"Scarlet" & "Cress" - Marissa Meyer

Hello fellow bibliophiles! As part of February's theme, Unfinished Series, today's review continues with books #2 & #3 of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. You can find my review of book #1, Cinder, HERE! If you haven't read Cinder, you may want to skip this post and come back as the descriptions alone may give hints and spoilers for the first book. I'll try not to give anything away!

Scarlet
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. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information about 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. 

Scarlet has, so far, been my favorite in the series. This book continues the fairytale theme, introducing Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf characters. The story switches back and forth between the parallel stories of Scarlet (Red Riding) and Cinder. So many of my questions from the first book were answered in Scarlet which is probably why I liked it so well. Along with the story lines of Cinder and Scarlet, there is also more dialogue from Kai's point-of-view which I had hoped for after finishing the first book. All the characters are dealing with a lot, a continued theme from Cinder. Plague, an evil queen, a missing princess, mind controlling Lunars, and now hybred-werewolves wreaking havoc. Like Cinder, Scarlet has a slew of things thrown at her very quickly, all at once, completely turning her life inside out. She does all she can to put on a strong, resilient front while dealing with obstacle after obstacle.  She's another brave, independent, all around great female character. I felt this book really helped to set up the next book and give me a better idea where the story is headed leading into Cress.

Cress
In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain  Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wold 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 Empreror Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. 

While this book was still great, I didn't feel it was as good as Scarlet. Rapunzel is the newest fairytale character to be introduced as Cress, a Lunar shell, who has been held captive for seven years on a satellite on her own, doing dirty work for Queen Levana. In Scarlet, questions were answered and things began to come together. In Cress, though, I felt more questions have come up yet it had great direction towards a solution. With Cress' hacking skills and Cinder's band of misfits, they finally start to formulate and carry out plans to take down Queen Levana.

This series, as a whole, has been great. The writing is well done and the characters are full of emotion and rhetoric. While the base of the story comes from classic fairytales, the plot line is completely re-imagined in a whole new light. I like the relationships that have formed, though typical in a classic fairytale way. The fourth, and final, book Winter, is already in my hands. Turning to page one will be a bittersweet moment. I'm anxious to see how everything comes together but sad to let the characters go. A great series for teens! Small amount of violence, PG romance, and a highly entertaining fantasy series! I highly recommend it! As always, feel free to share any thoughts, comments, or suggestions!

Happy reading fools :)