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    Heartless
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    Heartless
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    Heartless
    Ebook557 pages8 hours

    Heartless

    By Marissa Meyer

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A vision of Wonderland like none you've seen before, Heartless tells the untold story of the girl who would become the notorious Queen of Hearts. From New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation, Marissa Meyer.

    Long before she was the Queen of Hearts, Catherine Pinkerton 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 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 . . .

    Discover #MarissaMeyer on TikTok now! (8.1 million views)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPan Macmillan
    Release dateNov 17, 2016
    ISBN9781509814145
    Unavailable
    Heartless
    Author

    Marissa Meyer

    Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Renegades Trilogy, The Lunar Chronicles series, the Wires and Nerve graphic novels, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book. Her first standalone novel, Heartless, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. Marissa created and hosts a podcast called The Happy Writer. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters.

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    Reviews for Heartless

    4/5

    538 ratings40 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Heartbreaking but good ? the author has been a favorite of mine and this book didn’t disappoint
    • 4/5
      A prequel to Alice in Wonderland that explores the origin of the Queen of Hearts. The way a girl went from a privileged want to be baker to a heartless queen. Along the way, the main character is smitten by Jest, a court jester, and courted by the well-meaning but befuddled king.
    • 4/5
      This story is set in the Alice and Wonderland world, and tells the tale of The Queen of Hearts, before she became the Queen. Her name is Catherine, and all she wants to do is bake, and open her own bakery. Unfortunately, the King of Hearts sets his sights on her for his bride. Her parents are thrilled and push her towards accepting his proposal. But on the night of the Kings Ball, Catherine meets Jest, the new court joker, and begins to fall in love. With Jest, she can see the future she wants, not the future she is expected to have.

      I loved all the Wonderland references in this book. We meet many of the characters from the original books. The Mad Hatter plays a large part in the story, and we get to attend one of his famous tea parties.

      This is a bittersweet book, as Catherine and Jest's love is doomed from the start. But it does provide background on why the Queen of Hearts is so mean. The story has it's sad moments, but also some action, as we encounter the Jabberwocky. Fans of the original Alice stories should enjoy this addition to the world.
    • 4/5
      Ok question, how did the Quren live when her heart was taken? That I dont understand. It was not explained and does not make sense to me. Over all, I did like the story. I was so hoping that Jest and Cath would get together but I get why they didn't and how that turned Cath to the hated Queen of Hearts. I just dont get the ending.
    • 3/5
      Meh. Maybe I didn't love it as much because The Lunar Chronicle completed something in me. Maybe I love Alice too much?

      I'm not sure but this wasn't my favorite or the best thing I've read. It's enjoyable and if you like retellings or Meyer's writing read it.
    • 3/5
      The story of how a young girl became the Queen of Hearts in the world of Alice in Wonderland.
    • 4/5
      Still recovering from that ending

      Devastating
    • 5/5
      A fun journey down the rabbit hole! So much about the Queen of Hearts makes sense now. Brava Ms Meyer! The audio was fantastic. The narrator transports the listener to the Land of Hearts with whimsical voices. Just the dose of wonderland this reader needed!
    • 3/5
      I got really into the story and even didn't loathe the main character but it's a slight butchering of my favourite book of all time. I really enjoyed the hatter and jester characters and would love a prequel about them more than this story tbh.
    • 4/5
      Wow!!! It was a thick book. But the ending is definitely amazing. It's definitely different from the Queen of Hearts in a Disney movie. Love it!
    • 5/5
      ARC spoilerless review: As much as I adore Cress, I concede Heartless is wordsmith Marissa Meyer's best work. A swooning, spontaneous, jovial feat of dry punnery. You will not be disappointed.
    • 3/5
      I loved the Lunar Chronicles. I did not love Heartless. I did not hate it, but it took way too long for me to care about Catherine and Jest. I wanted Cath to grow a spine way sooner than she did. The ending is quite dark.

