Queen of Madness: Wicked Wonderland Duet (The Wicked Wonderland Duet)

Queen of Madness by Lee Jacquot is the first book from The Wicked Wonderland Duet Series. It's an Alice in Wonderland-inspired dark mafia romance. I love that it had multiple points of view, so we saw different sides of the story. I am not used to time jumps in a story, but she did in the best way, and you better understand Onyx's past. I devoured this book; I couldn't put it down.Onyx Embros (Queen of Hearts) becomes head of the Embros Mafia Family after she sees her parents being savagely murdered. Let's face it; Onyx is awesome; she runs the entire empire and has a small army that helps keep her safe. Her close friends are Shi, Maddy, Trick, Trigger, and Kilo; they're more like family living with her in her mansion. Her enemy is the ruthless Murphy's; they have been rivals to her family since before she was born; her goal is to save women from the Murphys.Ezekiel Kane is looking for a job, so Onyx hires him to be her bodyguard. Onyx doesn't know that Z is keeping a dark secret; he only took this job because he wants to save his sister from the Murphys and get his mother and sister out of this town for good. Zeke is torn because he is starting to fall for Onyx but, if she finds out why he accepted the job, she will kill him, and he can't save his sister.This book ends on a cliffhanger, and I was not expecting that! I now need the second book to find out what will happen to Onyx and Ezekiel next.

y'all. i was not ready for this book. i've been putting it off for a while then once i decided to read it? i couldn't put it down. read this baby in one sitting.first off, this is a alice in wonderland inspired mafia romance novel. like, hello. and to make it even more interesting, the FMC is the leader of the mafia and POC. her character is so amazing, i can't even explain. she's a badass and is the epitome of BDE. now her love interest in this book? her body guard. is this character now part of my harem of fictional book boyfriends? abso-freaking-lutely. do i also want to punch the lights out of him? yes. lol.other than that, lee's writing and story telling was amazing. her world building, plot, setting, and characters were just written so well. i also love that this book is told in multiple povs, not just by the main characters, but the side characters as well.this is my book introduction to lee jacquot, and i am here to stay. i can not wait to read more from her.queen of madness has piqued my curiosity at the beginning then had me jumping into the rabbit hole without hesitation. the need for book two is madness. i can not freaking wait.

This first part of the duet was so good! The plot is great (I love the Alice and Wonderland references) & the plot twist was shocking! Can’t wait to continue! I love that she’s the mafia leader & her boss! Their relationship dynamic is refreshing! The injury trope & “who did this to you!” moment we all love was in this book but SHE said it! Ugh I LOVED IT! Definitely recommend! Also, there are about 7 povs which I wasn’t expecting. Most of them are from the mmc, the FMCs povs were flashbacks to understand the beginning of her “villain” era. Check triggers! This is dark Romance!

Ezekiel has always been the one to save his sister from herself. When she lets go of women from the back of a van, Murphy family exchanges his sisters life for him to get the secrets of Onyx. Onyx is the other top Mafia family Donna. She has her family on lock cause that is all she has after her parents were killed. When Maddy brings Ezekiel into their circle as Onyx's new guard things take a turn. Onyx starts to soften for him. Ezekiel starts to see Onyx's doing good as well as the other side crime stuff but she is trying to make the world a better place. What happens when feelings start to come out? What happens when secrets are revealed?The cliffhanger was EPIC! I am so ready for book two. I loved the different POVs to see the angles that everyone had on the same situation of what was going on and how Onyx was changing. I loved the small inspired by moments of Alice in Wonderland vibes. I love that Onyx is a bad ass boss running the mafia family!! I am so excited to see where this story goes.

This book was alright. The beginning I have to admit is not the most interesting and there were many times I wanted to stop reading but I kept going and the cliffhanger has me definitely waiting for the next book.

Now this was a spin that I know is worth every moment of waiting for book two! Yes, we got a cliffhanger ending and I hate those but man did I love this book! There was so much it had to offer and I loved the unique take that Lee cannot avoid.We not only get POVs from our main characters but from Onyx's whole crew which honestly I thought was pretty cool. I like that more authors have been doing that lately, it gives you so much more information and you become so much more involved in the reading. You're fully invested and then BAM! Swept right off your feet by that remarkable ending!I only just realized I got through this book without picking a favorite character and that's nearly unheard of for me. I really liked Kilo, and Zeke, but these characters are so well written I didn't spend much time thinking about it. I agree with the reviewers who chose to disclose less detailed information, this is one that I think is best enjoyed diving into headfirst!I CANNOT wait for book two!

This was written so well, I love all the little nods to Alice in Wonderland and the story was well paced, kept me constantly intrigued and delivered some excellent spice.I love a strong FMC and Onyx does not disappoint. She's does bad things for honorable reasons and I respect that. She is an absolute boss bxtch with deep vulnerabilities that she doesn't want to acknowledge or share. The way Ezekiel was obsessed with her makes complete sense cos I, too, am obsessed with her.All the different relationships within this story are beautiful, it's an excellent story of found family and I really enjoy that we get the occasional POVs from those characters too.I thought I guessed what the twist/cliffhanger would be but I did not and now I need to dive straight into the second book because I'm shook and I need a HEA. Pls pls pls let there be a HEA.

This was my first by this author and I can tell you for a fact, I will be madder than the hatter by the time book two is out!! I am a huge Alice and wonderland fan so this book appealed to me soon and I seen it. Down the rabbit hole I went and I am not sure I’m ready to come back out!Our two leads are Onyx and Ezekiel, they are the perfect match to the chaos! Steamy, intense, and explosive one way or the other I see fire works and disaster!Onyx once a young smart beautiful soul, in a dark world but surrounded by love of her family! Is now a ruthless Queen who will stop at nothing for vengeance, revenge and blood shed. Though she is not as dark as she seems, she is a voice for women who have had theirs stolen! She rights wrongs, helps them anyway they need it and is always there.A quote comes to mind when I think of Onyx - “You can complain a rose has thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses”. She doesn’t let people close, she is beautiful to look at and even within to the right people. But come with intent to harm or take, she is brutally!Ezekiel the protector always, to his mum, his sister and now the bodyguard to Onyx. Though his intent with her is not those of a protective nature, he needs what she knows and how to get to them. Though for reasons we can’t ignore, as I’ve said he is the protector… so when his younger sister finds herself in trouble AGAIN he can do nothing but do as he must.Though the Queen, her family and what she does shocks him. He did not expect to fall under her spell, become obsessed and think differently about them in general.But he has a job to do, take them down from within and he has to succeed.Will Ezekiel be able to complete what he is told to do?Will he fall to far?Will the queens heart thaw?Will she kill him before he can succeed?OrWill the be late?Jump down the very same rabbit hole I did and find out…

I loved this! Was quite different from what I’ve read before, as in female mafia donna. Obsessed with Oynx she was strong, took no rubbish but adored the family around her. Could put this duet down, you knew something was going to go down because of what Ezekiel was doing, but it was just waiting for it. He’s so protective of her even more so out of his job! His sister annoyed me a little, she just seemed so outta touch with reality 🙄I really enjoyed the little Easter eggs towards Alice in Wonderland.

I went into this blind and as much as it was nothing like what I was expecting it was absolutely amazing.It feels just like the show Gotham but with an Alice in Wonderland vibe instead of a batman one.I already have the next one downloaded and am cutting this review short so that I can go read it right now.

There’s something about this that pulls you in but at the same time it’s hard to read too much at once. Onyx is 100% a mafia don and I love it!