Published: February 4th 2014 by Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 550
Rating: 5 stars
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.
"Maybe there isn't such a thing as fate. Maybe it's just the opportunities we're given, and what we do with them. I'm beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don't just happen. We have to make them ourselves."
-- Marissa Meyer, Cress
I had my doubts if this book could be any better than its predecessors, because it didn't grab me on the first few pages. It may have taken a little longer to get into it all, but the wait was worth it. Cress is a rollercoaster with lots of romance, heartbreak, drama and unpredictability. Wow. Just, wow.The new characters introduced are perfect, just as I expected them to be. As a character, Cress has all the elements a typical Rapunzel would have, yet there's something special about her I can't put my finger on. She's an adorable girl you just love more and more. The choices she made were never out of character, and her point of view was one of the highlights of the book. I'm so excited to have another book with her as a main protagonist. The development she made from a terrified girl to a brave one who's able to stand up for herself and the people she loves. Being the socially akward girl she is, I loved her interactions with the other characters. Especially the ones with Thorne. Cress' naitieve and Thorn's quirky comments fit so well, these two made me smile and want a relationship like theirs. Cress made Thorn realise he's not a bad person and brought out his good sides. I loved how their relationship began as Cress had the biggest crush on him, while he saw her as a fragile child. By the end of the book, their relationship has developped so much you're out of your element and have added them to your shipping list. The little extra I adored was Thorne's incident, which made him love her for who she truly is.
Besides Thorne and Cress, there are so many other characters to talk about! Every one of them developped in a certain way in this book, and I'm so thankful. For starters, Kai is clearly not the only character who's going through a lot, yet that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for him. The only way he can slightly express himself is through his scarcastic comments: a big thumbs up for that. On the other hand, I'm so happy with everything that happened at the near end of the book, and how he was kind of able to solve the Selene mystery for himself. With some help, he finally put the pieces together. If only he was smart enough to figure the entire thing out by himself. Nevertheless, I loved his focus on this throughout the book.
Moving on to Cinder, I realise that after reading Scarlet, I hoped to see more of her Lunar, princess side. One way or another, Meyer never fails to statisfy me. Not only did I get the badass Lunar bioelectricity, Cinder is growing slightly towards her new identity. I adored the people in the little African town who helped her. Her grow in confidence is because of this, because she knows she has people who support her actions. She has accepted her fate to steal Levena's throne as the rightful heir of Luna. So I definitely got what I wanted, although I think we'll get even more of this in Winter.
Speaking of Winter, the crazy girl has already won my heart. I swooned for her character. Her use of words and metaphors are well done and she is just this kind of character I will root for in the upcoming final book. While a certain character was being defensive and at times agressive, all Winter wanted was to have a new friend. The way she is portrayed is the perfect reason to already adore the little girl. Instead of the skin like snow and the perfect little face, Winter is black and has three scars running down her cheek. Besides, I have a feeling that there's definitely something going on between her and the supposed huntsman, Jacin. Something I'd love to read about.
Scarlet and Wolf are the proof of going through worse than Kai. We don't get to see a lot of them. The times we do, they're awful. Not in the sense of badly written, but scenes you can't cry at. This book has managed to get so much compassion from me already, and then we have these two. I was just so sad to see them like this. Hopefully they will have rescued her soon so they can be happy again and have their happily ever after.
Although I felt how long it was, the plot itself was perfection. I may have gotten rather minor chapters when the group was complete. Cress' rescue is the start of when things get twisted and people get separated. I was worried of how Meyer could possibly fix this mess. Having this read, I think I should stop worrying because she managed to do it again. How everything played out was fantastic. The plot tighter and overall very unpredictable. At a certain time in the book, everyone got their own part to play, yet everything was connected in a way I would have never seen coming. I loved the way they were reunited again, and everything else that came along with it. The focus of the story was mainly on Cress and Thorne, the part after Rapunzel is released from her tower. So we didn't get the typical Rapunzel storyline, thank the Gods for that. Meyer succeeded in creating a story with so many similar aspects to the original one. I'm utterly happy to say that this book was lovable as a whole.
To round this up because it was gotten way longer than I expected it to be, I'd like to talk about the little extra most people forgot about: how in this book, we get a more clear view regarding the world of Luna. Though the biggest part has to play out in Winter, I found it just very interesting how we learned about the shells, Luna's connection to letumosis, Cress' lifestyle before the rescue and Winter as a character. I would like to see more of it, but I have a slight feeling we will.
Cress is the first book of 2014 that I absolutely loved. I may have used the verb 'love' way too many times in this review. It's just that great. I strongly suggest you'd read this.
