Scarlet Review

TITLE Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)
AUTHOR Marissa Meyer
PUBLICATION February 5th 2013 by Feiwel and Friends
READ January 15, 2012
SOURCE Raincoast Books for review

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-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 and 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 has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

When I started my blog last year Cinder was one of the very first books that I read for it. I can remember being so torn and I actually ended up rating it a 3 & then going back a few weeks later and upping my rating to a 4. The premise for The Lunar Chronicles is just so out there and something I think I had some trouble wrapping my head around. Upon finishing Scarlet I can now say that I am a huge fan of what Marissa Meyer is doing with this series!

Scarlet picks up right where Cinder left off but it also tells the story of a new character, can you guess her name? Scarlet! While the story does start off with Scarlet’s side of things, fans of Cinder can rest assured that we still get a very strong dose of the characters we came to love in the first installment. I had worried that I would be disappointed that the sequel introduced a new story but the two tales weave together so seamlessly that it felt like Scarlet’s story was really just an extension of Cinder’s, a side of it we weren’t exposed to in the first book.

One thing that I felt really improved in Scarlet was the pacing. I was pretty bored with the first half of Cinder and that’s why I struggled so much with the rating. Scarlet starts off with a bang and just keeps getting... bangier! There was not one moment that I wanted to put it down and I absorbed it’s 462 pages in a single day. While this one is pretty predictable, just as Cinder was, I have to think that it’s on purpose because predictability seems to be a running theme in these novels. Because of that I didn’t find that it hindered my enjoyment of the story at all because it just felt like that’s how it should be.

So, back to the characters. Both Cinder and Scarlet are such strong women, I loved watching them face all the trouble they got themselves into head on. Cinder meets Cadet Captain Thorne and he really brought out the snarky side of her. I absolutely loved the witty banter the two of them had going on and once our beloved Iko was brought back into the story things got even more hilarious. Scarlet’s side of things took a more romantic route and I can say that I am totally swooning over Wolf. The internal struggle he fights through in the novel and his protectiveness of Scarlet was perfect! He didn’t feel possessive or creepy, he just felt perfectly sweet.

Scarlet is a more than worthy follow up in what is proving to be one of my all time favorite series. Once again we are left in the thick of things and left pining for Cress. I think it’s safe to say that it will be a painful wait, but one that I know will prove worthwhile!

x1000!