Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published: February 4th, 2014 by Feiwel & Friends

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Summary:

Even in the future. there are damsels in distress…

In the third installment of the Lunar chronicles, Cress, having risked everything to warn Cinder of Queen Levana’s evil plan, has a slight problem. She’s been imprisoned on a satellite since childhood and has only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress a great hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress involving Cinder, Captain Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, 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.

The Review:

This review may contain spoilers from the previous books. You have been warned.

I started reading Cress immediately after reading Scarlet, and I loved every minute of it. Fast-paced and action-packed, Cress kept me at the edge of my seat, eagerly flipping the pages to know what happens next.

Cress continues where Scarlet left off, with Cinder and friends aboard the Rampion, floating around in space planning their next move. Because bad things always happen to good people, our band of misfits gets separated after their attempt to rescue Cress went wrong. Even though that’s sad, it gives the readers the opportunity to get to know each character a little better, how they really are without everyone else there with them. So many things happened in this book and that left no room for boredom. But it’s not all action all the time. I find that Cress is very well balanced between all the planning, the running for their lives, the action, and the romance.

Because she’s been trapped in a satellite for most of her life, Cress is very different from Cinder and Scarlet. She lacks social skills, has unrealistic views about romance (actually, I think that’s how all fairy tale princesses think about romance: Prince Charming saving the damsel in distress on his white horse), and for some reason, I picture her chewing her hair all the time. I’m not sure if that’s mentioned anywhere in the book, I just imagine Cress chewing her hair every time she’s nervous. She’s very naïve, adorable and highly imaginative, always picturing herself as someone else as a way to deal with various situations. But when she lands on Earth, Cress shows us that she can be tough, too. Despite being stuck in space all that time, she doesn’t give up or have a mental breakdown when faced with the unknown. I really loved Cress as a character. Even though she’s not as tough as Cinder and Scarlet, she’s awesome in other ways and her awkwardness makes her more relatable.

This book has plenty of scenes that made me laugh out loud, funny without making it feel forced. At the same time, there is a lot of emotional scenes that made me feel like my heart was in a blender, or a chopping board one of those things, I’m not sure which, especially towards the end. It was like riding on an emotional roller coaster, happy for one moment, then panic, usually when there’s a life and death situation, then sad, then happy again. It was a very enjoyable reading experience.

I actually don’t know what else to say about Cress. I love it a lot, from the story, the characters, the writing, and everything else, but I have no idea how to put it into words that actually make sense, haha. Maybe I’ll change my review when I can write better. So all I have to say now is: if you haven’t read Cress yet, GO READ IT. Seriously. I think Cress might be my favorite Lunar Chronicles book. Of course, I still have to read Winter, but for now, Cress is definitely my favorite. Anyway, have you read Cress? What did you think about it?

“Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them. I’m beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don’t just happen. We have to make them ourselves.”
― Marissa Meyer, Cress

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