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Cress (by Marissa Meyer) Is Beyond Brilliant + GIVEAWAY

by 44 Comments

I am beyond excited to have an ARC of Cress by Marissa Meyer. An ARC?! ME?!! I’m hugging the book and stroking it and whispering precioussss (just so you know all the creepy details).

Thanks you SO MUCH Penguin Australia. (I love you.)

There’s a giveaway at the end of the post, too, for you fabulous blogglings. Happy Birthday to Cress!!


CRESS is book #3 in The Lunar Chronicles


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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Since this is book #3 of The Lunar Chronicles, I’m going to go into detail about the characters. (And, let’s face it, they’re the best part of a book.)

But before we face-plant inwards, the only thing you need to know about Cress is: IT IS BEYOND BRILLIANT. It is! It’s everything I was hoping for (and more). I just — seriously — oh gosh…CRESS. (If you are a Lunartic, just go read this. Nowish.)

Cinder & Kai?
Finally, we get more Cinder! She was more of a secondary character in Scarlet (understandably since Scarlet is the title of the book and therefore it should be about the snippy red-head not the cyborg). But in Cress, Cinder is back into full swing.

I love she’s changing and maturing as a character (aw, sobs, the little cyborg is all grown up). We get more magical glamouring now. More of Cinder’s fantastic sarcasm aaaaand…

More Kai.

I admit! In Scarlet (book #2) I thought Kai was being a brat. He was going about ruling his country all wrong (because, of course, I would do it so much better…ha ha). Finally he’s forsaking some of his prejudices and acting like the Kai I knew in Cinder. (By the way, it’s very hard to write a review where all the main characters names are the titles. Confusing? Yes.)

I ship Kai and Cinder SO HARD. I just wish they’d hear me screaming at the page. It’s inevitable. Hurry up already and sort out your huge insurmountable differences.

Levana & the Lunars?
Can I take a minute to say how annoying Levana is? She’s annoying. (Wow, that took, like 0.2 seconds, not even a minute!) If I was going to be strictly picky, I’d say that, while she’s ruthless, she doesn’t have any real “need” to be evil: except that she wants to rule the world. Eh. Motivation runs a bit shallow. BUT. I’m not being strictly picky. So let’s move on?
I liked how we explored more of the Lunar Earthen population in Cress. They’re not all bad. 
Scarlet & Wolf
Here is where I’m going to complain! They’re hardly in the book! I mean, they are there. But they really take the back burner, and that’s so sad! I LOVE SCARLET AND WOLF. (I also ship them, but that’s beside the point.)
Iko
Heh…I like Iko. (Are we sensing a pattern in this review? YES I LOVE EVERYBODY. DEAL WITH IT.) I love how Iko’s not just a “secondary character”. She advances the plot. She steals the show. And she’s only a robot!

Cress & Thorne
Aw, aren’t these two the most adorable mutant creatures to ever roam the galaxy? Okay, they’re not really mutant. Cress isn’t even “the main character of all chapters”. She’s actually one of a million (I’m exaggerating, there’s like, 5 at most) POVs. But she’s delightfully sweet, a tiny bit romantic, and utterly crazy. Solitude! After a few hundred years, you go a little nuts (except it was 7 years, not 100).

But Thorne? Okay, complaining time again. I. love. Thorne. I do. In Scarlet (book #2), he was intensely funny. He’s full of devilish charm. But in Cress? Eh…he lost some of the devlish charm. And he COPIED. He was Flynn Rider from Tangled meets Captain Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean. Complete with taking lines.

When he deserted the military, he’d left half a dozen cadets and two commanding officers stranded on an island in the Caribbean. Pg. 27, CRESS

See? And:

“Captain?”“Yeah?”“Do you think it was destiny that brought us together?”He squinted and, after a thoughtful moment, shook his head. “No. I’m pretty sure it was Cinder.”

If that’s not directly quoting Tangled, I don’t know what is. It kind of disappoints me…and at the same time amuses me. I’m torn.

I also felt there were a lot of discrepancies of detail regarding Thorne and Cress. The spend a fair bit of time together, on a separate journey to the authors (by default). A looot of time in a desert! A desert! Fun, right? It just didn’t feel realistic. And my second grumpiness with Thorne involves a bit of a spoiler (though it won’t for those of you familiar with the Rupunzel tale). So I won’t go into it just now. Tweet me, if you want to talk about it.

You know my favourite part about Marissa Meyer’s books? All the characters are different. There are 3 main female characters: Cress, Cinder, and Scarlet. They’re all so different! And that’s hard to write! Everyone has quirks, styles, thought patterns. That includes all the secondary characters, and, in book #3, there are a lot of secondary characters. But I feel like these three leading girls are individuals. They’re all crazy and strong and intelligent and capable. I love that!

I’ll never doubt Marissa Meyer’s writing. Honestly, if she writes a book: I want it. Her writing is flawless, her description captivating and her characters are — OH MY GOSH. THE FEELS. THE SHIPPING. THE TALENT OF THIS WRITER IS TO BE CELEBRATED.

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Cait is a Lunartic! (Because “crazy” is too tame of a label.) She still can’t believe she got to read CRESS early. She keeps grinning like a monkey with a banana (yeah, vicious stereotype, we know). The only problem is…now she has to wait a year for WINTER to come out. Daaaang.

