Cress by Marissa Meyer

YES! I was able to read an ARC copy of CRESS borrowed from my friend Karin! Here is a copy of the book I read:

The big cover reveal was this past week and as with the other two books in the Lunar Chronicle series it does not disappoint:

MY REVIEW:

I am a huge fan of series. I love them! I'm addicted to them. I can't seem to ever have enough of them. I'm obsessed with collecting every book in the series. Sometimes though I have gotten disappointed in a series and thought about actually not buying any future books in that series...That is so not the case in The Lunar Chronicles!! Each book so far has been just as good as the very first one. CRESS does not disappoint from the opening pages to the very end. The Lunar Chronicles have become one of my favorite series of all-time.

As you can tell from the cover there is a take on the Rapunzel fairy tale in CRESS. Instead of the princess stuck in the tower though Cress has been stuck in a Satellite for 7 years monitoring Earth for her Lunar Mistress Sybil. Dreaming of someday being rescued by a handsome prince, Cress spends her days alone entertained only by her dreams and the monitors that fill her satellite.

Cinder and the rest of the cast are all back in CRESS. Cinder and Captain Thorne are still on the run from Queen Levana's army. They are now joined by Wolf and Scarlet. Cinder is trying to find a way to stop the wedding between Emperor Kai and Queen Levana without starting a war of epic proportions. When they all become separated it looks like their mission is doomed. With Lunar ships waiting outside of Earth's atmosphere it is only a matter of time before Queen Levana's wishes are granted and she becomes supreme ruler of all.

With each book and each added character I become more of a fan of these books. Captain Thorne as the worldly rogue and Cress as the innocent and naive make the perfect couple! Cinder and Kai seem like a lost hope with Kai going to marry Levana, but all hope is not lost for them as a couple. Wolf and Scarlet are not very prominent in CRESS, but their relationship has developed and there is a strong bond between them. Then I think my favorite character is the robot Iko! She cracks me up with her antics of trying to be human. She is quite entertaining.

The ARC copy of CRESS has 550 pages in it and I have to say I was disappointed when I turned that last page! The published copy doesn't come out until February 2014 which means the last book in the series will not be published until 2015. That is a LONG time to wait for the ending of this wonderful series. If you haven't picked up The Lunar Chronicles yet I would say they are a MUST READ. Here are my reviews of CINDER and SCARLET.

Glitches by Marissa Meyer

Glitches is a short prequel to Cinder. It tells how cyborg Cinder comes to live with her adoptive family. From the very beginning her step-mother did not want her. Of her two step-sisters Peony is the only one that pays any attention to Cinder. Confused and rejected Cinder tries to find a way to fit in with her new family.

My only problem with Glitches is that it wasn't long enough! Having only 26 pages Glitches just gives the reader a taste(or tease) of what is to come in Cinder and Scarlet. Yes, worth the few minutes it takes to read, but again longer would have been even better.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Little Red Riding Hood complete with hood and a Big Bad Wolf!

Scarlet and her grandmother are farmers. They sell their produce to the local stores and taverns in the nearby town. When Scarlet first meets Wolf she is startled by his looks, yet drawn to him. They are soon thrown together in the search of Scarlet's missing grandmother.

In the meantime Cinder is working at escaping prison before the Lunar Queen Levana has her put to death. Cinder and renegade Captain Thorne set out to find why Cinder is so important to the Queen and to hopefully find out more information about the dead princess Selena.

Both Scarlet and Cinder find secrets about themselves that have been kept from them for years. Will they be able to grasp who they each are before it is too late for the people of earth?

Scarlet was every bit as good as Cinder! I was not disappointed...well maybe a little bit at the ending, but only because Scarlet ends with a HUGE cliffhanger! I enjoyed reading Scarlet's story and her attraction to Wolf(there are a couple of sigh-worthy tender moments!). But I also enjoyed jumping back into Cinder's story and to read how both Scarlet and Cinder's lives collide. A bit of romance, a bit of suspense all set in a dystopian world~doesn't get much better than that!

Thanks to my friend Karin at Karin's Book Nook(and the Edgy half of Edifying and Edgy) for allowing me to borrow her ARC copy of Scarlet. Karin received her copy at TXLA in Houston in April. Scarlet will be available in February 2013 and I plan on buying a hardback copy to go with my copy of Cinder. Love the covers!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

First off, don't you just love this cover?! From the first time I saw it I wanted to get this book and read it. Yup, I love a good cover!

Cinder is a cyborg. She lives with her guardian and 2 step sisters. Yes, this is a retelling of Cinderella. 

Cinder is a mechanic in the marketplace. She can repair just about anything.  Prince Kai, the soon to be emperor of New Beijing, brings his android for Cinder to fix. Cinder can't believe when the prince seems to be flirting with her. But Cinder knows that she can never be attractive to him once he finds out that she is cyborg.

When the dreaded plague attacks Cinders step-sister Peony, Cinders step-mother immediately volunteers Cinder to go to the palace research facility to be tested on for a cure. No cyborg that is tested on ever comes out alive.

When Kai's father dies from the plague Kai is made emperor. Being forced to marry the Lunar queen in order to save earth from war, Kai holds a ball to announce his coming marriage. Barely able to be civil to the queen, Kai is determined to save his people from war with the Lunar's. Cinder has found a hidden chip in Kai's android that will expose the Lunar queen's plans for war. She must go to the ball in order to inform Kai before it is too late.

I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to the next book in the series. Cinder kind of reminded me of the Uglies, Pretties, Specials series by Scott Westerfeld. I don't even know why? Maybe because of the post-apocalyptic flavor to it? Maybe because of the advanced technology? Whatever the reason, with robots, spacecraft, cyborgs, romance and evil queens and step-mothers Cinder is a fun read and a great new twist to the Cinderella story!