Book Review: Heartless

Release Date: November 8, 2016
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Length: 464 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favorite of the unmarried King, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, she wants to open a shop and create delectable pastries. But for her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for a woman who could be a queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the King’s marriage proposal, she meets handsome and mysterious Jest. 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 a secret courtship.

Cath is determined to choose her own destiny. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

    

Review:

Protagonist: All Catherine has ever truly wanted is the chance to sell her confections in her own bakery. Her dream has slowly started to become a reality. She has a logical partner with a head for numbers, a local storefront has recently become available, and her skills at baking are among the best in all of Hearts. Her parents, the marquis and marchioness of Rock Turtle Cove, have other plans for her, however. Cath's baking talents have caught the attention of the King of Hearts, who has decided to propose marriage to the dumbstruck Catherine. After keeping him at bay, for the time being, she hopes to find a way to open her bakery, but how long can she push away her fate to become the infamous Queen of Hearts. I really liked Cath, she's fiery, determined, and while she is nowhere near the crazed Queen of Hearts, it's not hard to see the path that may lead to her fury becoming unleashed.

Romance: Before venturing into this book I wasn't expecting there to even be a romance in this book. That being said, I'm actually very happy that there is a romance in this book, not only because of its role in the story but because it's probably one of the best-written romances I've read. At least at first. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I could root for a couple who pronounce their love moments after meeting, it just wouldn't feel realistic to me, but if that was the route the author went here, it wasn't by the way, I could almost believe it. I don't quite know what it was but the near instant connection between Cath and Jest was extremely palpable and their chemistry, in the beginning, was undeniable. I won't say that this was a perfect romance, this is Cath's journey to become the crazed Queen of Hearts after all, but for what this romance is, and what's it's supposed to be, it's darn near as close to perfect as it can get.

World Building: Boy, is this Wonderland wondrous. In the past, I've read Wonderland retellings or adaptations that either take the wonder out of Wonderland (no talking animals, no real sense of magic, etc) or twist it into something dark. It was refreshing to see something embrace the wonderfully strange and curious elements of Wonderland, and bring them to life in such a vivid way. There are appearances from many fan favorite Wonderlandian characters, and I was pleased to see that the author wove in other classic characters from stories and nursery rhymes to the story adding to the depth of this world even more. This world just jumps right off the page. At first, at least in regards to the pacing of the story, I was a bit anxious. This book, in the beginning, feels very much like the first installment in a series, not a standalone tale. If the author wished I could have easily seen her expand this story so much more, and yet, as the story progressed, and it became obvious just how the author was going to transform Cath into her villainous alter ego, everything made sense, and given that this is not a short story by any means, there was plenty of time to explore nearly every question posed by this world.

Predictability: I've been trying to figure out a way to talk about the predictability of a book, wherein the end, we know what's going to happen to our main character. It's inevitable and yet still I found myself hoping that Cath got a different fate. Even when Cath's not so innocent or clear-headed side started to rear its ugly head, I still wished that all her dreams would come true, knowing that, in the end, she'd be saddled with a husband she doesn't love and become the crazed shrew that has become a cultural icon. Now I will say that even though the reader knows going in what the main character's fate will be, it doesn't mean that this book is incredibly predictable, there is a main plot that's sort of separate from, yet entwined with, Cath's fate. That story does have some rather unpredictable turns. There are things that start to piece themselves together and make this book, that might feel, initially, like it would have a lot of loose ends, come together into a twisted and spectacular climax.

Ending: Again, how do I discuss an ending that's fated, an ending that we as readers knew before ever diving into this story? I can talk about the plot that's separate from Cath's fate, how the author, many times before the end, made me almost believe that this story might have a happy ending. I could talk about how the final climax was something I didn't quite expect, and yet made perfect sense with this story. I can talk about how I was blown away by the events that finally lead up to Cath becoming the infamous Queen of Hearts and how even after what I consider to be the final climax, in a traditional sense, of course, there was still more story to tell. Finally, I can talk about how the ending, the final words lined up perfectly with what this story was supposed to be.

Rating:

Okay look, this rating isn't much of a surprise. I knew going into it that I would love it. What I didn't know going into it was that I would love it so much that I would feel compelled to savor it and take many more weeks to read it than I had initially planned. In fact, I had planned to binge read it within a day, and instead, it's been almost three weeks since it came out.

Book Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

Release Date: November 10, 2015
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Length: 827 pages
Source: Library Audio Book

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

    

Review:

Protagonists: So with the introduction of this book there are SO MANY POVS, so instead of giving you a crazy run down I'll try to keep it short and sweet! First we have our ever resilient heroine Cinder, who has accepted who she is and is ready to not only begin a revolution but take her rightful place as Queen of Luna. Cinder is an amazing character, given the tragedies in her past she pushes forward to stop the injustices Levana has done to not only the people of Luna, but the people of Earth as well. Next have Winter, I loved Winter so much, She's a bit crazy from Lunar Sickness, not using her Lunar gift, but she's actually a lot sharper than she lets on. She doesn't let her mental illness stop her from doing good and helping others when she can. The rest of the protagonists are also still amazing, I love how diverse and different they are and how fleshed out and complex they either have become or become over the course of this book.

Romances: So there are a lot of romances in this book, and it took me until this book to really realize how undeveloped a lot of these romances really are. Unlike other YA novels each main romance wasn't solidified in one book where the characters are all dreaming about their futures by the very end of the book and have solid stable romances. In fact at the beginning of this book nobody is really quite sure where they stand with their love interests, except maybe Cinder and Kai, but there's that whole Levana engagement in their way so I count that too. Over the course of this book though there are great romantic scenes with each couple that strengthen their bonds without overshadowing the main story line.

World-Building: In this book we get our first real look at Luna, kind of, if you've read Fairest you also get a look at it there too, but there's a broad look at everything here as well. This book is all about Cinder's planned rebellion and bringing the fight with Levana to a head. This book is also, like the others, a fairy tale retelling. Even knowing that for some reason I didn't expect this book to be so on the nose with it's retelling of Snow White, I mean there aren't really seven dwarfs but still, I expected it to be more vague even symbolic in places, but I really enjoyed all the little Snow White plot points mixed with the main story and the sci-fi twists given to this classic tale.

Predictability: So I have to say I thought I knew what I was in for with this book, I knew there'd be some twists her and there maybe, but I was truly surprised with how many crazy and at times stressful twists there were. I have to say though I was disappointing by how one twist involving Wolf turned out. It was initially very tense and it felt like it was ramping up into something huge but kind of resolved itself before then. That being said though there were many times throughout this book that I was kind of in the dark about how things would turn out other than happily ever after... maybe.

Ending: So this book has a very large final confrontation, split up into stages. There is a final battle, but the real final climax involved members of our core group and Levana, I actually liked how it was handled, it was a very stressful climax and I wasn't quite sure how or if anyone would come out of it unscathed. There is a very long cooldown period after the climax, mainly because there are a lot of characters' story lines to wrap up. I didn't mind the long ending because I liked seeing how things turned out after the battle. I do have to say though it only felt really long when it came to the last section of the last chapter, I felt like the characters involved were tiptoeing around their words and being needlessly vague whereas an upfront conversation would have been much smoother. Did everything tie up neatly, not exactly and the ending isn't overly idealistic, but I will say that even though I do hope Meyer will write more sci-fi fairy tales set in this world, I don't have too many lingering questions.

Rating:

So I thought long and hard about this and while I loved this book and how it ended, and I'm sad to see this series that I love so much go, I was a bit disappointed with a few things so I can't quite give it five stars, nonetheless it's still a fantastic end to this epic series.