While I felt that the romance was under-developed, I really enjoyed how the character changed and grew, especially how genuine her reactions were to everything that happened. Catherine was an incredibly likeable character (at least at first!), and it was nice to see close friends an a family dynamic too.
Some aspects of the plot were slow to develop, but overall it was action packed and gripping while still feeling like a coming of age story.

A heart-breaking tale of how a young girl with a simple dream became the bitter, short-tempered and homicidal Queen of Hearts.
Catherine is the daughter of a Marquess in the land of Hearts, but all she wants to do is open up a bakery with her maid servant and best friend Mary-Ann. Their friendship is adorable and you root for them from the beginning even though their dream goes completely against what society expects and what Catherine's parents want.
When the King of Hearts, a giggling fool with no redeemable characteristics, sets his sites on asking Catherine to marry him she does everything she can to make sure this doesn't happen, or at least delay it.
Around the same time Catherine starts to fall for the Kings Jester and the two start a secret relationship...

Even though while reading this I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending, it still broke my heart when things fell apart.

Such a great book to emphasise that there are always two sides to every story, lovely writing and storytelling.
Would recommend.

Reading this book broke my heart, for all the wrong reasons. I am a huge fan of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles but unfortunately I saw little of that amazing storytelling in this book. It started off well enough with all the talk about baking, and the friendship between Catherine and her maid, Mary Ann, was lovely. I also liked Jest and Cheshire, and Hatta too. However, for a story that is essentially a prequel to Alice in Wonderland there was very little of the crazy magical world building I was expecting.

'Wonderland' has been redone many times and this isn't one of the best, in my opinion. Maybe my expectations were just too high after loving The Lunar Chronicles so much :(

Unfortunately the book was not for me, no review was publicly posted on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads or Twitter etc, so no ratings were affected in relation to it.

Heartless is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts (you know, “off with their heads!”)… before she became the Queen of Hearts. If you’re after an unputdownable read, then I think this might be the one for you: you’ve got a star-crossed love story, controlling parents, unexplainable events, delicious descriptions of pastries and some familiar characters sprinkled in there.

Catherine is a favourite of the unmarried King but, unlike her social-climbing parents, she’s not fussed about becoming the Queen. She wants to open a bakery with her best friend – a goal that seems to be slipping out of her reach with every new attention from his majesty. At a royal ball, she meets the handsome and mysterious Jest, the new court joker and the two begin a secret love affair. Cath wants to follow her heart, but in a land filled with magic, madness and monsters, is that even possible?

Marissa Meyer manages to capture so much of the quirky, surreal, nonsense quality of the original Alice in Wonderland tale in this novel, which has twists and turns around every corner. Characters that you know and love, from the Cheshire Cat to the Mad Hatter, are given new depth and personality, whilst you can’t help but fall in love with both Cath and Jest. My heart ached for them, for the impossibilities of the stifling sexist society they live in, and for the ending that you know is coming. As a re-telling you sort of know where the story is going, although the ending did manage to shock me and break my heart regardless. There’s a really good balance between the original and Meyer’s own innovations that make this feel so fresh – I wish there was another one to come!

Accuse me of being biased, but I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland so I was thoroughly enchanted by this account of the Queen of Hearts before she becomes Queen. The cast of characters was as crazy as you would expect, but I really liked the fleshing-out that Meyer did for some of the lesser characters. The romance was something I could have seen a bit less of, but it went some way to explaining why Cath behaves as she does in future. A riot of a read!

Finishing this book was like finishing an epic adventure. There's an enormous sense of relief and a "WHOA THAT WAS AWESOME" kind of sensation. I finished the book around midnight, so I couldn't scream my love of it in that moment, but if I had been able to I would've just put it down and said "WHOA THAT WAS AWESOME" but out loud.

This book had me completely gripped pretty much the entire way through, but especially in the second half of reading. I was completely engrossed and although I knew what was going to happen (I have read Alice in Wonderland after all), I was still enraptured. There were quite a few twists at the end I was not expecting at all, though.

Cath was such a good character. There was so much development in her as a person and you can really easily see her descent into the Queen of Hearts we see in Carroll's original book. I felt like she was turning into a really convincing villain, and although her story was heartbreaking I wanted to read more of it. (Obviously, I still want to write a fanfiction where the whole Queen of Hearts thing doesn't happen, but there we go.)

I loved Jest, but I did feel like sometimes he was a little unconvincing; he occasionally felt like more of the type of YA literary boy hero that you want to see. BUT, he was adorable and funny and clever and yeah Jest was great.

I loved the return of other characters too, like Hatta and Haigha (the 'g' is silent). Reading Hatta slowly going mad was kind of weird... but very cool, especially as of course we know him in Wonderland. Raven was also a great character that I really enjoyed reading about, and was a fantastic addition by Meyer. (Oh and did I mention how much I <3 Cheshire?)

Overall? I cannot fault this book. It was gripping, interesting, evoked the inner Alice fanatic in me, and the whole thing was just done brilliantly. Meyer clearly has researched Wonderland and it felt so believable! It's definitely one of my new favourite books.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are honest, and entirely my own.

