Heartless

Heartless? More like heartbroken because I was a mess by the end of this book. 😭 This is an Alice in Wonderland prequel that focuses on the Queen of Hearts and how she became the ruthless queen we see in Alice in Wonderland. I was expecting things to not go well for the queen, but damn was I not prepared! Especially because of how much I ended up loving Cath, the future Queen of Hearts! She was so precious and sweet and all she wanted to do was be the Tarte Baker of the kingdom. She didn’t want to be Queen at all! But she was destined to be the Queen of Hearts, and I knew that something terrible needed to happen to make her the way she is in Alice in Wonderland. But onto more pleasant things: the romance. The romance was SO freaking cute! There was flirty banter between Cath and Jest right from the start and I loved it! Their interactions were just so cute! And I loved Jest! He was just so fun and thoughtful! --- "...Cath was standing on the surf, staring out into the sea, and realizing with sudden certainty that she was losing her heart to this fool." --- I also really loved the world! I think Wonderland is just such an interesting, wacky, and fun world, and I enjoyed exploring Marissa Meyer’s take on it. Marissa Meyer just writes the best retellings! And the story she wove for the Queen of Hearts in this book was amazing! Heartbreaking, yes, but also very fun. The characters were wacky and interesting, the tea party was chaotic and fun (I expected nothing less lol), and the thing with the attacking Jabberwock was very intriguing! There was a plot twist there that was very surprising! I liked it! Even though this book made me bawl my eyes out, I loved it! It was such a fun read with great characters, and I enjoyed following Cath on her journey as she navigated her predetermined destiny of becoming the Queen of Hearts. I highly recommend it!

I recovered surprisingly fast (less than 24 hours, y'all). Okay, so on to the review that you all have been waiting for (or maybe not, considering it has been only 24 hours, but still). I do not like ever read villain stories. Why? Because I simply never had the mind to, for no reason at all except that I just don't get many villain stories on my TBR. And who knew if I'd ever get my hands on Heartless in particular? I'm not a huge fan of Marissa Meyer (and no, I didn't read Fairest and am not sure if I will ever get the chance) but TLC was pretty cool. The villain aspect of the story staved off my attention from it for a while, but alas, the pull of Wonderland was too much for me. In case you haven't figured, I. Love. Wonderland. I'm not even going to go full-out and describe everything I love about Carroll's wacky nonsensically magical and totally upside-down world. I was originally disappointed to learn that this story would have little to no mention of Alice herself, since... obviously... I like Alice more than the Queen of Hearts... BUT anyway. I still love the Wonderlandians themselves. So when I had the chance to read the first few chapters of this book a while back, I thought it would be okay if I gave it a try. My friends certainly recommended it. And hey. It's set in Wonderland. I'm so glad to say Meyer did not disappoint with her portrayal of the world beyond the rabbit hole (and through the looking-glass! never forget the looking-glass). She did a wonderful job painting out the wondrous wonders of Wonderland, staying true to Carroll's world in most parts, but taking liberty where you can. Although I do wish there was a teensy-bit-more to show of the wonderiferous. It could have been less Victorian-era, if you ask me. The uptight ways of the nobility kind of clashed with the carefree atmosphere that you often imagine when picturing Carroll's original Wonderland and... I'm not a fan. (Also, the whole Chess/Looking-Glass thing was wayyyy more complicated than I needed it to be, but that's probably just me. At least the Looking-Glass was mentioned, right?) The characters... Very nice. I liked Jest, at least. I was hoping he'd be a little more... *waves hand around* original? I thought he was cute. But I didn't exactly ship him with Cath. *shrugs* I liked Meyer's spin on the original Wonderlandians-- Hatta, the King of Hearts, and the White Rabbit were all well-done. Especially Hatta. Especially Cheshire. (If you know that I adore Wonderland, then you must know that the Cheshire Cat is my favorite Wonderlandian. I don't even know why. There's just something undeniably hilariously awesome about a cat who disappears with a grin.) Raven was a definite plus in this one. He was pretty awesome. I'm not a fan of Poe, but "Nevermore" has got to be one of the most confusing, bewildering, amusing poems of all time and I loved that the raven got to fly in to Wonderland. Also, there's plenty of meaning in that infamous fantastical riddlish line "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Now to Cath. Hmm. I liked Cath well enough. She was a likable, sympathetic protagonist, and I think that was Meyer's goal here. Her character arc was very well done, in my opinion. There were little foreshadowing hints about her future as the dread Queen of Hearts scattered all throughout the story, and they just grow increasingly obvious to the end, when she... well... overreacted a bit. And that's the end of that. Haha. Or rather, just the beginning, if you're looking from Alice's perspective. Well, considering Alice never appeared in this novel. Anyway. The food descriptions of course were amazing and awful and torturous and delightful. I hate/love it when authors include rich food descriptions in their books because of how good it looks and how impossible it is to have it right then and there. But I guess you can empathize with that. The story itself was pretty darn good. I liked it and might reread it. I didn't get immersed into the romance (so maybe that's why I felt sad for Jest more than for Cath at the end if you know what I mean), but the characters were real, the story was real, and the ending was real. Some people are just dramatic like that. Now perhaps it's about time I go back and reread Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel...

