Book Review: Cress

Title: Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA sci-fi

Review:

First and foremost, I would like to thank Literary Lushes for providing me an ARC of Cress. Feel free to click on the link and check out other tours they are hosting! Okay...so I've been waiting to read Cress since forever...I completely devoured Cinder and Scarlet, so I naturally jumped onto the chance to review Cress!  To my delight, Marissa Meyer has once again bedazzled me with taking familiar fairy tale characters (in this case Cress, aka Rapunzel) and giving them a futuristic/sci-fi-y flair.

As with the previous two books in this series, a new major character is introduced...in this case, Cress. Cress is Lunar...yet she is shunned by her own people because she is a shell (as readers quickly discover early on.)  As a result, she became Mistress Sybil's little hacker/pet. Cress is the secret to the Lunar's seemingly superior technological skills in concealing their space ships and such.  On the outside, Cress seems like an obedient little girl, ready to serve Queen Levana. But on the inside...there is a spark of rebellion.  Oh, and did I mention she just might have a crush on the ever-handsome Thorne? 

I loved how diverse the characters were in Cress. Obviously there's Cinder--smart, practical and still trying to master the art of glamour. There's Scarlet who's willpower never ceases to amaze me (who also unfortunately gets separated from the group about 10-15% into the book and ends up in a very grim situation...as in the others-think-she-is-dead-but-she-is-not-dead kind of situation). There's Wolf, the well, wolf-like guy who is head over heel for Scarlet and is devastated upon her loss. Also, who could forget the somewhat arrogant but first class pilot, Captain Thorne?  I really liked how his character/morals seemed to change throughout the novel--especially after he meets Cress. Kai is another character that shows the political war front between the Earthen nations and Queen Levana.  There aren't many chapters from his POV, but the few chapters there are certainly heightens the tension. And last but not least, Cress, the star of this book; I think one word that describes her well is: whimsical.  I mean yes, she knows when to focus, but she loves to dream of a better life, something that probably helped her through her 7 years of captivity on her satellite prison.

Cress really stands apart from this group of rebels because she isn't accustomed to life on the run and has been isolated from society since a young age.  All her knowledge of person-to-person interaction comes from watching TV shows. I think she is a tiny bit socially awkward...but that just makes me love her more :-)

Okay, I know this may sound weird, but one of my favorite chapter was written from Iko (Cinder's droid) POV. She really is such a riot!

There definitely was a considerable amount of blooming romance among the characters compared to the first two books.  I found myself grinning at Cress' affection for Thorne since she doesn't really know what to do about her feelings (no doubt a result from her 7 year imprisonment.)

I must say, Meyer is excellent at keeping me hooked. She would end one chapter with a character hanging off the cliff of death and begin the next one with another character entering the maws of death...(lol, I just reread what I wrote and that sounded wicked dramatic.)  And oh my gosh...the ending...that ending!!!

Crashing a wedding, starting a rebellion, kidnapping "hostages"...and let's just say a HUGE secret is revealed...

Okay...it's kind of late now...(I literally spend all my free time reading Cress today.  I mean, it is a 500+ page book!) I think I will wrap up this review now before I fall asleep at the keyboard.

Last thoughts: I love Meyer's twist on fairy tale characters set in a dystopian setting!!!

Rating: