ARC Review: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Melissa Meyer @marissa_meyer @MacKidsBooks

Blurb from Goodreads:
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.

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The Cover Contessa's Review:

Holy hot heck. THAT was AMAZING! And the second to last chapter, I GOT THE TINGLES! When the heck is Winter coming out? I NEED that book NOW! I need to process...review to come.

I want to thank Macmillan Teen for sending me an ARC of this book to read and give an honest review. Needless to say, I was totally shocked when it came in the mail and super excited. I love this series so I was ready to jump right in! Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.

If you haven't read the first or second book in this series, STOP HERE! I cannot promise there won't be spoilers!

This cover, oh, this cover. I have such cover love for this series! They are simple, yet so eye catching you can't help but want to pick them up and see what they are about. Now, I will say that my ARC does not have this photo on the cover. As a matter of fact, it's just a plain purple with the writing in white on the front. But I didn't care! See:

This book picks up right where the last one left off. Cinder, Thorne, Wolf and Scarlet are on the run in Thorne's ship. Suddenly, there is correspondence from Cress, who lives high up in a satellite where the queen keeps her as a tech genius! But Cress longs to meet Thorne, who she has heard so much about. So, when they come in contact, and the renegades offer to come rescue Cress, she can't resist. But this sets off a chain of events that separates the team causing them to scatter throughout the world.

Cress is an interesting character. This is Meyer's Rapunzel. But, like the other two stories Meyer has written, this one is loosely based on the character (locked in her satellite with her long blond hair). She is so very naive. Having never been exposed to the world, she barely knows how to act when she's in the presence of others. She's used to interacting with the computers in her satellite. But her way is so endearing. She willingly puts herself on the line to try and escape Queen Levana's reign. She's very sweet and awkward, not to mention shy. And she's also a shell, a Lunar with no powers or abilities. So she's quite disposable to her race. But she has a strength to her that is untapped and well needed to round out the little renegade group that is building.

As for other characters, they are those we have met before: Cinder, Thorne, Kai, Queen Levana, Torrin, Sybil, Dr. Eland, Scarlet, Wolf. And we get to see Jacin again, we were introduced to him in Cinder but didn't really learn anything about him until now. And we are introduced why he is going to be important to us in the next book when we learn about his relationship with Winter, who will be the main character in the next book of the series. Finally, we also earn why Dr. Eland is important to the story and why he is trying his hardest to find shells. One thing I love about how Meyer writes her characters is that we are never 100% sure of who to trust and who not to trust. We have our good and evil, but then there are those that we are not certain about who seem to want to help but might have another agenda. It's great to watch them twist and turn!

As for the plot, it is fantastic. It takes place both in space and on land. I loved when the worlds of Cinder, Scarlet and Cress finally collide. And, while the stories are based on fairy tales we all loved as children, they are only loosely so. Meyer takes them, twists them and makes them totally her own. She reinvents what we knew and creates something that is fresh and brilliant. She injects romance and adventure, action and sci-fi elements, all with ease and fluidity. Her world building is amazing, she leaves no elements unturned or left out. The plot lends to strong character development and realistic personalities. Meyer also gives us some heart breakers and tear jerkers during our journey. And, finally, we are blessed with a reunion that is well worth the wait. The book is greatly paced, and Meyer does not reveal too much or too little as you make your way through this adventure. The biggest surprise to me is that Meyer is truly able to create a cast of characters that each have so many elements in their own personalities it's impossible to get them confused. AND that she is able to juggle such a large cast and continues to add to the cast is amazing to me.

While this book is longer than the first two, I really think it's length was necessary to convey the severity of the characters' predicaments. I never felt like I was bogged down or felt as if I would never get to the end. As a matter of fact, when it did end, I was sad (and of course itching for the next book to be in my hands!). I can't wait to see how this renegade group is able to defeat the terrible Lunar army (that seems to be growing stronger as the days pass!).

I really think sci-fi/fantasy lovers will completely enjoy this installment in Cinder's saga. This book was worth the wait, as I know the next one will be. I'm routing for Cinder and her army of rag tag misfits. They need to win and come out on top!

One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.

When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Those so inclined can still find my first stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanfic turned out to be awesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).

When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more about here). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.

Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER is my first novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around too.

I now live with my husband and our three cats (Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III), who go in and out, in and out, about eight hundred times a day. My favorite non-bookish things include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, re-watching episodes of Firefly, and playing all manners of dress-up.

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