Title: Scarlet Author: Marissa Meyer Series: Lunar Chronicles #2 Publication: February 5th 2013 by Feiwel and Friends Genre: Young Adult ~ Sci-Fi/Dystopian Cover Rating: 5/5 Overall Rating: 5/5
The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth... 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.
~My Thoughts: Okay, wow! I was blown away by this fabulous sequel to Cinder. It ended up being even more amazing and fantastic than I hoped it would be. Just like in Cinder, I devoured this book in record time even though it's a pretty big book of 450+ pages. This book follows 18-year-old Scarlet who lives in a small town in France. When we meet her her grandmother has been missing for two weeks but the police have stopped searching for her already. When Scarlet meets street fighter Wolf she finds out he might know a whole lot about her missing grandmother and is determined to find out what exactly it is he knows and where her grandmother is. Meanwhile Cinder is trying to break out of jail in order to escape the clutches of Lunar Queen Levana who will stop at nothing to get Cinder and control of Earth. This second book in the Lunar Chronicles is even more awesome than the first one. Not only Cinder's story continues but we also meet Scarlet, who's in search of her missing grandmother. There were also other great new characters like Wolf who travels to Paris with Scarlet and "captain" Thorne who assists Cinder in her escape. A lot of the other characters we're used to seeing like Kai, Queen Levana (she still scares the crap out of me) and Iko (yes, she's back!). The story definitely picks up a notch. There's more action, more gasp-moments, more unexpected friendships formed and more sadness than ever. There were quite a few different points of views; Cinder, Scarlet, Kai, also Thorne also if I remember correctly and one for Levana too (brrr). I loved all the POVs but I must say Kai's made me a little sad. Scarlet is definitely different girl than Cinder. But does it make her less awesome? No it does not. I like her just as much as Cinder. Scarlet and Wolf are just too adorable together when they were traveling to Paris. I loved their spark so much. And, gosh, is he hot! But swooning aside, I just admire him for changing his ways and trying to warn Scarlet not to go searching for her grandmother because he knew what was waiting them. I just want to hug that guy! I just love the way Marissa Meyer tells this story. Her writing is seriously awesome and had me flipping page after page, hour after hour. No wonder I finished it in only a few days time. One word to describe this book is: "Addicting". So very addicting. One thing's for sure, I can't wait for the next book, Cress. The wait will be torture but so worth it. Is it 2014 already? Le sigh. Also, if you haven't read Scarlet I would definitely recommend to read The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles, #1.5) before it because it'll give you more information on what's happening. You can read it for free here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/11/the-queens-army
Overall Scarlet was a kick-ass and absolutely worthy sequel to Cinder. I can't remember any book that's been as fascination, exciting and just stunning as Cinder and Scarlet were, especially the latter. Is Scarlet an even better book than Cinder? Most definitely so! I can't wait to see where the next book will go and what is going to happen in it.
Favorite Quotes:
Amusement touched the corner of his lips. "Animals love me." "Oh, I'm sure they do," Scarlet said, beaming with fake encouragement. She shut the door before muttering, "What farm animals don't love a wolf?”
He was still dazed, and though she hated to admit it, he was actually rather attractive. If a girl happened to like that square-jaw, bright-blue-eyes, devilish-dimples kind of thing. Although he was in desperate need of a haircut and a good shave.
A sickening howl stopped her, sucking the air out of her lungs. The night's chatter silenced, even the loitering city rats pausing to listen. Scarlet had heard wild wolves before, prowling the countryside in search of easy prey on the farms.
But never had a wolf's howl send a chill down her spine like that.
About The Author:
Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf . . .), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was given a small book of them when she was a child. She may or may not be a cyborg. Cinder is her first novel.
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the 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 thoughts: So I got to reading this book because I put it on a poll on Goodreads and that's what got the most votes. While the others only got 4, 2 or even 0 votes, Cinder got over 15 so it was obvious what people wanted me to read. What I want to say to those people is: THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you hadn't voted on it it would've probably taken me even LONGER to read this amazing book. I've had Cinder on my shelf for almost a year I think. Actually found it at a local bookstore but I guess it slipped my mind that I had it and I never picked it up until recently. I could just smack myself on the head for that! Our heroine is a 16 year-old cyborg (Gotta love that!) who is a mechanic in New Beijing (Love that too!), who's parents died in a car crash years ago (That's the accident where Cinder got turned into a cyborg also). Even since she's lived with her stepmother who hates her and stepsisters, not remembering a thing about her life before the crash. One day prince Kai shows up at Cinder's stall where she works, to get his android fixed. From there on out everything get so much harder and crazier! Somehow Cinder is immune to the plague that has been causing deads for over a dozen years. Why is she immune, while she is so different already? And can she resist the prince's charms when he asks her to go to the ball with him? I was hooked from the moment things started speeding up and Cinder got send to get tested for possible plague antidotes. From that moment I could hardly put this book down. Cinder is just an amazing heroine. One of my favorites so far. She's courageous, funny, strong and she cares so much about her family (well, maybe not her stepmother Adri and stepsister Pearl but who can blame her?) She does love her little stepsister Peony a lot and their android Iko. How can she not? Peony and Iko are adorable! Especially Iko is really cute. I want an android like her! This book had so many awesome elements. Like cyborgs, androids, New Beijing, Lunars (people who actually live on the moon!) and so on and on. It was all really cool. Almost makes me wish I could live in this book. I loved prince Kai! He is freaking swoon-worthy! But not only that he also cares a lot about his people and wants to do what's right for them to avoid a war with the Lunars who's queen is just the epitome of pure, pure evil! I was really heart broken because of the scene at the ball where everything about Cinder comes out. This one sentence just breaks my heart. "You’re even more painful to look at than she is."I really want these two characters to be together and live happily ever after. I hope it'll still happen! Really, the only negative things I can say about Cinder is that in the beginning I didn't love it immediately, I took me at least 50 pages to get really into it. I was rather confused because I didn't get what exactly was going on but once I got past that I was swept away in this story like I haven't been for a long time. Also the "twist" in this story was really obvious but I didn't really mind it (even when I kind of jumped up and went, "YES!"). I guessed it from the beginning and at the end it came out. Never mind that because it was a fantastic book nontheless. There was a little bit of romance in. No kisses or anything yet but there definitely was the promise of more romance in the future. I loved Kai's little flirting with Cinder and how he kept asking her to the ball. I had many *facepalm* moments everytime she kept saying no (even though I totally understand why but it's Kai! Oh so cute. Oh so sweet!). Overall Cinder is a beautiful, exceptional fairytale retelling that keeps you hooked and sucks you into the world of technology, cyborgs, evil moon queens but also of fairytale love, frienship and courage. Now I am just waiting to get my hands on Scarlet very soon!
It was amazing!
~Favorite Quotes;
Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful. But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.
Cinder twisted up her lips. "Do you think it could have a virus?" "Maybe her programming was overwhelmed by Prince Kai's uncanny hotness."
~About the author;
Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf . . .), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was given a small book of them when she was a child. She may or may not be a cyborg. Cinder is her first novel.
Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf . . .), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was given a small book of them when she was a child. She may or may not be a cyborg. Cinder is her first novel.
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