Cress
Cress (Lunar Chronicles, #3)by Marissa Meyer
Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only 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 goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can. (goodreads.com)
Release date: February 4, 2014I don't normally like to post too early about soon to be published books, but I figure a month and half (ish) isn't too bad... Also I need to just be able to read and blog when I am able to these days. So you're getting an early review of Cress. I shall try not to spoil anything, but I suggest you continue reading at your own risk. ;)My gosh. I started this post a week ago...but I'm just not feeling the book blogging mood anymore. Ugh.I might be in the minority, but I found Cress started off really slow and I wasn't entirely certain I was going to like the book in the end. Turns out I started liking the story a lot more by the second half, which made me happy.With each book being about a different main character, it's bound to happen that a reader might not connect much with a specific story. This is how I felt about Cress. I didn't particularly like her. There was nothing special about her personality that I can blame on my dislike of her. Maybe it's that I felt she didn't actually have any personality. She seemed sort of one dimensional and bland. Can't say I blame her for it. I gather her circumstances lead to her blandness, but maybe she could have been written a little more endearingly or something.I didn't hate her. I just didn't care anything about her. That actually makes me sad because I'd much rather hate a character than be indifferent to one. With the hatred I know they have been portrayed in a way that makes them more realistic and well-rounded.On the flip side, this book had a lot of Captain Thorne and I adore his character. He always makes me laugh. I like that he got to expand from his side-kick, comic relief role a little and we get to know more about him. Even if it's with Cress.And really, I liked Cress slightly more by the end of the story. But I still like the other characters more. Heck, I even adore Iko more and she's a robot.However I am seriously looking forward to the fourth and final book - Winter. Because the brief glimpse we have of that character was enough to make me exclaim, "ooo, this is going to be GOOD!" when I was done reading.Even though I received an ARC of this book (not for review, as gift) I am going to purchase the hard cover when it comes out in February because I do love this series. I love this sci-fi, fantasy take on Fairy Tales I know and love so well. The writing is excellent and the stories are captivating. The cover art for these books is just beautiful as well and they are books I will be happy to have in my collection for ever and ever.The Lunar Chronicles