Book Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (no spoilers)

Book: Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication: February 5, 2013
Source: Local Library
Rating: 5/5 stars
Summary (from Goodreads):

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

 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.

My Thoughts:

Scarlet was the thrilling sequel to Cinder that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. After months and months of waiting it was finally time to read Scarlet. Scarlet started out pretty fast paced introducing the character of Scarlet and Wolf. From there on out the novel never slowed down.

Scarlet's grandmother had gone missing and through Scarlet's actions it was easy to see that Scarlet would do anything to find her grandmother. Meanwhile Cinder is stuck in prison in Bejing where she is waiting to be taken by Queen Levana back to Luna. Cinder isn't able to just sit there and take her fate. She acts with impulse to find a way to escape her fate.

Scarlet was a different character from Cinder. Scarlet was headstrong and was willing to fight for what she believes in. She wasn't about to be pushed around where Cinder  is a quieter character who has a lot to handle in Scarlet. Cinder finds out a lot of secrets about herself in Cinder. She learned that she is not really the person she thinks she is and that she has gifts that can be used for good or evil. We see a lot of change in Cinder during this novel as she deals with the new information she has about herself.

We also meet a few new characters in Scarlet besides of course Scarlet. We meet Thorne and Wolf. Thorne is in prison with Cinder. Thorne was a gruff character, but under his facade you could see he really was a good guy. Although I'm still cheering for Cinder to get with Prince Kai I liked Thorne as a character. Wolf on the other hand was a suspicious character for me. Knowing the original fairy tale I had a hard time accepting Wolf and his good boy act. At the end of this novel I'm still not sure what to think of Wolf. I'm sure I will find out in one of the upcoming books.

The story line in Scarlet was amazing. There wasn't a dull moment in this novel. Marissa Meyer did an excellent job putting the two fairy tales together. She did a great job of transitioning from Scarlet back to Cinder. She never really left us in suspense with one character so I was able to enjoy the other character's story line. My only wish is that Prince Kai had parts in the novel a bit more. Kai was not a big character in this novel.

Overall I loved Scarlet just as much if not more than Cinder. The ending was abrupt, but it set the story up for the next novel Cress. I can't wait for the next installment in the Lunar Chronicles. If you haven't read Scarlet or Cinder yet I highly recommend them. My only regret in reading them this year is that I now have to wait until February for book three. Scarlet was an amazing novel that did a great job with the fairy tale of Red Riding Hood. I highly enjoyed this book and can't wait for the third book.


Thanks for reading


Rachael