Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Title: Heartless
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Romance, Young Adult
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Publication date: February 9th 2017
Pages: 464 (paperback)
Source: Netgalley






Long before she was the terror of Wonderland - the infamous Queen of Hearts - she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. 

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland - the infamous Queen of Hearts - she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her own terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author dazzles us with a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Goodreads

Alice in Wonderland is such an amazing story and one of the most complex characters is probably the Queen of Hearts.  So of course I wanted to find out what exactly made her become her so twisted. So when Heartless got released I knew that I had to read it, especially since Melissa Meyer is such an amazing author.  And Heartless did deliver, it had the right combination of everything, romance, action, drama and of course a lot of weirdness how else can it be set in Wonderland.

You do not need to know Alice in Wonderland to read this book; it stands completely on its own. It is not a retelling of the story, it has an own unique and amazing plot with a great set of characters. Heartless follows Catherine, daughter of the Marquess of Turtle Rock. The King of Hearts took a liking to her and every girl in Hearts would want to be in her shoes but not Catherine. Becoming the Queen of Hearts would mean giving up her long life dream of opening her own bakery. That is all she has ever wanted to do but when you are the daughter of the Marquess you cannot make decisions of your own and you have to follow the rules of society. All Catherine can do is feel frustrated and angry and hope that the King will shift his attention to someone else.

At first I could not see how Catherine could ever turn into the Queen of Hearts that we know. She is good hearted and cares about the people in her life. But bit by bit you can see the changes in her and to be fair I cannot blame her entirely. So many things happen to her. She falls in love with the court joker, and I was rooting for Jest. He is such a great guy and couldn’t help but love him. But at the same time that I was rooting for them I knew that their story would not be one with a happy ending.  But what happened to them still makes me sad and that is why I cannot blame Catherine for turning in the person she is as at the Queen of Hearts.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I completely get what the buzz is all about now. The book throws you back to your childhood with all the feeling of a fairytale but at the same time it keeps you on edge since you know what will happen but you just do not know how exactly it will happen.  It was really hard for me to put this book down and I cannot wait to read more of Marissa Meyer’s books.

Elien