Heartless book review

Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Published by Feiwel & Friends on November 8, 2016
Genres: YA
Pages: 453
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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 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.

I am a HUGE fan of the Lunar Chronicles and I have been more than excited to read this one. I love Alice in Wonderland and Heartless seemed to be a perfect match for me. I always love reading books where the villain is given and a story and one that explains why they became who they were and I really wanted to see where this one was going to go. Unfortunately, this one fell flat, there was a lot of potential and a lot of things I really loved but there were some glaring issues with the characters and the plotline. I would have loved for there to be a little more development and for the focus to have been shifted a little and for there to be more detail on the relationships within the story.

Heartless follows Catherine Pinkerton, a young noblewoman who dreams of owning a bakery but had caught the eye of the King of Hearts. I really wanted to love Cathy but she was so irritating at times and her issues in life weren’t actually issues to begin with. I fell in love with the other characters, and I loved the aspects that were explored especially the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. This is definitely where this book excelled, and I loved finding out more about their personalities and how they came to be in the Kingdom of Hearts. Jest was an interesting addition to the story and I really adored him as a separate entity, however when added into the romance of everything I think this is where they fall down. Even after reading the whole book I still don’t know why they fell in love and why they even have a relationship. I struggled with every interaction they had because there wasn’t anything other than superficial surface things, it never went any deeper and I couldn’t see the reason for their attraction.

The best bits in Heartless was definitely the folklore and the background that was added into all the books. My favourite parts were learning about Chess and the way the world was set out as though they were acting as different pieces on a chessboard. It was fascinating to me to see all the characters and how they ended up interacting with all the others and seeing how they would end up in the original tale. I really loved the Mad Hatter and the tea party they all ended up being a part of, I adored seeing his point of view and watching him create his hats and battle with the madness that constantly threatened.

Hmm, I think the worst bit of Heartless was the tediousness of the main character and the romance within this book. I just wanted there to be something more to the characters and for their story to make more sense in the grand scheme of everything.

This was an okay retelling, I think there was solid parts within the story and if you’re looking for something that builds on the folklore and mystery of wonderland then this is the book for you.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!