Heartless
For fans of Wicked: Don't miss this #1 New York Times–bestselling romantasy of Wonderland's most notorious villain: the Queen of Hearts.
"Full of heart and its own idiosyncratic character.”―Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
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 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.
In Heartless, her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author of the Lunar Chronicles dazzles us with a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Praise for Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series:
#1 New York Times Bestselling Series, USA Today Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller, National Indie Bestseller
“Marissa Meyer rocks the fractured fairy tale genre.” —The Seattle Times
“Prince Charming among the cyborgs.” —The Wall Street Journal
Don't miss more from Marissa Meyer:
The Lunar Chronicles:
Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Winter
Stars Above
Fairest
The Wires and Nerve series:
Wires and Nerve: Volume 1
Wires and Nerve: Volume 2
Renegades
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Heartless* by Marissa Meyer is a richly detailed retelling of the Queen of Hearts’ origin, praised for vivid world-building that captures...
Only having watched Alice in Wonderland once, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this book! It was such a fun twist to learn about the back story of so many popular characters. And, best of all, I didn’t predict the ending. I mean, we all know how the Queen of Hearts presents herself, so that was predictable, but how it came to be, up until the near end, kept me guessing. I wouldn’t call it a light read, nor a heavy one,thus it was a perfect read to cleanse the palette without having to expend a lot of emotional energy.
I liked this book for the way it illustrated how hurt people hurt people. This is a retelling/prequel of Alice in Wonderland that gives a lot of background of how the Queen of Hearts came into being and added the Jabberwocky to the story. The main character, Catherine wants to open a bakery with her best friend and family maid and is not at all interested in the King of Hearts who seems very interested in her and her delicious baked goods. Due to family pressure and requirements of her station, she is pressured into courting the king. But then she ends up attracted to the court jester, Jest. As Catherine struggles to decide whether to follow her heart or her station, Jabberwocky attacks in the Kingdom of Hearts and almost everyone seems to want to deny it is an issue or want to do anything to stop it. Through the twists and turns of the plot and with some fleshing out of some of the Alice in Wonderland characters and some other fairytales and folklore, this book made a story that I enjoyed more than the Alice in Wonderland story and the way evil and hatred gradually seeps into the characters makes you have a new appreciation and insight into characters from your childhood that you thought you always knew.
I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
I read this book in 2023 and months later, I think about it because it made me so devastated.
I didn’t write a review when it came out because I was just sad.
I went in completely blind not knowing this was a sort of retelling, so I didn’t see any of it coming, but I loved it soooo much. Thinking about Catherine and Jest forever in my heart.
Read it but don’t say I didn’t warn you
I didn’t write a review when it came out because I was just sad.
I went in completely blind not knowing this was a sort of retelling, so I didn’t see any of it coming, but I loved it soooo much. Thinking about Catherine and Jest forever in my heart.
Read it but don’t say I didn’t warn you
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