Review--Cress by Marissa Meyer

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had 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 of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Cress is the third installment in Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and I think I am really starting to get into the series now! I definitely enjoyed Cress more than I thought I would! I love how we keep getting multiple points of view throughout each novel. Everyone we've met basically gets to throw their voice into the mix and instead of stalling the story out or anything, it really speeds up the pacing!

Cress is our Rapunzel in the fairy tale scheme of things. She's trapped in a satellite out in space and works for the Lunars. She's Lunar herself, but has no strong obligation to her queen. In fact, she's all team Cinder--in that she wants Cinder to succeed in her mission. Cress is a genius when it comes to computers and hacking and is able to find Cinder and her friends fairly easily, in fact, she's the one who warned Cinder of Levana's plans back in Cinder.

I also enjoyed seeing Thorne play our prince charming to Cress. Although, as you might be able to guess, he's not your typical prince charming. But in true fairy tale style, he does lose his eyesight during the rescue of Cress and that in itself tickled me with joy, because, hello! Fairy tale accuracies!

It's not long before things are all in a hot mess, the group is separated for most of the novel and not everyone comes together at the end. I think that was one of my few complaints this time around. I would've liked to know more about what was going on with Scarlet who gets separated early one in the story and the novel ends with Cinder's point of view, so I feel like we don't even really know what was going on with Cress and Thorne! Just as things were getting possibly romantic between them--as they played quite a tangled love mess for most of the book--we leave their perspectives and go to Cinder, never knowing what happens or doesn't between them. A lot is left unsaid with most of the other characters. Wolf was off in the ship tending his wounds, but what else is going on with him? He's heartsick over Scarlet being missing and just...what happens?!

I never thought I would get so invested with all these characters, and there are a lot of them! I still like Cinder and think she's awesome and Iko is a freaking delight. But I love these other characters too, and I felt like their part of the story got cut off too soon! I know we still have another book to go and their fates aren't sealed yet, but the ending left me reeling with all the unanswered dilemmas!

For a book that's over 500 pages, I didn't expect this to be such a quick read--granted I had a weekend delay in between my reading, but still managed to finish this in about 2 days. The pacing is just incredibly done, we go from view point to view point and see what's going all around with Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Kai, Levana...it's just impressive to never feel lost! And the action and other goodness that's packed into these chapters makes the read even more delightful. I could've gone for more romance possibly, with any of our couples, but what we did get was enough to satisfy on a basic level!

Definitely looking forward to seeing how this series wraps up! Each book has just been a bundle of surprises for me, because I can't quite seem to figure out an endgame myself, other than the obvious good wins over evil kind of outcome! Obviously, there's more to it than that! Really looking forward to Fairest and getting Levana's story! Who doesn't want to learn more about the evil villain?

If you're looking for a fairy tale read with an exceedingly different twist, then I recommend the Lunar Chronicles because a twist can't get much twistier than this!



Overall Rating 4/5 stars