen Blood and is going to live with him, but she gets a more aggressive reaction from him than she expected, which causes her to worry about how “off with their heads” Vivaldi will react. Also, Alice is once again worrying that Blood might only like her because she's an outsider. It doesn't help that she spotted

The volume ends with a cute short in which Blood feels jealous that Alice keeps baking Elliot special carrot-flavored goodies.

After volumes worth of feeling like the story was being unnecessarily stretched out, now it feels like there aren't enough pages left to properly resolve everything.

Blood, with his mafia connections and occasional coldness, isn't really my favorite choice for Alice, but I like him as far as the larger story goes. He has stronger ties with Alice's real life than most of the other characters do, and his presence tends to bring out some of the series' more interesting storylines. This is not only true for Alice in the Country of Joker, but also for Blood's “route” in Alice in the Country of Hearts.

The relationship between Blood and Vivaldi comes as no surprise to anyone who's read the first licensed Alice in the Country of Hearts manga, so I couldn't bring myself to be very interested in Alice's

The short at the end of this volume was pretty adorable.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)