Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. 

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner. 

Almost as a rule of trade, sequels are not as good as the first in a series. 
That is not the case with the Lunar Chronicles.

Anyone who read my review of Cinder knows that I was blown away by the characters, the world, and the story, and this sequel did not scrimp away from any of those details, either.

I'm a sucker for a strong heroine, and I got that in Cinder, and I was delighted to meet the kick-ass, no-nonsense Scarlet in this book. She is strong and defiant, but she's not perfect. She's one-minded, stubborn, and impulsive, all of which gets her into some serious trouble, but it also makes her three-dimensional and real.

I don't think I have a bad word to say about this novel. I'm infatuated with the characters, the tension and drama is constantly rising in stakes, the world-building is great -I love it all.

Normally I end up shying away from fairytale retellings; they just don't go well, in my past experience. But Meyer has surprised me twice, and I have full confidence she will do it again in Cress. The original story is fully recognizable in the current situation, but the story being told is so original and unique that it reads like a new tale. 

I am a little confused as to the reasoning behind the "wolf-soldiers" and their real purpose in the long-run of the story, but if I think of "moon" and "animal," my mind goes to either owls (not very ferocious or terrifying) or wolves (both scary and strong). So in my head, the connection between these wolf-hybrid people and Luna make sense.

Overall Impression:
    I loved this book. I love Meyer's writing style, and I will continue to follow The Lunar Chronicles through the final installment of Winter. I'm excited to see what's still to come.

The Blonde Rating: 5/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.3/5
Amazon Buyers' Rating: 4.7/5

Check out my review for Cinder, and [soon to come] Cress.

Thanks for reading,
The Blonde

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles)

     Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

     Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. 

     But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

     My first comment is this: why didn't I read this sooner!?

     I've had it for weeks, and I decided to deviate from my TBR list a little bit to push this to the top because Marissa Meyer was coming to town and I wanted to get my copy of the book signed. Halfway through, I was racing out to my local indie bookstore to get Scarlet so I wouldn't have to wait once I was finished. Something tells me the wait between Scarlet  and Cress is going to be unbearable.

      I really liked the way this was done. The elements of the original fairytale are evident in the book, but the setting and characters are so unique, interesting, and different from any other adaptions and recreations of the Cinderella tale that I've ever seen before. 

      I really appreciated the world-building that went on in this book. There was no giant paragraphs trying to describe the NEW WORLD ORDER or describing the "how the world got this way." It was done very naturally; the reader was introduced to new parts of the world as Cinder or Kai was approaching elements that were different than what the reader might have assumed. I loved the whole aspect of "cyborgs as lower class citizens" -it really adds a new dynamic to her relationships with the people around her.

      The Lunars are freaking crazy! I love to hate them, which is totally the whole point to them, I feel, which is great!

      Though I will admit, I TOTALLY called the "secret" ending by page 115. And, once suspecting it, all of the clues just seem like giant neon signs pointing to it until it is finally confirmed. Not that it deterred from the story at all, I just like being right.

Things That I Liked:

1. Dr. Erland; he's like the greatest loving uncle, or cool grandpa ever. Right from the start I wanted to like him, so I was really glad we got to, but I didn't really see too much of his "going mental" happening in this book. Maybe it's explored more in Scarlet?
2. Iko; poor little android! I loved her, and it made me so upset that Cinder lost her little partner in crime for so much of the book.
3. Prince Kai; he had such a sweet personality, and I liked his persistence in pursuing Cinder, and his complete disdain for Levana. He felt like a real guy character.

Things That I Didn't Like:

1. Adri and Pearl, Levana; I loved to hate this dysfunctional step-family and this stupid, mean, awful queen.

Overall Impression:

     What a cool, unique re-envisioning of this classic fairytale. I cannot wait to see how Cinder gets out of her predicament and continues on with her story in the upcoming books.

The Blonde's Rating: 4.5/5

GoodReads Rating: 4/5 

Amazon Buyer's Ratings: 4.5/5

Stick around for further reviews of The Lunar Chronicles books!

Thanks!

The Blonde

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.




     I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book, considering I wasn't a huge fan of the plot in Jay's Juliet Immortal series, but I loved the language and writing style in those books, so I was more than willing to give her another shot. I'm glad I did, because I adored this book. It maintained the fairytale quality of the original idea, but completely turned my thoughts of it upside down in such a good way. 

     I loved the ups and downs of the main character, Isra. She was obviously a girl who took everything she was taught to believe to heart, and tried to be the best person and queen she could, despite the nagging in her head that something was wrong in her homeland. Her struggle with what she was taught to believe and what she felt was morally right came together poetically in the prose and the story.

     The "beast" character of Gem was an interesting personality, and a great antithesis to Isra and her lifestyle. He was unique and I liked how he was constantly battling his desire to escape back to his tribe, his will to stay to save his people, his want to kill Isra and all the other Yuanians, and his attraction to Isra.


Things That I Liked:

1. The use of the roses and the legend that binds them all to the domed city; it was a really cool, very dark, and creepy legend of how the city is kept "alive" and it really helped add another level to the book.
2. The changing PoV narration from chapter to chapter. It really helped capture the inner conflicts of each character, and it made some of what they were doing make a lot more sense.

Things I Didn't Like:

1. The "villain" -the corporeal villain in this story was actually kind of lame. We never actually got to see him be truly villainous, and while he was scheming and clearly evil, in his head, he was doing what he thought was best for his family. But he had almost no character development, and that's lame.
2. The ending; not the happy, fairytale "everyone lives happily ever after" ending, but the one before that, with all the action and city collapsing and everyone dying. Everything happened very quickly and yet very slowly. We find out that Isra has been holed up in her tower for three freakin' months, not doing anything, but also that we have no idea if Gem is alive or not, or where the HELL he is, and then the villain has a chance to do something and then he backs down like wimp to his stupid weakling son, and then EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL OMG!! It was a lot of nothing kind of happening until Isra was out of the tower, and then the fairytale ending comes into play which was great.

Overall Impression:

     I liked this story. It was something interesting and different from an author I wasn't previously enthusiastic about. If you're in the mood for fairy tales, check this one out.

Blonde's Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Rating: 4/5

Amazon Buyer's Rating: 4.5/5

Thanks for reading!

The Blonde