Cress by Marissa Meyer

     Title: Cress
     Author: Marissa Meyer
     Series: Lunar Chronicles #3
     Publisher: Square Fish
     Date Published: January 27, 2015
     Genre: Fairy Tale, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
     Pages: 592 (paperback)
     Age Range: 12+


                               Summary:
   

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can

                                                                       Review:

      Okay, SO things got real good, real fast. We immediately jumped right back into this story, and I loved it! We got some new characters, we got to see just how evil the Lunars are, we spend more time with our favorite characters, and we get to FINALLY get some answers. I'm starting to really see how everything is going to tie together in the end, and I'm so excited.
      First, we meet Cress. Now, she's not my favorite, and I found her naive and a little annoying, but you would be too if you were stuck on a satellite in space for ages. Besides Cress, we get to learn more about Cinder and her past, we get to learn more about Scarlet, and we get a lot more of Thorne's hilarity. Thorne is possibly my favorite character after Cinder- he brings some much-needed to hilarity to a rather heavy story, and, at the end of the day he's actually a good guy. Wolf just keeps getting more and more useless. If I had to pick a least favorite character, it would be him. I have a feeling that he ends up saving the day in Winter (the next book), but so far, he's kinda pointless. Sure, he's a good fighter, but it's pointless if he can't fight because he could lose his temper or be taken control of. Cinder just keeps getting more, and more AWESOME. I really like where her character is going. The more we hear about Kai, the more I like him. At first, I just thought that he was okay, but now... Oh, boy I love him. And Jacin! Ugh, I don't trust him. I really hope that he chills out before I try to kill him.
      The plot is getting less and less predictable. I really have no idea what's gonna happen in the next book. I really hated (and by hated, I mean I was almost crying but it was still so good) when Scarlet is captured on Luna and she has to let that awful little boy practice his powers on her. I had shivers up my spine. I also hated when she was being interrogated and she kept letting her smart mouth blab to Levana and Sybil, and it got her in trouble, that's when I screamed out loud. I loved the bits with Cress and Thorne because his condition and hilarity, mixing with her naiveness made for a really good time. There were a lot of moments with them where I was on edge, and there were a lot of moments where I laughed out loud.
      I cannot wait for the final book. I really hope that we can serve Levana's head on a silver platter because I HATE her. I realllly do. Usually, I like a villain because they are a villain (see Shadow and Bone review where I really like the Darkling) but I really just despise Levana. I hope that we figure out how to fix Thorne because.... well, his issue is kind of A BIG PROBLEM. I hope that we can figure out what's going on with Winter because she sounds really...off. I hope that Wolf gets his act together. And I hope that Winter and our new frenemy Jacin get together because it sounds like he loves her, and I want her to be happy even though I haven't met her yet, and I don't really trust him. Like at all.
     I cannot wait for Winter to be released. I've already seen it's cover, like everyone else, and it looks perfect! SO EXCITED!!!!

                                              

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

 Title: Scarlet
 Author: Marissa Meyer
 Series: Lunar Chronicles #2
 Publisher: Square Fish
 Date Published: February 4, 2014
 Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Fairy Tales
 Pages: 512 (Paperback)
 Age Range: 12+









                                                           Summary:

     Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison—even though she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive if she does—in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

                                                         Review:

     So, I have delved back into the world of Cinder and let me tell you, it's gettin' real intense. It's getting real good! In this book, we meet some new characters, we get to read from some new POVs, we get to learn more about what's going on with the overall story, AND we get some hilarious moments.

     First off, let's meet our new characters. Okay. SO, at first, I didn't like Scarlet because she wasn't Cinder. I didn't like reading from someone else's brain. But, after a few chapters, when things really started moving, I got over it. In the end, I liked Scarlet. She still isn't my favorite- I like Cinder more- but I really like her. I like Wolf, but that's it. I don't love him, I don't really like him- I tolerate him. Hopefully, I will like him more in Cress. He came across as physically strong, but useless and pretty darn shifty. I knew something was off about him in the beginning of the book, but I couldn't quite figure out what was going on until the end. And I'm SO glad that we figured out what to do with Iko's ID chip. I'm so happy that we figured out what to do with it, and now we can have some closure on Cinder's sorrow about that particular thing. My favorite character that we met in this book, is Thorne. He is, hands down, my second favorite character of the series so far. He adds some much-needed light to the story- and he's HILARIOUS.

     The plot was, again, a little predictable. It was less predictable than the first one, but it was still predictable. I loved how Marissa Meyer integrated Scarlet's individual story with Cinder's individual story because I was really worried about how that was going to work out. The book kinda had an AVENGER'S ASSEMBLE feel to it because it feels like we are grouping together to overthrow Levana (who I officially hate).

     I finished Cress a few weeks ago, so I'll have a review up for that soon. I'm sorry if i spoiled the book for anyone- it's hard to write reviews without spoiling things because I just really want to get all my feelings out!! Anyway, if you haven't read this series, get out from under your rock and pick them up.