      If you like back stories you will like this one. Several of my students have enjoyed this one much more than I did.
    • 2/5
      2 1/2 stars

      This book started off beautifully. I loved the food, and the characters, and the strangeness of the world. It went downhill from the time of the mockturtle. I found that I couldn't understand how Cath, sweet, irritating and indecisive as she was, could turn so far as to become the nasty Queen of Hearts. Not without the man she loved--Jest--betraying her, which he did not. While at the end she certainly did act like the Queen of Hearts, there was far too much of a gap between the two personalities, without seeing her character growth (shrinking) into that role. I still am a fan of Marissa Meyer, but this wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable read although the reader knows it will end "badly".
    • 4/5
      I liked this a lot more as the book progressed. I like Meyer’s writing but at first I thought it was a bit stiff and stilted. I loved the raven from the beginning with his rhyming poetry. I alternated listening and reading and I enjoyed listening better than reading; the narrator was very good with different voices for all of the characters. This makes me want to read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland again. The Author’s Note at the end is what made me want to reread Alice again.
    • 5/5
      Catherine is a gifted baker who dreams of opening her own shop someday. However, her domineering mother has other plans for her - to marry the King of Hearts. But one fateful night she meets Jest, a mysterious court joker, and soon Catherine finds herself falling for him. Amidst the fear of another jabberwock attack, her parents expectations, the king's persistent courtship, and the mystery behind Jest's true motives, Catherine must make a choice: marry the king or runaway with the one she loves. But in a land ripe with magic and mayhem, anything can happen, and not always the way you want it to.This is the first book by Marissa Meyer that I've read, and I enjoyed it immensely. This book is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, with Catherine being the Queen of Hearts. Meyer gave the evil Queen of Hearts a compelling background story on why she is so vicious and well, heartless. Meyer's retelling is so effective that I found myself emphatizing with Catherine's character by the end of the book, I will never think of the Queen of Hearts the same way again. A truly yummy book with equal parts sweet, salty and bitter I devoured this like a blueberry cheesecake. I give this book 4.5 over 5 stars
    • 4/5
      This is not so much a “retelling” of Alice in Wonderland as a “prequel” - more specifically, the story behind the Queen of Hearts.It begins with 17-year-old Catherine Pinkerton, whose parents want her to accept a marriage proposal by the King of Hearts. But sweet and compassionate Catherine is repulsed by the King, and at any rate only wants to bake. She dreams of opening a bakery to be called “Sweets and Tarts: The Most Wondrous Bakery in All of Hearts” along with her maid Mary Ann. But alas, her parents would never approve, even if the King weren’t in the picture. They won’t even let her eat her delicious concoctions - her mother is obsessed with Catherine’s weight.In spite of the obstacles, however, Catherine, as her friend Cheshire the cat described her, “overflowed with whimsy and powdered sugar.” While she is scared of the future and of her own lack of backbone, she doesn’t stop baking, or dreaming.Then Catherine meets the King’s new Joker, named Jest. He looks exactly like the handsome man she keeps seeing in her dreams, and the two have an instant chemistry. Maybe he can offer her a way out after all.But there are troubles in Wonderland. A Jabberwock is on the loose; the King is more interested in courting Catherine than dealing with the danger; and Jest’s good friend Hatta is hostile to her. It also turns out Jest is not who he claimed to be. What will happen to Catherine and the Kingdom? Will the Jabberwock prevail? Will she be able to realize her dreams?Evaluation: Most of the time this story is clever and funny and full of puns, fantastical images, and entertaining allusions to works by Lewis Carrol and Edgar Allan Poe. (“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, was first published in 1845, twenty years before Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.)But it also has moments of heartbreaking tragedy. If you are willing to accept the latter in order to enjoy the former, this book has much to recommend it. I am quite glad I read it, but I am still sad….
    • 4/5
      3.5/5 stars I am a little bit at crossroads about this one . On one hand I really enjoyed reading about how the Queen of Hearts came to be a psychotic, mad and heartless thing she is. But on the other hand - this book felt like a dupe. I just wasn't a big fan of all this character borrowing. Taking characters out of a beloved book and putting them into another one – to me it seems like cheating. If all authors star doing this we would just have bunch of famous characters running from book to book. Meyer’s writing style is impeccable, she should have written her own characters.And not only the Wonderland was borrowed, but also the Raven's talk was all Allan Poe, and the most famous lullaby "twinkle, twinkle..." was borrowed too. The original content was amazing, there was just very, very little of it. All the borrowing aside, I did enjoy this book. It was a very pleasant, prettily written, quick read. I fell in love with Meyer's style of writing - it was fluid and quite beautiful. Not to mention all of the yummy treats and deserts described in this book! I was hungry the whole time I was reading it.The other reason why I enjoyed the book so much, was because I really felt for Cath - her fate was such a horrible one. And I am not only talking about her love interest, but her dreams, her friends and most of all her horrible, horrible parents. I actually blame them for most of the things that happened to her. Also I enjoyed the romance - the subtlety of it was a refreshing breather after "Hey-I-just-met-you-let's-make-out" romance that is so often found in ya books. I would recommend Heartless as a light quick read if you are in the mood for some pretty, but less than mediocre retelling. Although I am positive I am like the last person to read it, just make sure to have some pastries on hand while reading.
