**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: https://bookbriefs.net**YA ReviewMy Thoughts"Long before she was the terror of Wonderland, she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love." I mean COME ON! How amazing does that sound? Heartless by Marissa Meyer is a standalone young adult fantasy. It is the story of the Queen of Hearts long before she was the Queen of Hearts. It acts a prequel to the Alice in Wonderland stories and it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2016. For a number of reasons. I absolutely love retellings, re-imaginings and stories about villainous characters. Not to mention Wonderland is one of my favorite story book lands of all time. So this one was a no brainer for me. And if you can believe it, this is my first Marissa Meyer book. (I know, I know! I have the Lunar Chronicles sitting on my shelf but I have yet to read them. Be sure to tell me how crazy I am in the comments below. :p) So with all of that perfect sounding hype, I was a little scared to pick up Heartless. I mean it sounds perfect, but...what if I don't love it as much as I was expecting. So, I put off reading it for a little while. But, I couldn't put it off forever. every day when I went into my library to pick out my next read, it was staring at me from my bookshelf, telling me that I would rather be reading Heartless. And eventually I caved. And I have to say...it was EVEN BETTER THAN i WAS EXPECTING! Heartless has everything I love in a book- it has amazing characters, it has romance, and it has wonderland! I loved this book so much!

Heartless tells the story of a long Cath- who loves to bake. (it's how she wins the heart of the King of wonderland- and no that isn't a spoiler, you can tell that just from the first chapter.) I loved seeing Cath so passionate about baking, and watching her thoughts wander to baked goods and new ideas when she is talking to someone else was so endearing to me. Like when she was thinking about creating salted caramels at the ball. While I was reading and getting to know the young Cath I couldn't help but stop and wonder how on earth she turns into the ruthless Queen. And that is what made Heartless so magical and wonderful. Marissa Meyer stays true to the wonderland flair in her story and with her characters but she also is so gifted with her character development that Cath turns into a completely different person in your mind. This book has made me want to go straight home and binge read all of Marissa's other books.

There is a great romance in Heartless as well. As soon as I was introduced to the Joker, I was itching for the romance to develop. This is a really hard romance because I knew it was (most likely- see I am still unwilling to accept it!) be doomed from the start because I know how the Queen of Hearts story ends, but it didn't stop me from falling completely in love with Jest. Marissa Meyer has such a way with her characters. you can't help but love them. I wanted Cath so badly to open up her bakery and run away with Jest, even though I know this is a prequel to the wonderland tales. It didn't matter, I couldn't let them go.

bottom line: Heartless is an incredible standalone book. I know people will be comparing this to Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and I have no idea whether they think it is better or not. Since this is the first book I have read from her, I can't compare them, but I will say this. Heartless is a magical read that will have you thinking about The Queen of Hearts in a different light. I think this is a perfect origin story for this famous villain of Wonderland. I loved it so much. I have an exclusive cover edition coming to me and I can't wait to buy every cover out there for this story. It is one of my favorites of 2016!

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs