Heartless Book Review

Heartless by Marissa Meyer - Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favourite 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.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18584855-heartless?

Book depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Heartless

I gave this book 5/5 stars

To start off, I love the introduction with her baking, where we already know her passion and that there is a mystery surrounding a dream. At least, in the beginning, this story is really focused on world-building and I LOVE it. We get to see Catherine´s journey of trying to get rid of her fate, as she doesn´t want the life of a queen and we end up rooting for her even though we know who she becomes. Cath uses every opportunity she sees (ex: the baking contest) to go against becoming someone she doesn´t want to be. Throughout the book, we notice Catherine slowly turning into her future self with her attitudes (for example Chapter 39).

Cath and Jest have so much chemistry that you can just TELL even from their first interaction. I just LOVE Cath and Jest, they are just so natural and goofy. I feel like Jest and Cath´s relationship was rather slow-paced but I really liked it and it always made me want more. I really like the idea that Hatta´s hats are able to improve people. We can see that the Hatta is trying to also escape his destiny of becoming a mad hatter like his ancestral. I do think that the Cheshire should have appeared more frequently, but I really love Cheshire´s sass, especially in the first chapter. Cath´s mother is the portrayal of what Catherine will eventually become the Queen of Hearts. Her parents after seeing what she went through realise how they were actually taking her happiness away by forcing her to marry someone who she didn´t love. I know the King is really idiotic but I do think that the King deserved better because it was CLEAR that Catherine wanted nothing to do with him and that her parents were forcing her for their own sake. I do find it sad that the King is also fated to a miserable life because of his incapability of refusing. I loved that Cath and Raven stayed together as friends, in the end, united by each other´s grief and misery. In the end, we get to see each of them get their fates one way or another.

CHAPTER 36 JUST GIVES ME ALL THE FEELS!!!!

....and then Chapter 37 hurt so bad that I had to put the book down with the feeling that I couldn´t continue. I am ALWAYS going to pretend that Chapter 49 never happened and that they all went to Chess and lived happily ever after.