    • 5/5
       I've never read the original Alice in Wonderland story. I did watch one live action adaption and enjoyed it a lot as a kid, but that was as far as my interest went. I decided to try this out, because I've enjoyed Meyer's work before, and I love these prequels about villians.I was not disappointed by this book at all. I absolutely loved it. I loved the characters, the romance... the way that I obviously knew the outcome but kept hoping and hoping things wouldn't go that way. I kept thinking, ''What if she isn't the one to become the Queen after all?''. Of course, I was crushed, but... it was the best route.
    • 4/5
      This is a pretty depressing prequel to Alice in Wonderland, chronicling the origins of the Red Queen. I'm sad that this isn't continued. I'd like to see Cath get a redemption story.
    • 2/5
      If you read the Cinder novel and the subsequent series, you may enjoy this novel by the same author.Catherine is a brilliant baker and dreams of opening a bakery with her maid, but real life interferes. Catherine prefers spending her days baking and feeding people, but she must attend parties because she is the daughter of the upper class. The king finds her quite compelling and her treats scrumptious, so he wants her to be the queen. This title is the last thing Catherine has ever dreamed of and finds the king unattractive as a husband. Her parents, however, would love to have a daughter who is the queen.A new person has arrived at court--Jest, who is a joker. His ability to entertain through amazing tricks is outstanding. He zeroes in on Catherine and seems to give her more attention; she, too, zeroes in on him and finds him most interesting. They are drawn to each other, but there’s more going on than Catherine realizes. Jest isn’t as he appears and their fates are not of their choosing. I’ll be honest; I could not get into this novel. I loved Cinder and all of those novels. This novel is Ms. Meyer’s take on Alice in Wonderland. I have never read or watched Alice in Wonderland, so my knowledge is woefully lacking. Perhaps I would have found this more interesting if I had more knowledge? I don’t know. I read the first 120 pages and then skimmed the rest. I think there was a bit of a twist in the later part of the story, but with my lack of knowledge, I could be wrong. If you read this novel and love it, please feel free to write a review and I’ll post it with this one.
    • 4/5
      Great mash up of magical world, (Alice in Wonderland world), romance, and the "origin story" for the Queen of Hearts - oh my gosh, Meyer knows how to weave a complex, layered plot with great character development, sophisticated precise prose and an emerging heroine in Lady Catherine Pinkerton... very quickly drew me in once the atmosphere-setting building was established. This is one normal/weird medieval style place called "Hearts".... as the story builds more and more of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland strange genius emerges. At this, Meyer is a master- loved it- but she's totally capable of building multi-faceted minor characters who are alternately worthy of readers' sympathies and fear! She knows how to write a slow burning romance too - oh my!! Hope lots of my YA readers will give it a try - she's definitely going to be a hit for Cavalcade of Authors!
    • 3/5
      Narrated by Rebecca Soler. I finally figured out this is an origin story of the Queen of Hearts of "Alice in Wonderland." Which probably explains why I did not find Catherine (the Queen-to-be) at all sympathetic and her romance with Jest very self-absorbed. The story also felt quite prolonged in spots. Ehhh, yaaaaawwwn...
    • 5/5
      Heartbreakingly devastating, a magnificent combination of unique storytelling and sprinkles of Wonderland world pieces.
    • 4/5
      Heartless am a sucker for a good "making of a villain" story. I normally copy over the back cover information from Amazon into a review, but this one can be well summed up by knowing that this is the making of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. The full back cover was a little overkill when I looked at it.
      I've been anticipating this novel since the first chapter preview in Stars Above. Yep, this is written by the same woman who gave us a science fiction reimagining of Cinderella set in a dystopian future. There was a chance that I would have too high expectations for this book to possibly live up to, but that did not turn out to be the case. It was just as wonderful and enchanting as I had hoped.
      It also made me feel like a have to go back and watch Alice in Wonderland again. It had actually been long enough that I couldn't remember if some of the characters made it through to the other story, though others are certain and hallmarks of the movie/book, such as Cheshire, Mr. Caterpillar, and the Mad Hatter. I really enjoyed the Mad Hatter, or Hatta is he is called here.
