What I liked most about the book, though, is having Cath be defined by her passion – baking. I loved Cheshire the Cat and thought he was especially well-performed for the audiobook. That said, the book does a good job at maintaining the surreal elements of Wonderland while simultaneously re-purposing the story for a completely different tale. In Heartless, we stay inside of the “fairytale” world – no science, no advanced tech, just magic. This was mainly because that earlier series placed the familiar characters in a sci-fi world, driven by tech. One thing that surprised me was how different it was from The Lunar Chronicles, which as a series, features Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. A fluffy, magical story that builds wholly on the nostalgia audiences have for characters and worlds we grew up with. I love reading fairytales in the winter, especially around the holidays. So when I realized the same author had created a standalone novel inside the Wonderland world (not strictly a fairytale, but in the same arena), I knew it would be a perfect book for December. It’s why I happily gobbled up The Lunar Chronicles, even though it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings. Between a love triangle, and a yearning for a life of entrepreneurship she can never have, Cath finds herself growing more and more… disenchanted. Things get even more complicated when she meets Jest, the mysterious court joker who immediately catches her eye.

Her passion for baking completely defines her, so when she learns the King intends to propose, she is horrified to think she may be forced to be a Queen. Heartless follows the daughter of a marquess, Cath, who dreams of the simple life as a bakery owner. Long before she was the terror of Wonderland-the infamous Queen of Hearts-she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. This is a review of the audiobook, performed by Rebecca Soler. Following her Lunar Chronicles series, Marissa Meyer released Heartless, an origin tale for The Queen of Hearts from the Alice in Wonderland world.

Heartless marissa meyer series in order