Book: Heartless, Marissa Meyer
Summary: “Off with his head!” You know the story – Alice drops into Wonderland, gets herself into a mess of trouble, and ends up with the Queen of Hearts sending all of her men chasing after her. But.. who was the Queen before she became royal? Why is she so angry? What’s the story behind her cold, dead heart?
Before she was the Queen of Hearts, Catherine Pinkerton was a noblewoman from Turtle Rock Cove….
Lady Catherine dreams of starting her own bakery and filling her days with endless lemon tarts, pumpkin pies, and salted caramel truffles (her wild new concept 😉), but her mother and the King have different plans. The bumbling, blubbering King of Hearts has fallen for sweet Cath – sweet Cath who has no desire to rule the kingdom or sit on a thrown with the silly man who adores her. While being courted by His Majesty and hopelessly planning her dream, Cath finds herself falling for the mysterious court Joker. And to make matters worse, while Cath and the enigmatic jester flirt and frolic their way through Hearts, the mythical (and long-thought extinct) Jabberwock returns to the kingdom hell bent on destroying it.
So there you have it – love, intrigue, action… everything you’d expect from the world of Lewis Carroll… decades later. OH, and don’t worry, your favorite neighborhood Hatter is alive and present. It wouldn’t be an Alice retelling without a tea party.
Why I read: This is one of those books I’ve passed at the store one hundred times, read 
the cover one hundred times, and never pulled the trigger. The author has published a very popular series that many of my book friends recommend, so I finally decided I’d give her writing a try with this first.
Added bonus – the naked cover art is STUNNING. I have a soft spot for buying books with great covers, but I don’t always take the book jacket off until I’m home. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was.
Why I recommend: This book is a perfect read for anyone in a slump. It’s a standalone, so not a big commitment, and the whimsical writing is a perfect palate cleanser. It’s funny, romantic, and will take you back to the world of Alice that you probably didn’t realize you were missing.
I am always amazed at authors who can take a villain, a well-known one at that, and make you feel for them; make you love them; make you understand them. By the end of Heartless, not only did I understand the path that lead the Queen of Hearts to where we see her in Alice, but I felt sorry for her. I was even shouting “OFF WITH HIS HEAD” right there with her.
I also cannot say enough about the whimsy here. When I first started reading, just within the first few pages I knew I was hooked.
“’You are my crowning joy,’ she proclaimed, spreading her arms wide over the [lemon] tarts, as if bestowing a knighthood upon them. ‘Now I bid you to go into the world with your lemony scrumptiousness and bring forth smiles from every mouth you grace with your presence.’”
I mean doesn’t that just do it for you right there? I literally laughed out loud and read that line to everyone at the beach with me…. I’m very popular in my family, really I am.
This book is just delightful, and goes far beyond your typical fantasy genre. Sure, the world of Fae queens and witches and wizards is about as unrealistic as it comes, but teacups that make you shrink, royal Warthogs, magic hats… Heartless takes any sense of reality from you and replaces it with fun. So step away from your cubicles, put down the romance novel, and take a journey back to Hearts to see where it all began.
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