Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Five Star Spotlight - Cress by Marissa Meyer

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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.



*Spoilers for the first two books in the Lunar Chronicles in the following review!*

This is a spotlight on a book that I fell in love with. Cress is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series, and I just want to show you how my feelings for this series have changed with each installment I've read.



Cinder - hey, this is a unique idea. I like this book.
Scarlet -  wow, this series is pretty interesting, I'm really enjoying myself!
The Little Android (one of the short stories) - this writing is beautiful, I can't wait to read more.
Cress - THIS SERIES IS AMAZING! 

So, this is going to be a very positive review of Cress. Honestly, though, I've loved it. This was a book that I didn't expect to completely fall in love with, but I'm so happy I did. Everything came together in this book. 

I'll start as I normally do, by talking about the characters. As each book comes, I find that each new narrator is better than the last. Cress is really fantastic. She brings a really good balance to the group, and I enjoyed reading from her perspective because everything was new and exciting. Also, we get to read more from Thorne, and he is now definitely one of my book boyfriends. Thorne is sarcastic, charismatic, and wity, but he does have a good heart. The combination of snarkiness but with depth as well is what makes a book boyfriend for me. Thorne and Cress are two characters that have a really great dynamic between the two, and seeing both of them in the group was really great. 

The group was one element that I really appreciated in this book. Scarlet was more of two paralleling story lines, and while that worked for her story, I was glad to see more of a group dynamic in this book. We finally get some of the ensemble, where there are multiple narrators and everything is interesting. In general, I just really loved how all of the characters interacted. Each is unique and memorable, but work so well together that the conversation is always interesting and the story never drags.

Speaking of the plot, this book reads like an epic movie. It's one that I couldn't put down, and I ended up reading this in two days. The story line has two different settings- wonderful moments of the characters interacting and a lot of interest in what's going on with them, and then so much action and plot development that you have to read on. In short, the story never drags. However, the action and intense moments are never confusing- all of the narrators work really well together and as a reader I never felt like I was confused or unaware of what was going on.

The romance in this book is adorable, and I love how all of the characters act in general, but if you're looking for a dramatic love triangle or anything like that, this series is more about the characters and the overarching story line. To me, I liked stories like this, where if there is romance it's more a side story to the main conflict, so I appreciated that about this series. 

This is by far my favorite installment to The Lunar Chronicles. While I had enjoyed the series before, this book solidified its status as a favorite. I am so excited for Winter, and I think that this series has some of the best characters I've read, as well as some epic action and a main conflict that I can't wait to see resolved in the conclusion.

Have you read this series? I'm in love, so feel free to comment down below, or tweet me about it!

From the paper world,
V

1 comment:

  1. I just posted my review of Cress too! I loved the characters, the romance, and the group dynamic. They're like this ragtag bunch of unlikely heroes trying to save the world, it's fantastic!

    I also agree that the books keep getting better and as much as I liked Cress I think my favorite in the series is Scarlet. I feel like it had more of an independent storyline and the pacing was better for me.

    Great review! You can check mine out here

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