Off with his head!!!! 
 Heartless. The title of this book sounds like the story is going to be deep and dark. But you start off this book reading about a girl who wants to open a bakery with her best friend. She wants to find love and doesn't know how to turn down the King of Hearts. So then I began to wonder why "Heartless". 
 It's only at the end of the book that the title of the story makes sense. 
 I have read all the books in the Lunar Chronicles series and loved the stories and fairy tale characters Marissa Meyer used. So I had high expectations going into this book considering this is set in Wonderland. Now to be honest I haven't read the Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland" and I will pick it up soon. But I have seen the movies so I know the story and the characters and I did love this author's descriptions of the characters; they were so real. I initially found Catherine annoying with her hemming and hawing and I was like take a stand already. But its only half way through the book that I actually started to sympathize with her. I felt all the emotions: the love (view spoiler)[ for Jest (hide spoiler)], the revulsion (view spoiler)[ to the King (hide spoiler)], the horror (view spoiler)[ at Jest's death (hide spoiler)] and I think that is what saved the book for me. 
 The book started off well enough. I thought how typically YA. I enjoyed the description of Wonderland and the Cheshire cat makes an appearance almost immediately. All these magical characters we are introduced to are not stressed on and you are made to feel like it's normal. The author doesn't try to WOW you. I found the book very humorous in the beginning and had high expectations thinking this would be a 5 star read. But then it started to drag. I felt the romance too drawn out and unnecessary and felt it harmed the pace of the book. 
 Peter Peter pumpkin eater That's all I remember of that rhyme from when I was young. 
 In Alice in Wonderland the Queen of Hearts is the villain and I did wonder if this story was set before she takes over Wonderland. Stupid me. It took me like 60% of the book to realize this is the origin story for the Queen for Hearts. And this is where the book picks up. It's a roller coaster ride after this and it started having a non-YA vibe. I loved the ending. I don't know why it made me think of Fairest which I think is the best back story to a character I have read to date. 
 Overall, it is a good read. Just hold on in the middle because the ending will not disappoint. 
 P.S: I kept picturing Hatter as Gene Wilder and not Johnny Deep. I wonder why :)