Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

 

Goodreads Overview:

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.

Review:

I picked up a copy of this book at Book Expo America (BEA) quite some time ago. It was a nominee for Best YA Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2016, so it must have been around that time. I hadn't read any of Marissa's books yet, but I was familiar with their popularity and had them on my extensive TBR list. I have since read all of her Lunar Chronicles series, which I really enjoyed, and was excited to finally read this stand alone.

This story is based upon Alice in Wonderland/The Queen of Hearts and had a very entertaining cast of characters. Catherine comes from a prominent family and has caught the eye of the King of Hearts. Unfortunately, Catherine is not interested in him, but has to go along with the courtship to please her parents. Secretly, she wants nothing more than to open a bakery in town, which her parents do not condone and will not financially support.

She meets Jest, who is the court joker, and is immediately drawn to him. They embark on an adventure that only Wonderland itself could top. Marissa weaves in an interesting take on the Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater story with Sir Peter and his wife. They are a local farming couple, but there seems to be something seriously wrong with his wife. Catherine can't put her finger on what it is, but it soon becomes very clear to everyone. 

Jest may appear to be a lowly Joker in the King's employ, but there is far more to him than meets the eye. His good friend, Hatta, makes magical hats that have become the biggest hit in town. I absolutely loved these characters and can't believe how things eventually played out for them in this story. I guess I always hope for the best, even when I know the story will likely follow a similar path as its source material. 

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters, but I did not think it was as good as the Lunar Chronicles series. If you are new to Marissa's books, I would start with Cinder.

Book Review: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

 

Goodreads Overview:

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Review:

I absolutely love Emily Henry, which you have probably already figured out from my other reviews. This is yet another fantastic read with unique characters and unexpected twits. Poppy and Alex appear to be complete opposites when they first meet in college. We quickly discover they are from the same small hometown. Poppy wants nothing more than to get away from that town and the people who treated her so poorly in high school. Alex ends up teaching at the school and is content being close to his family. She moves to New York City and has the perfect job working as a writer for a travel magazine, but she has lost interest in the glamorous adventures now that she doesn't have Alex as her travel companion.

Ever since college, when they were on a shoestring budget, they always managed to plan and take the most amazing trips together. Now that they are both working, the one thing they have to look forward to each year is their week together traveling the world. Unfortunately, they had a falling out a couple of years ago and Poppy has lost her interest in travelling. I'm not sure if it was a falling out so much as a misunderstanding. They left things in a precarious state and neither of them wanted to make the first move to get their relationship/friendship back on track. 

Poppy decides to reach out and Alex agrees to go on another vacation, which happens to include the location of his brother's wedding. He might as well kill two birds with one stone. If things do not work out as planned, they will have others to rely on for damage control. The vacation starts out on the wrong foot with an apartment lacking proper air conditioning in the sweltering heat. Poppy does her best to make the situation enjoyable, but the relationship that could withstand just about anything two years ago is teetering on the brink of disaster. She is constantly afraid that one wrong move will tip the scales to the point of no return. 

The book has several flashbacks to other trips they took together and people they met along the way. Seeing how things used to be between them and the obvious connection they had, it is hard to see how they got to their current state. As they begin to reconnect and catch up on everything they missed in each other's lives over the past two years, the ice starts to thaw between them. They are still cautious and taking things slowly, but they begin to see what has been clear to others for years. 

If you haven't read Emily Henry's other books, I would highly recommend all of them. Beach Read, Book Lovers, and People We Meet on Vacation have all been fantastic. I still have Happy Place on my TBR list, but I'm sure I will make time for it sometime soon.