Heartless - Marissa Meyer

Klappentext: Long before she was the terror of Wonderland, 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.

Meine Meinung: This wonderful book came with the Wonderland-Owlcrate-Box last november. It was my first book with an exclusive cover and I immediately fell in love with it. It looks so beautiful, doesn't it? The original cover is black with red flowers. 

But it took a long time until I started reading it. You know: so many books, so little time.

However, finally I made it ;) The story seemed interesting to me. I liked the idea of the Queen of Hearts as a young girl and the question what could have happened that she became such a deadhearted queen.

The beginning of the story was really fluffy and I totally loved Cath. Altough she is high born she stays normal. She has her own thoughts and her own dream: To open a bakery with her best friend Mary. Cath loves baking, it's her biggest passion. But her parents of course have different things in mind for her.

At a great ball at the court she discovered that she ought to mary the King of Hearts and at the last minute she manages to get out of the hall. Down in the gardens she gets to know the new court joker, Jest.

I admit that I couldn't resist Jest either ;) He is funny, spontaneous and thoughtful.

After that the story slowly becomes darker. Cath falls in love with Jest but he is only the court joker her parents want her to become a queen. And her plan with the bakery seem to fail. I knew it from the beginning but it's always hard to read a book when you know that there is a bad ending :/

She would be queen, and queens...queens did not open bakeries with their best friends. Queens did not gossip with half-invisible cats. Queens did not have dreams of yellow-eyed boys and wake up with lemon trees over their beds.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed every word. There were so many well-thought-out details like the Turtle Festival or the way Cath sometimes gets fruits for her cakes. One of the best things for me was the explanation of the many different hats Hatta creates.

Also we meet a lot of well known characters from Alice in Wonderland like Cheshire or the Mad Hatter (as I said: he is so great!). There even is a great tea party, one of my favorite parts of the book.

Meanwhile, the pressure on Cath gets stronger and stronger and she gets desperate. Also a lot of bad luck came along, wrong decisions were made and in the end we meet the Queen of Hearts we all know from the Lewis Carroll stories. As you can see, the title of the book was a perfect choice.

So here I got another Owlcrate book I really love. When you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland you definetly should read it. And if not you should read it anyway because you might become a fan of Wonderland after reading Heartless. The writing style is totally different from Alice in Wonderland.

Would you read this book again? I would and I will. :)