Heartless

September 12, 2016
Before she was the Queen of Hearts in Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, she was Catherine, the spirited daughter of royalty, destined to wed the King of Hearts but determined to set up shop as a baker with her best friend and longtime maid. In this whimsical standalone tale, readers follow Catherine’s simultaneous courtships with the jovial king and his court joker, Jest, whose earnest boyishness makes him far more charming than his royal boss. Caught between her own desires and her mother’s stop-at-nothing goal to make her daughter queen, Catherine must decide how much she will risk for a future with Jest. Meyer’s Wonderland is a fun and more refined version of Carroll’s, and readers will enjoy the obvious parallels. Jest and Catherine have a playfully
clandestine relationship, but it’s a slow build-up to the inevitable clash between what Catherine wants and what reality demands. Meyer’s worldbuilding is extensive and impressive, and the persistent threat of a destructive Jabberwock lends tension, but the story lacks the high-stakes danger that fans of the Lunar Chronicles have come to expect. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

Starred review from September 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-The author's best fantasy yet. In her inspired reimagining of Lewis Carroll's inimitable adventures in Wonderland, Meyer has explored the world that existed before Alice fell down the rabbit hole. All Lady Catherine wants to do is open her own bakery with the help of her maid. She has no wish to wear beautiful dresses or go to balls, and she certainly has no desire whatsoever to marry the good-natured, bumbling, childlike king. But that seems to be her fate until she meets the king's handsome and mysterious new joker, Jest. Although his mission is to steal Lady Catherine's heart and take it to the White Queen, who would use it to overcome the enemies of her realm, he falls in love with her instead. Employing all the best aspects of Carroll's book-the White Rabbit, croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos, suits of cards, and the Jabberwocky-Meyer has woven all the elements of darkness and light, fate and free will, and love and hatred into an unforgettable story of the evolution of the Red Queen from a young girl who dreamed of true love and freedom to a madwoman best remembered for the phrase Off with his head. VERDICT If you only read one fractured fairy tale this year, make it Heartless. A must-have title.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Catherine Pinkerton's dreams may be complicatedafter one, she wakes to find a lemon tree has grown in her bedroom overnightbut her hopes for the future are not. Cath, who crafts exquisite tarts and cakes, just wants to open a bakery, until the kind-but-idiotic king of their kingdom, Hearts, expresses an interest in her, and her social-climbing parents refuse to acknowledge her reluctance to be wife or queen. But when she meets the compelling new court joker, Jest, Cath is swept off her feet, daring to dream of the life she wants, even as she unwittingly sets off on the path that leads to her inevitable future as the feared, enraged, and notorious Queen of Hearts. Readers familiar with Carroll's classic will notice all the details of Alice's Wonderland falling ominously into place, but newcomers, too, will be swept up in Cath's doomed quest for freedom. Clever, whimsical, and mournful, this story of an infamous villain who was once just a girl will capture plenty of hearts of its own. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Meyer's Lunar Chronicles grew progressively more hyped with each release, and this high-interest stand-alone boasts an extensive prepublication marketing campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2017
When talented baker Catherine discovers that the King of Hearts plans to propose to her, it threatens to destroy her dream of opening a bakery as well as her budding romance with the mysterious Jest. This imaginative backstory for Wonderland's brutal Queen of Hearts (from Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) has an engaging heroine, but her descent into darkness is unfortunately too abrupt.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)