Review: Heartless

Heartless by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Catherine is the daughter of the Marquess and Marchioness of Rock Turtle Cove in Kingdom of Hearts. She is of the higher class in town, but Catherine doesn't care about any of that. Instead, she wants to be a baker and have the whole kingdom come to her bakery shop to buy her delicious tarts and cakes and pies - everything!

And Catherine even makes the most delicious treats for the King himself! He adores her scrumptious creations - but apparently he adores Catherine herself as well. When they go to a ball hosted by the King, Catherine's mother makes her wear a bold red dress - only to find out that it's a black-and-white ball and Catherine is the only one who didn't follow the dress code. But it is only fitting for the future Queen of Hearts to be wearing red - the King's favorite color - right?

Only Catherine isn't sure she wants to be the Queen. She just wants to be a baker! Her passion is making treats - not being a Queen of an entire kingdom.

When Catherine flees from the ball before the King can make his proposal to Catherine about being his wife, she stumbles upon the King's new joker: Jest. And from that moment on, Catherine knew she was done for. Jest is magical and wondrous and has so many secrets and hidden talents. She's feared that she is entrapped by one of his acts.

With the pressure from her parents to her best friend and maid, but also being pulled by the other side by her attraction to Jest and her love for baking, Catherine needs to figure out what her choice will be.

Before the choice is made and she is too late to decide anything for herself.

I really liked this novel! I knew going in that this was the story about how the Queen of Hearts became the Queen of Hearts and why she was so bitter and mean and evil, so I wasn't surprised by the ending in the least.

The thing about books about the "evil" character of a beloved story is that you come to pity and understand why the "evil" character became evil. And then you want to feel for them and try to understand that they aren't really "evil" but more they have no more choices in their life. And then it ruins the beloved story because you feel sorry for the "evil" character instead of hating that character like you are supposed to.

So yeah, that has happened to me now. Catherine was such a kind, good-hearted girl at the beginning and she only wanted to be happy and be loved. The two things that could do that (Jest and baking) were taken away from her and she had no more reason to love or be happy.

The adventure that Catherine went through during this novel was a roller coaster of emotions, and she lived completely through each one until she didn't want to live anymore because of the results.

I seriously want to spoil everything, because the best things about this novel are the spoilery part, but I won't do it! You'll have to read it for yourself to find out what amazing things happen!

I'm glad this is a standalone novel because it completely ties in to the beginning of Alice in Wonderland and why the Queen of Hearts is the way she is.

Marissa Meyer did a wonderful job making the main story of Catherine, but also all of the side stories of the side characters that ties nicely into Alice in Wonderland, to make it a complete novel full of adventures and mysteries.

I'm so glad that I finally got around to reading this and I am looking forward to more by Marissa Meyer in the future!

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