Review: Scarlet

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)
by Marissa Meyer
YA Fairy Tale / Science Fiction
Amazon  /  Goodreads

Plot Summary:

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Review:

I was a little nervous going into the second book because I loved Cinder so much and I was not expecting it to have such an open ending when I knew the second book would introduce new main characters.  It seemed overly ambitious to build on the story by creating even more important characters.  But of course I should have relaxed because Marissa Meyer has it all in control and Scarlet is a wonderful book!

Scarlet is a fantastic update on Little Red Riding Hood.  Her feistiness and independence endeared me to her immediately and to have a mystery surrounding the disappearance of her grandmother was a great way to draw the reader immediately into her story.  I also loved how Cinder was still an important presence in the book, and her story was weaved into Scarlet's perfectly.  The romance between Wolf and Scarlet was a little over the top however.  It bordered on instalove as I didn't quite see why they had such a strong connection, and while Wolf is a great character he was very much overshadowed by Cinder's partner in crime, Thorne, as a memorable male lead.  I can't help feeling meh about Wolf when Thorne is so entertaining!

The wolf aspect of the story though is very clever - especially because I didn't immediately realize the tie to the first book in their history.  That shows really strong world-building which is another great feature of this series.  Everything feels very believable because this series perfectly balances the plot, characters and setting.  With the stakes so high, fantastic characters who really work well together and drama that is incredibly engaging, I can't imagine why anyone would not love this series!