Book Review: Cress

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, 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.  Quoted from Goodreads

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Love, love, love!  This was one of my most anticipated books for this year, and it absolutely did not disappoint.  Right up front, 5 stars!  Yes, that is how much I love this series.  I'm not saying it's everyone's cup of tea, but for me it's just about perfect.

I'm a bit in awe of Marissa Meyer's ability to add new main characters and elements of an new fairy tale and not leave the characters from her earlier books behind.  With Scarlet I thought I'd loose Cinder, and then with Cress, I was afraid Scarlet's story would fade into the background.  Sure, no one gets quite as much page time as Cinder did in the first book, but I felt she did an excellent job on juggling all her plot points, keeping each character essential to the story, and furthering the small story arcs as well as the big ones. 

She's also amazing an incorporating so many elements of the fairy tale she's focusing on while keeping her setting and plot so completely different.  I'm pretty sure she might just be a genius. 

As for Cress, I absolutely adore her.  The characterization of this series is so completely realized.  Every character, big or small, is perfectly put together, thought out, and fully realized.  Here we really get to meet Cress. She's so different from Cinder and Scarlet, with her own voice and mannerisms.  She's sweeter than they are, a bit more naive, but wither hew own, distinctive skill set and voice.  Then there's the lovely Captain Thorne, who we got to know in the last book, and he just keeps getting better and better.  Plus, each goes through some pretty horrible challenges that changes them, causes them to grow, and I love how their relationship builds.

As for everything else, this book is packed.  We get kidnappings (lots of these, folks), survival stories (man vs. nature), betrayal, chase scenes, fights, deceptions, reunions, broken hearts, new loves, secret tunnels, hacking, torture, gambling, shooting, and magic (of the lunar variety)!  

Have I sold you yet?  Really, you need to read this series. 5 stars, remember!  Check it out.  Read the first two if you haven't started yet, and then pick this up.  It's absolutely worth it.