Cress by Marissa Meyer

Here's the deal: So after the dust has settled from the ending of Scarlet, the characters aboard the Rampion find themselves blinking at each other and asking, "Now what?"

Enter Cress.

Cress has lived in a satellite for the last seven years. She only knows one person. She's never had a haircut. So basically, Rapunzel in space.

When an attempt to rescue her from her goes awry, our band of heroes finds themselves separated once again, this time (mostly) on Earth. And as Kai prepares for the most hastily thrown together Big To-Do ever (really? two weeks? shouldn't it take that long just to negotiate, I don't know, the date? not to mention that high profile of a wedding should ACTUALLY be starting with an engagement party) (but we've already established that my opinion of Ms. Meyer's take on interplanetary politics is low), Cinder has to find a way to stop the wedding. Because, you know, of Levana's tyranny. It has nothing to do with how she feels about him, nothing at all, la la la.

My opinion: So I am loving these books. And I love that they keep getting better. I feel like so many series and trilogies start strong, then get worse as the series goes along. Is that because authors take years and years to write the first book, then send out queries and get agents, and THEN write books 2 and 3 and so on? (Seriously, do they do that? It would explain a lot.) Anyway, The Lunar Chronicles does NOT read that way. They start slow and build, and each one is better than the last. I had owned Cinder for quite a while before I picked it up at the library, liked it a lot, and went home and finished it on my Nook. And I liked Scarlet even more, and Cress is just the best one so far.

For starters, Cress herself is so adorable. As you know, I read this book picturing Avery from Dog With a Blog as Cress, and I think it was a good choice. She was so cute and sweet! So hopeful and naive, and excited about the world around her, and even though she was idealistic and wanted so badly to fall in love, she grew and learned enough not to do anything hugely stupid.

As I predicted, it was different to see Captain Thorne through Cress's eyes than Cinder's. While Cinder saw him as opportunistic and cheesy and a little smarmy, to Cress he was brave and heroic. And it was actually great for me as a reader to have both of those perspectives, because blending them together helped me create a more realistic idea of an actual person, who is cocky and charming, but also insecure and a little vulnerable. I liked seeing him grow more and more protective of Cress, which (when avoiding Cullen-level creepiness) is such a sweet expression of affection, in my opinion.

(I did roll my eyes, a little bit, when we found out that [SPOILER ABOUT CRESS'S FAMILY]. I mean, does the world have to be that small? Can't a random person you meet who happens to be trapped on a satellite for seven years just be a random person? But no, not in book world, apparently. Oh well.)

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, bechdel-test, excuse-me-half-the-book-is-missing, fluffy, is-or-would-be-a-good-movie, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman

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