      Despite the fact that this is a prequel that lets you know up front which character it is developing, there were still some moments that made me question how we were going to get there. There was something about the way the odd things in Wonderland are normalized when seen through the eyes of a resident.
      I enjoyed the story development and writing of this book almost as much as in the Lunar Chronicles but this is a set of characters that I was not nearly as attached to at the outset. Catherine was endearing and I felt for her along her journey and I daresay that I have felt the way that she has at different points of her story in my own life but didn't have quite the follow through available to me. It was probably for the best for me that I didn't.
      Anywho, I fell in love with Jest a little. Their story moves a little fast but I get how good dreams can propel things. I even have a real life friend who dreamed about a man she met the next day and it definitely sped things up for them. She greeted him as if they knew each other because of the dream, which he found adorable, which is apparently a good conversation starter. Nevertheless, Jest is adorable. He would have to be right?
      But the best part was that this is not a cut and dry love story that propels the protagonist into blah, blah, predictable predictable. Even though we know where one aspect of the story is headed, it doesn't distract from the fun of how it gets there nor that there is another plot going on that propels the story forward. Still, the romance isn't treated as an afterthought. This might sound a little confusing and I might be talking myself in circles, but Meyer is quite good at giving us some great romantic interests and love scenes while having an action plot going on at the same time and with equal pacing.
      Anyone who loved the Lunar Chronicles is likely to enjoy this story as well, but they are certainly not the only audience that will enjoy it. I
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading this back story of the Queen of Hearts. It was fun to read about the other characters from Alice in Wonderland as well. Even though I obviously knew it wouldn't be able to have a happy ending it still made me sad. At the beginning of the story Catherine is so happy, free spirited and optimistic and by the end she is just so defeated. Even though Alice in Wonderland has never been a favorite of mine I enjoyed this immensely!
    • 4/5
      Marissa Meyer tackles Wonderland in this novel and manages to craft a story of the Queen of Hearts which is both refreshing and hard to put down. The heroine Catherine does not want to be the Queen of Hearts, she wants to open a bakery with her best friend and delight the kingdom of Hearts with her sweet treats. She most certainly does not want to marry the King of Hearts, especially after she meets the charismatic Jest, who she feels a strong attraction to. While I didn't really like how the story ended, I will admit that this is the best Alice in Wonderland retelling I've ever come across.
    • 4/5
      “What a Queen you will make Lady Pinkerton, cake maker and happiness maker.”I have attempted to read this so many times. I have tried reading the book and also listening to the audiobook. I was only able to get through a chapter or two and I would put it down. I guess I just was not in the mood for it, until now. I decided to give the audiobook another chance.I liked how the narrator used different voices for the characters, and I recommend the audiobook as it brought the characters to life. I really enjoyed it. It was fun hearing about some of your favorite characters from Alice in Wonderland.This started off a little slow, but once it picked up, you will not want to put it down. We all know “Off with your head” but it was fun learning more about how the Queen becomes the Queen. Overall, this was a fun read and I am glad I finally gave it a chance.
    • 4/5
      Fantastic twist on Alice in Wonderland, Miss Meyer introduces us to a baker named Catherine. At least, that's all she wants to be. Desired by the King of Hearts and at the mercy of her mother, Catherine's future seems to be planned out for her. Except she has her own dreams and desires. When the new court jester makes an appearance she realizes that her future is not set in stone. There are choices she still has to make...given she has the strength to make them.

      I really loved the depth of the characters and the constant action of this story. The pace never dulled and I was truly left stunned by the ending. Would recommend to all Alice in Wonderland fans!
    • 4/5
      If you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland or fairy tales in general and with a twist, then, you will enjoy this book. What I most loved about this book is that it was not just a twist on a classic story but it stood alone as a different story. Yes, there were some of the same characters from the original. However, there were other new characters that kept this story refreshing. So, there was nothing to compare this story to the original. Well, I guess in all honesty you could say that this book is the "original". It was entertaining to read how the Queen of Hearts came to be the woman that was the most feared in all of Wonderland. Although, I must comment by saying that while I liked the romance sprouting between Catherine and Jest, I felt that Catherine could have been fine without any suitors. She is a strong, independent woman with a mind of her own. Therefore, this is the reason I liked her a lot. Yet, the romance between Catherine and Jest was sweet. At least, Jest offered some laughs. Unlike the King. He was spineless. The Jabberwock was a nice addition to making this story a little darker. This is a recommended read! I look forward to reading more books by this author.