A beautiful and heartbreaking addition to the Alice in Wonderland universe, this time featuring the backstory of the cruel and vindictive Queen of Hearts. Catherine's parents have they've noticed the harmless, facile King of Hearts is quite taken with their daughter. Any other girl would want to be Queen but not Catherine. She wants to open a bakery and cook all day. And when she meets Jest, the King's new Joker, she's in danger of losing both her heart and her head. Can Catherine have what she wants?

Well, if you've read Alice In Wonderland you know how it ends. But boy is it worth the journey to get there.

Cath is the daughter of a Marquess in the magical land of Wonderland. A passionate baker, Cath is rather surprised to hear of the King's intention to propose to her at the Royal Ball. Distressed, she runs from the palace, before King has the opportunity to do so, and comes across the royal Joker, who had intrigued her during his performance earlier that night. After the unexpected meeting, Cath returns home and wakes up the next day to the news of a Jabberwock attack moments after she'd ran from the palace. Heartless is the story of the Queen of Hearts before she became mad and hungry for revenge.

My knowledge of the world of Alice in Wonderland was not much before I read Alice by Christina Henry and Heartless, which probably contributed to my confusion as to who was Lady Pinkerton. Although I was thoroughly enjoying the story, there was something at the back of my mind preventing me from thinking this was a great retelling. It was my own fault that I was slow to connect the dots when the hints were there staring me in the face. As soon as I realised Cath was indeed the Queen of Hearts, everything made much more sense to me and I was able to enjoy the rest of the book peacefully.

Cath is definitely a complex character, very three-dimensional, but I do have one comment about her shift in character. It didn't feel fluid at first, I felt that it was very sudden and could have been managed better. Other than that, the only other thing I can say is that the recurring repetition of how Cath was more than the other girls did annoy me.

I quite liked Jest and the idea that he came to Hearts to get the heart of the Queen. The irony of how things unfolded was quite painful to deal with as the story progressed. I have no idea if Jest even existed in the original story but he was one of my favourite characters in the book.

I found it odd that the Caterpillar had such an insignificant role in the story. Having watched the animated Disney movie and the live action directed by Tim Burton, the Caterpillar seemed to have a stronger role in the story than it did in Heartless. I can't say it bothered me a lot, as I'm as big a fan of the original story, but I did notice that detail.

Heartless might be disappointing to those who love Caroll's work very dearly, as retellings usually are, but to someone who hasn't, myself included, it was quite enjoyable and engaging. Yet again, Marissa Meyer made us care and even relate to a villainous character and even root for her.

Firstly, if you're settling down to read HEARTLESS, have snacks at the ready!! Never has a book made me so hungry. Marissa Meyer's descriptions of food had me salivating and my stomach demanding the sweet treats from the pages.

HEARTLESS is the perfect book for fans of Alice in Wonderland and Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series.
While I enjoyed Heartless, it didn't quite live up to the standard that the Lunar Chronicles set. However, I put that down to me not being the biggest Lewis Carroll fan. The world Marissa has brought to life is as vivid as it is unruly! I felt the MC's frustrations as if they were my own.

HEARTLESS is whimsical escapism at its best!

I had such high hopes for this book, everything about it called to me. A re-take on an aspect of the crazy that is Alice in Wonderland that had a fantasy premise, I wanted to like, even love this book. My mind and heart are smashed into smithereens and I don't even feel that I can express my true feelings in this review or else I will spoil for others. There are no spoilers so please forgive any vague statements.

What I like about this book were the two lead characters Jest and Cath. Cath started as a disillusioned young woman, entitled in the true sense but longing to be ordinary and follow her love of baking. Cath evolved into a spirited woman but towards the end became unrecognisable and I can't even say there was a journey to the change in her. Cath become a bomb.

Jest was absolutely wonderful in every way. He was mysterious but loyal and he fell in love with Cath. I loved his character, his quirkiness, his tricks, his hat. Many of the side characters were fantastic and well written: Cheshire, Raven and Hatter really stick out.

This book was difficult to read and slow in pace until 60% but I powered on. At 60% it got pretty exciting and the pace picked up. Then a bomb was dropped and my investment in this world and book fell apart. Words cannot express my heartache and I am disillusioned with how the author dealt with the events that occurred. The characters had intangible behaviour towards the end and the lack of story once the events occurred was truly disappointing. I could have coped with the events if they were supported by good writing and depth, they were not. I feel let down as a reader and I can't see myself returning to this author again.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.

An absolutely beautiful retelling of part of the Alice in Wonderland story. I particularly loved the focus on the Queen of Heart's dreams and also the riddle of the Raven and the Writing Desk. Marissa Meyer is a wonderful writer and her books are simply magical to read.

Unfortunately this one was not a book that worked for me. I made it a little over through half through the book and found I had no impetus to keep on reading. I did not find the characters to be sufficiently engaging nor was I all that interested in their character arcs. I also hated the instalove between Jest and Cath, which is a trope I see too often in YA these days and it just comes off as lazy writing to me at this point. My lack of interest in the characters was admittedly what really killed it for me but there were other small things that continuously grated on my nerves. I'm disappointed as this was just not up to the standard of the final two Lunar Chronicles books which I adored.