Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes (Queen of Hearts Saga #1) | REVIEW

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes (Queen of Hearts Saga #1)
Published by HarperTeen on May 3rd, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover

LINKS: Good Reads | Amazon | Indigo | Book Depository

As Princess of Wonderland Palace and the future Queen of Hearts, Dinah’s days are an endless monotony of tea, tarts, and a stream of vicious humiliations at the hands of her father, the King of Hearts. The only highlight of her days is visiting Wardley, her childhood best friend, the future Knave of Hearts — and the love of her life.

When an enchanting stranger arrives at the Palace, Dinah watches as everything she’s ever wanted threatens to crumble. As her coronation date approaches, a series of suspicious and bloody events suggests that something sinister stirs in the whimsical halls of Wonderland. It’s up to Dinah to unravel the mysteries that lurk both inside and under the Palace before she loses her own head to a clever and faceless foe.

Part epic fantasy, part twisted fairy tale, this dazzling saga will have readers shivering as Dinah’s furious nature sweeps Wonderland up in the maelstrom of her wrath.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

First Line:

“Oh, my future Queen, you’re late!”

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Review

COVER 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟                  PLOT 🌟🌟🌟

CHARACTERS 🌟🌟🌟🌟              ROMANCE 🌟🌟🌟

WRITING 🌟🌟🌟🌟             WORLD 🌟🌟🌟🌟

My fight to live does not begin now. I have been fighting all my life, I just didn’t know it.

Queen of Hearts – Colleen Oakes

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The Good

• I love the cover concept for this book. Making our main character the Queen of Hearts into an actual playing card was clever and really worked aesthetically with the overall vibe of the story. A++
• Oakes took all our favorite characters from the original Alice in Wonderland story and brought them back to life a new and inventive characters. For example, the Chesire Cat is now the King’s personal advisor, the White Rabbit is the Queen of Hearts tutor and personal servant, and the Mad Hatter is actually her brother who is not all there in head. The only one I couldn’t peg was her step sister. I thought she could either be Alice herself or the White Queen. I guess we’ll find out more in as the story continues.
• The world was mesmerizing and very creative. It wasn’t quite the weird and fun land we know of from Alice and Wonderland, but Oakes took what she could and created a vivid world for our imaginations to run wild with!
• And finally, the writing. It was a quick and pleasant read for me. Only took 2 days to finish, and that’s because of the flowing writing style Oakes used to convey her story.

She was learning as quickly that what was right and what must happen weren’t always the same thing.

Queen of Hearts – Colleen Oakes

The Bad

• I found the plot to be a lot of world and story set up, rather then an actual plot line. But I feel like this is nice ground work for the sequel to pick up from and I am thoroughly looking forward to how the Queen of Hearts gets herself out of the hot mess that was the ending.
• The romance was probably one of the more disappointing aspects of the story for me. I mean it was there and somewhat prominent, but I didn’t feel an admiration for the couple at hand. I’m not “shipping” them together. I’m hoping for more sparks in the next book!

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Ok, that’s it. Let me know what you guys thought of Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes! I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Until next time,

#OffWithYourHead

Colleen Oakes is the author of books for both teens and adults, including The Elly in Bloom Series, The Queen of Hearts Saga (Harper Collins 2016) and The Wendy Darling Saga. She lives in North Denver with her husband and son and surrounds herself with the most lovely family and friends imaginable. When not writing or plotting new books, Colleen can be found swimming, traveling and totally immersing herself in nerdy pop culture. She currently at work on another YA fantasy series and a stand-alone YA novel.

You can visit her webpage at: www.colleenoakes.net