Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Series: The Lunar Chronicles
Release: February 4, 2014
Pages: 560
Review: Five Stars

After waiting (im)patiently for this book, I gobbled it up! There are so many amazing things about this! It grows a little slow in the middle, but even then, the stakes are never lowered and tensions are always running high. Also, characters fight and bad stuff happens, but at least partially due to everything going on, THERE IS NEVER ANY ANGST! I did a happy dance because of that alone! The rest will be slightly spoilery for previous books, but if you want to avoid spoilers, check out my reviews of the first two books in the series Cinder and Scarlet!

There are so many characters in this book, your head starts to spin. Yet the same time, you see how they intertwine and are all important to the plot. In this book, we are introduced to Cress. She has been locked up on a satellite for seven years and has been forced to work for the evil Queen Levana. At the beginning, Cress sees herself as a damsel in distress. She wants nothing more than to be rescued by her handsome prince charming. After a disastrous series of events, Cress begins to see the strength inside her and soon learns that she doesn't need a prince to come and rescue her. The main character of the overall series is Cinder, AKA Princess Selene. She is expected to overthrow her evil aunt, but has no idea how. Cinder is strong, she's a cyborg after all, but she has little faith in herself and her abilities. And when she finally starts to come into her gifts, she's fears for who she'll become. Cinder has every right to worry, but at the same time, she strives to be stronger. Scarlet is not much of a character in this book. I believe that she will play a large role in Winter, but she had very little page time in Cress. Captain Carswell Thorne plays a much larger role in this book. For one thing, Cress has a ginormous crush on him. He proves that he's more than just a facade and makes me really appreciate him! We get to see more of Prince Kai in here as well. His perception of things is mostly spot on, but skewed in a few ways. If the characters could only communicate a bit more.

You have no idea how big of a book hangover this has caused me. There were so many feels! The ending! *fangirls* It was perfect in every way and left me hungering for Winter. There are many things that occur that, at this point, are three books in the making. With the book, I pretty much knew from page one how it was going to go, but I still loved each and every page. My feels are in overdrive at the moment. I can't stop thinking about the book. I'm so excited to see the characters again in Winter. The plot was tense. The romance, when there, was full of swoons. How could it not with Prince Kai around? So yes, five stars!

Author Bio:

One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.

When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Those so inclined can still find my first stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanfic turned out to be awesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).

When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more about here). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.

Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER is my first novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around too.

I now live with my husband and our three cats (Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III), who go in and out, in and out, about eight hundred times a day. My favorite non-bookish things include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, re-watching episodes of Firefly, and playing all manners of dress-up.

You Can Find Her At:
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Synopsis:

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 prevent her army from invading Earth.

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 being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

You Can Find it At:
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