Joint Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Author:Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Date of publication: February 2014

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.

Honestly, I thought this one was the best out of the series.  I found it to be very fast paced and the story flew by for me.  All of the characters are present in the story, so it was nice that it didn't just focus on all one couple.  I loved the new couple.  Cress reminded me of Rapunzel in the movie Tangled.  She was so naive, bubbly and enthusiastic about everything. You can't help but like her.  I thought she was a great match for Thorne. The twist in how their partnership worked was cool.  

As for the other characters, I found myself liking Cinder a lot more.  I felt bad for her and the position she has been thrust into.  I hope she and Kai have a HEA in the next book. Their reunion was really cute. We get a glimpse of Luna and Winter who is the character in the last book.  Is she really crazy or is she just playing at crazy?  I look forward to finding out.

I enjoyed this book as well.  I think this has been a very well thought out series.  I like how each book focuses on a different character, yet continues the story.  This approach keeps each book fresh and doesn't necessarily make me feel like it's just one long story stretched into 3 book, just for the sake of a trilogy, or in this case a quadrilogy.  Is that the word?  

The characters and their stories were starting to tie together very well in this book.  I was really intrigued by the introduction of  Princess Winter and finding out who she is for real.  I found the description of Luna to sound like a cross between The Capitol from The Hunger Games and The Queen's Palace from Alice in Wonderland.  Book 4, currently titled Winter, is scheduled for publication in 2015.  I'm sure we'll be doing another joint review then!