Sophie Reads YA: Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer

Waiting On Wednesday: Renegades (Renegades #1) by Marissa Meyer

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Heartless

Waiting on Wednesday: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

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3 Stars

ARC Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

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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

5 Stars

Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

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Winter
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published November 12th 2015 by Puffin

Goodreads Synopsis
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?
Goodreads

Review
God, this book was utter perfection! I think the entire book blogging community was waiting with baited breath for this series finale, and it did not disappoint. The only downside I have is that the series is over with now - no more Thorne :(

This book is an absolute whopper! It's 823 pages long - well my copy at least was - and I never found any parts of the story that could have been left out. Every single page of the 823 was important to the plot line, and, to be honest, I would have been so happy if there was even more.

Our favourite characters are all here, and even some new ones, like Winter, who we've only really seen glimpses of previously. The best part was, we also got PoVs of a lot of these characters, though I do wish there was more from Cress and Thorne - they are by far my favourite characters. The story lines that have been developing in the past instalments of the series are all brought together in one climatic ending, that was everything I wanted it to be. I'm not going to spoil too much here, but I don't think I have ever smiled so much reading the last page of a series finale as I did reading Winter.

Meyer is fantastic at writing relationships, both romantic and otherwise, and I could really feel the connections between each of the characters involved. There were at least four ships in this book, which I think we were all expecting, and also the allusion to another one. Like I said, Cress and Thorne are my favourite characters, and my favourite OTP of the series, but I also adore the ships of Cinder/Kai, Wolf/Scarlet, and Winter/Jacin - even though I originally hated Jacin.

Levana is one serious sick SoB, and she deserved absolutely everything that she got in this book. Even when I read Fairest, and felt *some* sympathy for her, I still couldn't stand the woman. She is definitely one of those YA villains who has absolutely no redemption, and who you hate with a passion, a la Umbridge from HP.

Right, so I think I've rambled on long enough. Basically, this series is amazing, and you should read it all ASAP. The plot is well written, the characters as real as they can be for cyborgs, aliens, etc., and it remains to be one of the best fairytale retellings I have ever read! It may take me a while to get over this series, but at least we have Marissa's new books to look forward to ;)

tl;dr: Buy this book, and series, right now! You will not be disappointed :)

Dates Read:

November 13-16, 2015

Rating
5 Stars