Rabid Reads

Cress
Series: Lunar Chronicles #3
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published on: February 4 2014
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: 560 pages, Hardcover
Provided by: Purchased

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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.

I’ve been very up front about my love of fairy tales, andRapunzel is one of the only Grimms’ Fairy Tales that has a somewhat happy ending (even if it is a little bit risqué). In the original version, the prince finds Rapunzel after hearing her sing. He comes back day after day to listen to her, and eventually he sees the Witch and learns how to gain entrance to the tower. Which he does. Frequently.

*suggestively waggles eyebrows*

Which brings us to how Witch discovers that she is no longer Rapunzel’s only visiter—Rapunzel is found to be inthefamilyway (ifyouknowwhatImean).

Anyway, Witch is so furious at Rapunzel’s “betrayal” that she cuts her hair and casts her out into the wilderness. Then she waits . . . cue ominous music . . . for Prince to show up, and when he does, she flings him from the top of the tower, and briars scratch his eyes, BLINDING him, when he lands.

Stuff happens and they live. Happily. Ever. After.

Cress by Marissa Meyer is the Rapunzel-based third installment of the Lunar Chronicles, and while I had no urges to throw or otherwise damage books in this reading, I did have to stifle an urge to throw or otherwise damage Cress (the MC, not the book).

I’ll say up front—until around the 75% mark, Cress is downright A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G.

Fortunately, having multiple other POVs kept this from being overwhelming. I’ve already stated that Rapunzel is my all-time favorite fairy tale (and has been since I was like five), so mayhap my expectations were always going to be too high. All I can say is that I was dancing with glee that Meyer got the blinding (of the “prince”) part right, while simultaneously pulling out giant handfuls of hair every time Cress did a not-at-all-endearing imitation of a certain Disney character.

BUT Cinder and Kai were spot-on, and Thorne was as incorrigible as ever, so it balanced out (Scarlet and Wolf weren’t a huge part of the storyline this go-round). AND once I hit the 75% mark, Cress stopped being silly and ridiculous and started being . . . something else. I don’t know exactly what, but I didn’t hate her anymore, so that’s all that matters.

Or almost all that matters. I figured out a while back that my rating system is mostly based on THE FEELS. The books that are decent, but don’t really evoke much emotion get 2 to 3.5 stars. The books that have me doing various things of a superlative nature get everything else. Problem is, sometimes a book is pretty MEH until the very end and then BAM—THE FEELS. Suddenly I forget all of the MEH from the front 90% of the book. I’ve been working on that. Which is why Cress gets 4 stars and not 5. THE FEELS actually kicked in around the same time I stopped wanting to wallop Cress, and she was the minority (no other characters drove me batty). BUT she was the maincharacter, so I didn’t feel I could in good conscience be totally swayed by THE FEELS.

And I felt that Meyer wrapped up Cress beautifully. Am I happy to be waiting another twelve months to read the conclusion? No. Of course not, but I’m still ridiculously excited to see what happens next. Especially with a nutso Lunar princess waiting in the wings. Winter is clearly C-R-A-Z-Y.

The Lunar Chronicles:

My Review

My Review

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