I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Friday, March 7, 2014

Review: Scarlet

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , ,
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!

Share this post: Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email This Pin This Share on Google Plus Share on Tumblr
Scroll Up

18 comments:

  1. I am so excited for you to read Cress that I am almost literally bouncing up and down right now! Anyways, I think Scarlet might be my least favorite so far? But it's kind of irrelevant because I love the whole series. Yes yes yes to Scarlet and Wolf's relationship, though! It's very strong very quickly, and I don't think it's as well-founded as Cinder and Kai's.

    Ooh, you're gonna love Thorne in Cress. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah I did finish Cress and loved it! I did like it more than Scarlet and am now a forever devotee to Thorne. :D My review of Cress should go up on Monday! I hope I will like Scarlet and Wolf's relationship more in Winter though, he can really step up his game in that one!

      Delete
  2. Yes, exactly! I can't imagine why anyone not loving this series.

    I think you will really love Cress. Thorne has a lot more page time. And we also spend a lot of time with Cinder and Kair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely loved Cress! I was also happy with Cinder and Kai getting to know each other better in that too. The characters in this series are amazing!

      Delete
  3. I agree with you and Rachel about Wolf and Scarlet's relationship... it seems like everyone else loves their romance so I'm glad I'm not the only one! And yes to Thorne! The characters and the world are really so great in this series. I'm pretty sure when she's finished with The Lunar Chronicles, I'll continue to read anything Marissa Meyer writes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm really looking forward to seeing the next Marissa Meyer project! If she does another reworking of something, it will be especially exciting to see her take on it!

      Delete
    2. I think I read somewhere she's going to do a retelling of Alice in Wonderland... that would definitely be fascinating!

      Delete
    3. Oh really!! That's awesome!! I look forward to that!

      Delete
  4. The world-building is getting stronger with every book she writes :) I love how the plot is starting to come together and the introduction of Scarlet was fantastic. She's definitely my favorite character with Thorne :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love that parts of one book pays off in the next- it's great plot planning! And it's funny how much Thorne stands out as a character in these books. :)

      Delete
  5. I'm so glad you loved this! I did too, and I'm so excited for Cress. I adored Wolf, but I see what you mean about the romance. I loved Thorne too :D I'm sure you'll love Cress even more since he's the love interest there.
    Great review :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really loved Cress, I'm sad that I have to actually wait with everyone else now that I've burned through the three books now. :D Thank you for stopping by!

      Delete
  6. Yay! I'm so glad you've been enjoying the books, I love them! :) Wolf and Scarlet's romance definitely wasn't my favorite either, but I loved getting to meet Thorne!

    I hope you enjoy Cress too! :D

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thorne was a highlight! :D I am hoping there will be more to Wolf and Scarlet in Winter though, since it seems like Scarlet might play an important role!

      Delete
  7. I'm glad you ended up enjoying this even though you had high expectations! I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get more of Cinder's story and didn't love this quite as much as the first one, but I'm still excited to go on with the series :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same for me - I think Cinder's storyline was a bit more interesting so I didn't like this one as much either, but overall the series is really fantastic!

      Delete
  8. Since I haven't started reading this series yet, I didn't read your whole review, because I'm so afraid to be even a little bit spoiled. But I'm really glad you gave the 2nd book four stars! I look forward to sitting down with this one :)

    Happy reading Charlene.

    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the series is great - I hope you love it when you get to reading it! It is nice to sit down and read a series from start to finish so I'm thinking I probably should have just waited for the fourth book to come out already, heh. Oh well!

      Delete