Bought it for a friend but I guess its a good book

Ottimo prodotto, molto valido. Ottimo venditore.

Heartless is the story of a princess with very simple needs and a head full of simpler dreams. Heartless is the story of an ordinary girl who possesses an extraordinary power to bring back things from her dreams. Heartless is the story of a girl who only wanted to bake and to fall in love with her prince charming. Catherine is a young girl, who loves to bake and is very good at it. Her sweets are loved by all who have had the privilege to try them and the demand for her hand baked delights only seems to rise like a sweet dough left aside. All she wants is to open a bakery and live her dream. She has the full support of her maid and best friend, Mary Ann in this little venture and they both have decided to be business partners. All has been decided; Cath would do all the baking and Mary Ann would handle the accounts. But there’s a slight problem here. Cath’s mother would never approve of her only daughter going into the men’s world of business, especially with a humble servant like Mary Ann as her partner. And that’s not all. There is a bigger part of the story where she falls in love but her lover is not approved by her family as he is an ordinary court joker, Jest. Oh Jest! He isn’t as ordinary as he pretends to be. His entry into the king’s court brings a dark entity to the court. And all this happens on the same day when the king decides to propose Catherine to be his wife; on the same day when Cath’s prospect of opening a bakery in town was crushed by her parents; on the same day when Cath and Jest fall in love. I can rave about this book for as long as the person I am raving to doesn’t hit me with the same book and make me unconscious. Heartless was my second best read of 2017; the first place is undoubtedly taken by The Harry Potter series♥. Merissa Meyer managed to hold me right from the first sentence of the book and didn’t let me escape, till the last words were read. Her writing flows and you wouldn’t notice the pages go by so effortlessly. I didn’t know how I was reading so fast and yet grasping each and every emotion the book had to offer me. It made me smile, and at times, I even howled with laughter( my mother had to hit me to make it stop); it made me cry and I could feel my soul being crushed by what I was reading(but I tell you even that couldn’t make me stop reading this mind boggling book); it made me hopeful that magic was possible and it could be found anywhere, in anything. P_20171220_103939 P_20171220_104227 The plot is well written and well woven too i’d say as it takes some reference from the original Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol. I loved the characters and actually they were the best part of the book for me. The author worked very well with the character development of each of them, irrespective of how often they were to appear in the story. I had most fun reading the banters between Cath and Cheshire, the disappearing cat. Cheshire was one of the best characters for me, portraying all the traits we can imagine a magical cat could handle. She often made remarks like, ” It is a dangerous thing to UNBELIEVE something, only because it frightens you.” ” I would offer you one, but i don’t want to.” ” Fascinating isn’t it, how often heroic and foolish turn out to be one and the same.” These remarks are not even a justifying proof of Cheshire’s wit and sarcastic tongue. The relationships shown in this book have been nurtured like babies and treated delicately so that the reader feels like home when he reads about them. There is no instant love crap and the reason for why people are attached to each other are mentioned everywhere. Friendships in this book are to die for and very ideal i would say. Merissa Meyer builds relations like a pro and I don’t think anyone can replace or dominate over my feelings for her writing after this book; this absolutely amazing, delightfully gorgeous book. There’s so much more to it when you read it in the passage with all the other characters dancing around in your head, waiting for their part to be played. This book is going to be the one of my favourite books of all times. And I highly recommend you read it as soon as possible (what i mean is read it right NOW). This book had been on my shelf for months before I started reading it and I regret it so much that why hadn’t I read it before. It’s a flawless masterpiece. Here, I’ll leave you with some magical lines from the book. Enjoy guys. “Her eyes snapped open. A blush climbing up her neck. She’d been dreaming about the joker.AGAIN.” “I see nothing all the time” “To be alright implies an impossible phase. We hope for mostly right on the best of our days.” “To be alright implies an impossible phase. We hope for mostly right on the best of our days.” “Jest walked like falling snowflakes.” “Attraction is a subjective thing, but charisma is universal.” “Are you a doctor? No, I am a joker and that’s even better.” “She couldn’t stand the idea of crushing her friend’s dreams, not when she was still so new to dreaming.” “We’re desperate enough.” P_20171220_104419_HDR Hope you liked this review. Thanks for reading.

came in a great condition. Can't wait to read it!