Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

This was another one that I had to pick up immediately. I have been waiting for this book for forever (aka: a year). And it’s been so hard seeing all my favorite bloggers getting ARC’s for this one because I have been super jealous. But now, finally, I got to read it!

It takes place directly following the ending of book 1. {Book 1 spoiler warning!!} After the whole leaving her foot on the steps of the ball thing, and being televised all over the world as a threat to society, Cinder is of course arrested. But, can a newfound cyborg, Lunar princess stay still in prison? The book pretty much begins with her epic prison escape (after we are all introduced to Scarlet), so that answers that question, I guess.

And at first I was a little annoyed that Cinder was sharing so much screen time with Scarlet (aka: futuristic Little Red Riding Hood) because I wasn’t immediately in love with the country farm girl in France. However, after defending Cinder (someone she doesn’t know at all) to a group of rowdy, gross men at a bar, I kind of started respecting her. And then just when I though a Cinderella story with aliens, super powers, and cyborgs couldn’t get any cooler, Meyer throws in werewolves (or at least genetically modified Lunars with wolf DNA)!

Scarlet’s grandmother has been missing for over two weeks and just when the police have given up on the case completely because of so many sources saying the old lady was crazy and probably ran away, Scarlet is not in a happy place. Her father is a drunk and her grandmother is the only family she has. So, when she gets her first clue as to who might have kidnapped her beloved granny, she jumps on the opportunity to try to figure it all out (even though the opportunity is dangerous and involves street fighters, wolves, tortured victims, Lunars, and a high mortality risk). She befriends a street fighter/wolf gang member who promises to lead her toward her grandmother in Paris.

Meanwhile, Cinder escapes prison with a new flirty friend. Between breaking out of jail, learning she’s a princess, escaping an evil queen at every turn, and trying to find allies (like Scarlet’s grandmother), Cinder has a lot of quick thinking to do. There’s space travel and international travel involved with her new life on the run. And just when the two characters’ adventures start making more sense and intertwining in ways I wasn’t expecting, all hell breaks loose on earth for Kai. Since Cinder escaped, he “broke” a treaty with the queen of the moon and she gives him three days to track Cinder down.

When it looks like Kai won’t be finding her (after a few close calls), the queen decides to show Kai and earth just exactly what a full-out war with her would entail. There’s tons of violence, death, and political agendas here! Kai has to decide how far he will go to protect his people. Scarlet has to decide how far she will go to find her grandmother and do what her grandmother wants of her. Cinder has to decide what to do with the knowledge she has learned about her past. And with all the entertaining press conferences, media frenzies, and new characters, everyone has a lot to work on in this sequel!

I loved watching Cinder decide what to do with herself! She so doesn’t want to rule, and I love this about her. I also love that she can’t leave people behind. And I particularly love how willing she becomes to learn her new powers in order to protect people. Her new-power complaining meter is very low, and I love her so much more for that!

I grew to love Scarlet and her story as well! I loved the romance between her and Wolf. I loved how strong and resourceful she was, even once abducted. She never stopped fighting for her grandmother or for herself. And she didn’t take as long as other annoying characters would have to forgive certain characters. That made me love her that much more!

The new characters in here were awesome! The old characters had it cut out for them in more ways than one. I loved learning more things about the moon. I found the whole soldier/wolf/fighter concept to be amazing! And I’m just dying for a Cinder versus Moon showdown!

I wasn’t expecting to love the points of view shifts as much as I did. At first I was annoyed with Scarlet and kept anticipating Cinder’s storyline. But soon, I wasn’t sure who had the best story! And this is such a rarity for me lately in YA books with all of these shifts. I also loved that the characters didn’t all immediately love each other when they all connected. Scarlet actually gave Cinder a talking-to! Cinder’s new friend from jail gave everything a humorous light.

I wish I could have seen more Kai, but I have a good feeling he will be playing a very large role in the upcoming books. He sort of ended this book with a bang. I loved the ship Cinder was traveling on and how she could use her old friend’s personality chip to make the ship that much cooler! And I definitely loved seeing other parts of this amazingly thought out futuristic world (hello, France!).

I have to give this one a 10/10. I think I liked it even more than the first one. So, if you have any qualms about reading book two because it’s not all about Cinder, don’t. You will love this one. It is so good!