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Comments

  1. I cannot wait to read Cress! I'm so excited for it. I've felt really worried and almost let down (if that's possible before reading it) over many of my series this year. They just look like they're falling flat. And then we have Cress, standing on the top of the tallest tower *coughs* erm, satellite. I probably won't get my copy till later this month, but I am definitely ready.And YESSSS. Iko! It's hard to think of her as *just* a robot. Iko is like this awesome person, but with an off switch. Now if only we could put that switch on someone else. . .And, as always, I love your GIFs!

    Reply

    • I HEAR YOU. I HEAR YOU. The Lunar Chronicles is one of the series that continue to astound me at each book. Though, I'm kind of admitting to liking Scarlet better…I still was absolutely invested and flawed by Cress. I'm so happy. XD It's perfect. I know a lot of awesome people I'd love an off switch on…heh.

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    • It. is. awesome. (I'm tooootally hooked. Plus, Marissa Meyer is writing and Alice in Wonderland series about the Red Queen and Hatter. And I'm SO freakishly excited for it.)

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  6. Yay you are so lucky to have gotten these already! I am still waiting for my copy and ABSOLUTELY can't wait. My problem with Scarlet, although I loved it, was that there wasn't enough Cinder and Kai! I'm glad this one has more of the original characters. Lovely review Cait!

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    • Yes! I missed Cinder/Kai in Scarlet too…though I understand it was more like her entrance story and then we're back to having everyone there. But then, in Cress, I missed Wolf/Scarlet. GAH. Why can't they all be in there the whole time together?!!

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  9. I find it totally cool that Cress and Thorne end up in the desert! Does he by any chance lose an eye? Or both? That's how the Prince ends up in the Grimm's Fairy Tales version. She runs off into the desert thinking he's dead. He finds her, even though he was blinded, and they soend the rest of their lives there.

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  10. Aw! I really want to read your review but I haven't even read the first book! I know… shame on me but I wanted to say I love the gif you picked ~ the one with the a capella boys and girls having a capella children. It's adorable <3<br />I love the quotes you picked too. I think I'll finally pick up Cinder just based on the quote with Iko.

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  11. Okay, that's it. I really have to read the other books in the series now. The only thing that's been stopping me is that my sister likes it. And my sister likes some strange books. But who knows? Maybe we can have this one in common 🙂

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  12. OMG, I can't even describe to you how jealous I am at the fact that you have already finished this and is on tour for Cress and Marissa Meyer!!!! I can't wait to read more Cinder, lover her so much more than the other characters ;P Great review!

    Reply

    • IT IS SO GOOD. I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE IT. I always get worried that it won't beat the last book…but seriously. Amazing. Just amazing.

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    • I know. Wolf and Scarlet. *hugs them…carefully* They were quite adorable together and so spiky. They were like spikily in love, it was fantastic.

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  16. My lips are sealed! But I think you'll find all the original fairy-tale-references veeery cool. (I love how she twists them in! They're so modernised, but applicable and all just ADKLSASDF;L. I LOVE THEM.)

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  17. I've been waiting a loooong time to use that GIF. Gosh, isn't that movie hilarious?! I always laugh (and I might just have seen it quite a few times XD). Iko is amazing and hilarious. Seriously, I read the series just for her too.

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  18. Uh-oh….be careful .You're on dangerous ground having things in common with your sister… (don't go there. It leads you to all sorts of fangirly and psychotic places. Just look at me. I'm a prime example. Mime hooked me on Cinder.)

    Reply

  23. Oh Cait, you can't ask me a question like that! D: I kind of love all of them. <3 I like Thorne a lot though so I'm so glad that he's probably (definitely right? :L) going to end up with Cress. Even though I haven't met her, I'm sure she's amazing! Thanks for the awesome giveaway. 😀

    Reply

  24. Well, by book three of a series, I'm not too shocked if I like one of its predecessors better. As long as it's still a lovely little (or not little) book to read, I'm happy. I'm terribly excited to read it.We really need to figure out how to install these off switches. Why can't all the people I want to put it on be a cyborg or something. . .

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  25. See I'm just like you I love everybody. I TOO thought Kai was being a brat in Scarlet. I'm glad he's finally coming around where I like him more now in Cress.

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  26. I'm convinced that he some how becomes blind. I don't know how, but it happens. He may not stay that way forever, but I think it's something Marissa Meyer would totally do!

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  30. WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!!! Okay, so EVERY TIME there's a giveaway I get ahead of myself and go CRAZY entering, and then I realize hey, I should stop and see if this is even a US giveaway (which it is not) . . . Sooooo just disregard my hasty entries, don't mind me acting the fool:p (Really though, my bad…)But good luck to you all!

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  31. I'm kicking myself now for reading Scarlet and Cress so quickly – I can't wait a year for Winter! Maybe I'll try all the little prequels and short stories and whatnot, like "The Little Android." Have you read them? Were they any good?

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  32. So glad you loved it. I just finished it as well. It was phenomenal. I cannot believe how much I adore this series. Cannot wait for Winter!

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  33. can anyone not love IKO? Seriously best character ever and I was so excited to see more of Cinder and Kai (Swoon) I thought Thorne and Cress were adorable as well, but at certain points I just really wanted to hit Thorne GRRR

    Reply
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