Book Review: Cress by Marissa Myer

Title: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: February 4, 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 550
Add to Goodreads
Reviews for book 1, book 2, book 3.5, & book 4

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

So here's the truth: I didn't even know what this book was about. I mean, I knew that it would continue the stories of Cinder and Scarlet, but I didn't even bother to read the cover because I knew I had to read it. I honestly didn't even notice the hair on the front... Yeah, so I had no idea it was a retelling of Rapunzel. I have nothing to say for myself. My lack of situational awareness did make for a great surprise though when I realized which retelling I was getting into!

The story here is a very complex one. It isn't just the story of Cress just like Scarlet was not just the story of Scarlet. Cress picks up right where Scarlet left off - with Cinder, Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf on the run from Levana and her minions. Very quickly we meet Cress, a Lunar shell who is being held in a tower satellite and working for Thaumaturge Sybil. After a series of heart-stopping events during an attempted rescue by Cinder and the gang, Cress ends up alone in the middle of nowhere with Thorne, who she has had a schoolgirl crush on forever (honestly she's kind of a creepy stalker).

Shortly after Cress' somewhat successful rescue attempt, the story deviates into several storylines, which is probably the biggest reason why I didn't give this book a full five stars. While I understand the reason Marissa Meyer chose to separate the book into separate storylines, I found myself either kind of forgetting about other characters or getting annoyed that a different character had disappeared. The pacing seemed to drag at times... Honestly it took me almost two weeks to get through this book. It just seemed to take forever! That's not to say I didn't really enjoy it though!

As always, the world of The Lunar Chronicles is absolutely breathtaking! This time was even better though - I got to visit a satellite and FINALLY got to see some of Luna! <---- THAT is one of the main reasons I am absolutely planning to read Winter! I can't wait to get back on Luna! I can't help but picture the crescent moon on Treasure Planet!

I loved getting to know Cress. I loved how naive she was, especially in her early scenes with Thorne. She was timid, but not annoyingly so (think Anastasia Steele... *shudder*), and although she was very out of place out of her satellite, she held her own surprisingly well.

Thorne... Oh my god, Thorne. He was probably my favorite out of all the men in this series so far! I loved everything about him and most especially his attitude. He reminded me so much of Captain Jack Harkness (and the fact that he's also a captain was not lost on me). The romance here, as in the first two books, was convincing and totally non-instalovey!


The other characters were obviously amazing too - if I didn't love them I wouldn't have picked up book number three! I was so glad to get some more Cinder/Kai time in this book! I can't wait to see where there story goes in book number four! But probably one of my absolute favorite characters in Cress was Iko! I love her, I love her! I hope there's a story all about Iko at some point because I'd definitely read that.

Okay, so I don't want to ramble, which is what often happens when I post a good review. Suffice it to say I really, really liked Cress! There were some pacing issues that caused me to drag this book out over a longer-than-normal period of time, but it was still action packed and I enjoyed it enough that I've already purchased Fairest and definitely plan to preorder Winter! I'm guessing I'll have to set aside a month for that one...