Book Review: Fairest

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Fairest by Marissa Meyer is a bridge between the books Cress and Winter.  This book is part of the Lunar Chronicles Series, and is a futuristic, young adult novel.  While the other four stories follow a fairytale theme, this book is more like a window into the evil step-mother life.  While this book isn't a part of the series, I felt that it was a great read and set up for the final book in the series, Winter.  This story was shorter, but explained and introduced other characters that play huge roles in the final book.

Queen Levana is known as the ruthless ruler of Luna and their people the Lunars.  Known for her glamour you follow Queen Levana as a young teenager up to her adult years.  You feel for the insecure girl who was badly scared from a fire when she was a child.  Verbally abused, she becomes obsessed with a palace guard who is older than her and happily married into another woman.  She soon realizes the power she has not just with her glamour (Which is where they can change their physical appearance) but also with other people.  With the ambition of being not only the most beautiful Queen, but also the greatest ruler of Luna, she isn't afraid to hurt, kill and destroy anyone who stands in her way.  Including family.

I loved this book.  While it wasn't necessary to the Lunar Chronicles series, I was a great way to understand the madness that is Queen Levana.  One thing that I loved about this story is that even though you find out what she went through and you start to understand how she became who she was, you don't change your opinion on her.  You don't in the end hope that she gets a happy ending.  You still want to see her get what she has coming to her in the final story Winter.  While it isn't necessary to read this book as part of the Lunar Chronicles, it was still a great read.  Yes, you can read the Lunar Chronicles book without this and they explain everything that you need, I found it was interesting to go deep into the character which is Levana.  Finding out how she became the loose cannon that she was, was interesting.  I loved every second of this book.

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Cress

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series and it is geared towards the young adult audience.  The first two in the series are Cinder and Scarlet.  Just like the first two books in the series, Cress is a futuristic take on a classic fairy tale of Rapunzel.  

In Cress, the plot is a continuation from the first two books.  You follow the previous characters, Cinder, Captain Throne, Scarlet, Wolf, and a little bit of Prince Kai.  The four main characters, are plotting to overthrow the evil Queen Levana and her army.  They meet a girl Cress, who is a shell (which is a Lunar who can see through a Lunar person's glamour and doesn't have any of their abilities) and has been imprisoned on a satellite since she was a young girl.  She was forced to monitor and hack vital information of the people of Earth to help Levana.  The four decides to stage a daring rescue, but unfortunately it doesn't go as planned and they find themselves separated.  Cress finds herself alone Carswell Thorne, and they try to meet up with Cinder and the others.

So if you guys couldn't tell, I loved this book as much as the first two.  This book felt like there was more action and plot twists than the first two and I enjoyed every second that I read this book.  Of course, there was a bit of romance, but it didn't over power the plot and story line.  Which is something I appreciated.   You find out more about the characters involved and also there is hints of the future characters that will be major players in the final book of the series which is, Winter (Which at this moment I am patiently waiting for my book order.  I had a birthday gift card that I was waiting to use until this baby got released.)  I unfortunately find that with books that I love I have such a hard time talking about what I loved about them.  Because this series has had me hooked since I first read Cinder, I couldn't put it down.  As I said this was a refreshing change from the normal books that I normally read, and I also felt that this series stands out from the other young adult books that seem to get a lot of hype.  It has action and romance, with a fairytale and futuristic twist.  It's not quite dystopian nor is it quite science fiction.  I feel that it is in a genre on its own.

On a sad (or possibly happy) note, I've read a few articles that this series is going to be turned into a movie.  And for those of you who don't know, I have a love hate relationship with books that get turned into movies.  Especially if I really enjoyed it.  I just hope that who ever is writing the script, casting the actors and directing, gives this series the justice that it deserves.


Rating:
4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a young adult, science fiction, romance book loosely based off of a the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.  This book is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles series and was published in 2012.  I read this book last year in March and I have to say, I loved it!  I'm completely hooked on this series and I'm going to state this now, I will be incredibly disappointed if they turn this into a crappy movie.  Yep I went there.

The story starts off when Cinder who is a android/human hybrid trying to offer her mechanical skills.  As a cyborg she is considered a second-class citizen and can't remember her past before her life saving operation.  In the market, someone suddenly take ill and you are introduced to the event that sets everything into motion, the plague that is ravaging the population of earth.  Just like every fairy tale there is an evil queen, Levana who is a ruthless leader to the lunar people who watch and manipulate those around them.  When Cinder's beloved stepsister becomes ill with the plague, her stepmother sells her to the Prince Kai's head doctor so that they can run tests on her.  But soon she finds that she is more important to the people of Earth and also important to Kai.

I have to say for a young adult novel, I thought it had the right amount of romance.  It was enough to make my heart happy, but not over done that I would have thought that this wouldn't be apporpriate for the age group that it was aimed at.  As someone who is in their later 20's instead of their teens I was thoroughly entertained by the book.  I felt the author did an excellent job of writing, it wasn't too mature but it also wasn't patronizing that I feel a lot of young adult books tend to be.  I immediately loved the character Cinder.  A lot of the time, I find that author's find that it is easier to make their main female characters to be weak and easily manipulated.  This is not the case with Cinder, she's confused, yes, and she also doesn't originally want the burden.  I found that all of the characters were intriguing and I couldn't put the book down.  The plot moved fast enough, but not so fast that it was hard to keep details straight.  I couldn't put this book down, and I immediately bought and read the sequel Scarlet and as soon as Cress came out I bought that as well.  And of course, I am patiently waiting for the next book to come out.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars because I couldn't put it down and this has got to be one of the first young adult books that I have been able to get completely en captured by.  As an adult sometimes books that are in the young adult genre are not very well written, and it is not the case with this book.  I loved it from cover to cover.

Rating:
5 out of 5