Sophie Reads YA: Heartless

Waiting on Wednesday: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

10:00

ARC Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

10:00

Heartless
Series: None
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published February 9th 2017 by Macmillan Children's Books

Goodreads Synopsis
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 yet-unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend and supply the Kingdom of Hearts with delectable pastries and confections. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next Queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the king's marriage proposal, she 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

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Unless you have been hibernating for the last year or so, you’ll have heard about this book. Meyer’s previous series, The Lunar Chronicles, is one of my favourites, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her next work. When I found out the UK release date was months after the US one, I was prepared to buy an American edition, just so I could read the book. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC from the UK publisher, and started it quickly.

Heartless is the origin story of the infamous Queen of Hearts, made famous by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland. Catherine is the daughter of a Marquess, and knows she’s expected to marry well, and live the life of a lady. However, that’s not what she wants. She dreams of owning her own bakery, and creating wonderful delicacies for the people of Hearts. There’s also the fact that she’s been dreaming about a mystery man, and can’t help herself thinking about him. When she realises he’s the new court Joker, Jest, she knows she shouldn’t be drawn to him, but every time they meet, she falls more and more. To make matters worse, the King wants to marry Catherine, and her parents – especially her mother – care nothing for Catherine’s own thoughts on the subject. She will marry the king or she will be disowned.

However, with my new job, I found myself with little time to read the book, and it took me over a week to get through. Also, it didn’t grab my attention just like The Lunar Chronicles had. I did enjoy Catherine, and the world of Heart’s, but found the book too long. Not much happened for a lot of the book, and I was finding myself contemplating DNFing the book, because of this.

The romance was problematic too, though was enjoyable to read, also – if that makes sense. The problem was, was that it was a complete instalove situation, and there wasn’t much there to it. Jest and Catherine just seemed to be together all the time, or want to be, and there wasn’t any real explanation for why their romance should be.

Even though Catherine was a nice character to read about, she was also quite idiotic. There were times when if she’d just thought for a bit, nothing would have gone wrong. She doomed everyone to their fates with one stupid idea, and really, there was no need.

All in all, although I did enjoy parts of Heartless, I was really disappointed in it.

Dates Read:
October 27 - 2 November, 2016

Rating
3 Stars