Heartless by: Marissa Meyer

This book crushed me. I only have myself to blame for it though, as I hadn't prepared myself for the ultimate ending I knew would come to be.

For some reason, I hadn't expected to enjoy this book as much. Which is surprising, because the series: "The Lunar Chronicles" also by Marissa Meyer, is one of my favourite. There were some flaws. But I ended up still loving it. So much as to have persuaded me to read the original story that inspired this Prequel retelling: "Alice in Wonderland". Although I have seen the movie, I have never actually read the book.

First of all, I would like to start off with the negative. The only main things with dragged this book down slightly was Cath's character at the beginning and the storyline.

This story follows the well respected lady Catherine, has the interest of the King and is undoubtedly going to be asked for her hand in marriage. Cathrine is a simple girl, who wants nothing more than to start a bakery with her maid: Mary Anne. Although she may have had struggles at the beginning, that is nothing compared to the unimaginable world of possibilities she is dragged into after meeting the new court joker: Jest.

He is everything you could wish for in a love interest in a story such as this. Jest is charming, mysterious, chivalrous and surprisingly gentle. Which is why I found it somewhat unrealistic that he would be attracted to Cath, who was quite unworthy of him.

The introductions of Cath's character was very well done, she had a passion for baking and was far from seeing eye to eye with her parents on the life she wanted for herself. However, as the story developed, I didn't really see her standing up for herself or her beliefs. This was slightly disappointing as I love a strong female protagonist who isn't afraid to fight for what she wants.

The other small problem I had was the transition between the peaceful start story and the crazy world which gave us a strong wonderland vibe. It gave me the impression of being a very lighthearted romance, but when it turned out to be much more, which is a good surprise, but the change was quite abrupt and sudden. So many things happened towards the end of the story and I wish it'd been more spread out to the previous parts of the story, which were quite slow paced.

With all that being said, I don't even know how to begin on the positives.

I loved the wonderland vibes created in this book and how the readers got to discover this version of it alongside the characters. The author was so creative in making the surroundings and details fit with the original story but at the same time, adding some new elements and twists in the background stories.

The writing was magical and the descriptions so well formed this helped bring this amazingly brilliant story to life. I would recommend it to anyone who loves cleverly twisted retellings and vivid lands of the impossible.