Book review: CRESS by Marissa Meyer

(this review is free of spoilers from both CINDER and SCARLET)

High above Earth where conflict between Earthens and Lunars runs rampant, Cress sits in her satellite alone. Taken from her home on Luna (the moon), Cress has become a skilled hacker for Queen Levana, the Lunar Queen. But her life is lonely, and she spends most of her time playing computer games and crushing on a certain Captain we recently met in SCARLET (though Cress has never met him). She thinks he is PERFECT! 

When Cress makes contact with our group of heroes, she believes she will finally be rescued. But, in true Lunar Chronicles fashion, the attempt doesn’t go quite as planned. Now the girl who hasn’t set foot outside her satellite—or combed her insanely long hair—in years will have to figure out how to survive in the midst of this battle, as well as decide where her loyalties are.

Confession: the whole reason I started reading the Lunar Chronicles was to get to CRESS. Rapunzel is one of my favorite fairy tales (Tangled is my Disney obsession!) and when I saw this book was coming out, I just NEEDED to read it. Obviously, I had to get through the first two books first, and I didn’t expect to adore them as much as I did, so that was a bonus. When I finally got to read CRESS, I was so excited, and it did not let me down. It’s the biggest book so far, contains tons of POV switches, and we get several pivotal scenes that Lunar Chronicles fans have been waiting for (particularly one regarding Cinder and her prince...)

Cress was as adorable as I’d hoped she’d be. Naïve and hopelessly romantic, she learns throughout the book that there’s more to love than being the damsel in distress. She’s a bit of a fangirl (we can all relate, I’m sure), and I identified with her the most out of any Lunar Chronicles character. She’s out of her element but manages to hold her own along with the other characters. Speaking of other characters, we continue to follow Cinder and Scarlet’s journeys in CRESS. I admire Marissa Meyer for taking on such a huge cast of characters and devoting time to each. She also introduces us to important characters in earlier books, so we are already invested in them by the time they take center stage. For example, we met Cress in CINDER, and now in CRESS we are briefly introduced to our fourth and final female protagonist, Winter. And can I just say, I cannot wait for her story to unfold!

CRESS also has my favorite cover of the series so far (and one of my favorite covers of the year). So many reasons to pick this book (and the entire series) up! Waiting until next year for WINTER is going to be a struggle!