Review: Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes


Queen of Hearts
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.

I wasn't aware that this was being re-published, I thought it was the first in a brand new series and it isn't. I'm actually surprised that this book is being picked up by a publisher as big as Harper because it wasn't actually all that great. The writing in Queen of Hearts  was at times very stilted and formal and this really made it difficult to be absorbed into the book. The story and the dialogue lacked depth and anything to make this book stand out and Dinah, the possibly slightly crazy and disliked daughter of the King of Hearts, was a very unexciting character. There was nothing about her or Wardley that really gave me any kind of feeling.

The thing is that there was not much plot in this story and things didn't pick up until the very end when Dinah's father makes a bad move and makes Dinah a wanted girl. Until then, it ad been DInah chasing after clues about a secret that frankly I still have no idea what it was - maybe it was the reason Dinah's father hated her, because I still don't know why that was.

Things seemed to work conveniently in the favor of Dinah and Wardley and I hate it when that happens. They should have been caught at the Black Towers but they got in and out with no harm. Dinah shouldn't have got out of the castle at the end, but conveniently the Hornhoov let her ride it. 

Overall, Queen of Hearts has a great concept and I was so excited to read it, but I was very much let down by the execution.
Book released 3rd May 2016 by HarperCollins
Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review

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