Cress by Marissa Meyer
♦publisher: Feiwel & Friends
♦release date: February 4th, 2014
♦hardcover, 550 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Lunar Chronicles, book 3
book 1: Cinder (review)
book 2: Scarlet (review)
book 4: Winter (coming Feb 2015)
♦source: from publisher for honest review
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.
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.
Review: For me, there is nothing out there that quite compares to this phenomenal series. With this third installment, Cress, The Lunar Chronicles only strengthens its spot at the top of my list of favorites. I might even go so far as to say that with Cress, this series has outdone itself. While all three books have received 5 well-earned cupcakes from me, and while each one had me laughing and worried, excited, and hopeful, Cress is the first one to make me break down in actual tears. Though I come close often, I don’t actually cry very easily at books…and for that I love this one all the more.
It also speaks volumes for how much I love these characters. The collective crew from the end of Scarlet is back and just as amusing as ever. They discover that Cress, a girl who has helped Cinder from behind the scenes from the beginning, is actually a prisoner in a satellite and they go to rescue her. The rescue goes awry and this leads to the entire cast being split up and thrown into their own adventures both on earth and on the moon. Cress adds something sweet to the melting pot of characters; having been isolated her whole life, she has a certain innocence and awkwardness, but also having been a hacker, she definitely makes herself useful to Cinder’s cause. She gets thrown together with Thorne, whom she’s been crushing on for years, following his escapades from afar and always thinking of him as a misunderstood bad boy. With Thorne’s cockiness and her bit of feistiness and naiveté, the two of their personalities play off of each other with a perfect blend of sweetness and hilarity.
Cinder’s plight to stop Kai from marrying Levana has become about way more than her own feeling for him. The fate of the earth will rest in the hands of Cinder and her crew and they take it on valiantly as the plot intensifies and catapults us into the final chapter of the Lunar Chronicles. What’s most amazing about this book is that even at a hefty 550 pages, there is not one moment where the pacing lets up, not one page that feels like mid-series filler. That is definitely a rare thing.
I can’t even begin to imagine how long the wait for Winter is going to feel! Torture!
Purchase Cress: Amazon • BookDepository • Indiebound
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Awesome review, Becky :D I'm so glad that you loved Cress. <3 It was just perfect, wasn't it? Sigh. I love love love Kai, hih. <3 I'm also dying for Winter. It will be amazing!
ReplyDeleteUgh, isn't this book just amazing? I couldn't put it down, and it doesn't feel remotely as long as it is! You're so right that Cress adds to the group with her innocence--I love her. And oh my gosh, the ending? I was seriously swooning. Definitely no middle-book syndrome. Great review Becky! :)
ReplyDeleteSo happy that you loved this one!! Marissa Meyer's novels only get better and better. I'm sure WINTER will be a story worth waiting for!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the story! I've liked the ending yet i wanted to have more of Scarlet and Wolf. I think they are the best pair of the heroes!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't started with the lunar chronicles! Really need to jump on that bandwagon!
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited that Marissa Meyer has been able to keep up the momentum from Cinder. Books that are 2nd and 3rd in the series often seem to serve mainly as a bridge between the beginning and the end; I'm glad to see that Cress maintains the high standards of Cinder (which is one of my most favorite books!).
ReplyDeleteI just finished this book (less than a half an hour ago) and I didn't think I would like it more than Scarlet. Boy, was I wrong! I absolutely loved Cress.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said in your review about it never letting up or feeling like filler. And it is going to be torture waiting for Winter to come out!