Cress (Lunar Chronicles) Library Binding – Large Print, 5 Feb. 2014

I've been a huge fan of the Lunar Chronicles ever since I first read Cinder so I couldn't wait to get my hands on Cress, I pre-ordered this book as soon as it was available and I dropped everything to read it the minute my copy arrived. I love the way Marissa Meyer manages to weave fairytale characters into her stories, she has created such a fascinating world and it's full of characters I've come to love throughout the series. Each book adds a new main character, in this case we have Cress (a take on Rapunzel), but we still get the chance to catch up with previous characters and see how their journey is continuing.Cress has been held prisoner on a tiny satellite orbiting earth for seven years now and she has been forced to help Queen Levana by hiding the Lunar ships full of soldiers that are currently in orbit. All she has ever wanted is to find a way to escape her prison and she hopes that by reaching out to Levana's enemy Cinder she might find herself an ally. Cinder is currently in hiding with Scarlet, Wolf and Thorne but she is determined to find a way to prevent Levana from marrying Emperor Kai and continuing her attempt to take over earth. Cress has insider information that could be vital but it isn't going to be easy to rescue her and still have time to stop the wedding from taking place.From the minute I started this book I couldn't put it down, I just loved being back in this world and catching up with all of my favourite characters. It's not often an author can pull me back in to a series so easily when I've had to wait a year between instalments, this is a particular problem since I no longer have time to reread the previous books each time but thankfully that wasn't an issue here. Within a few pages I was fully immersed in Marissa Meyer's world and desperate to see how things played out. Cress is a book that has a lot of important revelations that are going to have major impact on how things play out in the final instalment, Winter. As such there were times when I found it a little slower than the previous books but that didn't mean I was any less hooked on the story - I stayed up until 5am to finish reading it so that's got to tell you something about how much I loved it!Cress is very different to our previous heroines, she is much more innocent and naive but I found that completely understandable considering her circumstances. She has spent seven years trapped on a tiny satellite which is probably smaller than most studio apartments, the only person she has had any contact with has been one of Levana's trusted aides and that has only been for very short periods of time. It's actually quite surprising that Cress is still sane considering everything she's been through! I thought she was such a sweet character and I loved seeing her grow in confidence once she'd been rescued. She starts off as a damsel in distress but by the end of the book she is doing a much better job of standing on her own two feet. I loved Thorne in the previous book but he grew on me even more here, he is still that cheeky guy we came to love but he has a much nicer side that he keeps well hidden. Cress is the only one who sees through his witty banter to the hero hidden deep inside and even though she sees more good in his actions than were really there she ends up making him want to be a better man so he can live up to her expectations.Cress is immediately besotted with Thorne because he is not only the person who comes to her rescue but as he rightly points out to her he is also the first man she's ever met. I'm glad that he calls her on her childish infatuation and doesn't take advantage of her affection. I would have liked a little more time spent seeing them get to know each other so that I could have had more faith in their relationship but I still enjoyed spending time with the two of them, especially once Cress started to grow up a little as she got used to the outside world. One other thing I missed in this instalment was Scarlet, she doesn't have such a major role in this story and she is separated from the others for the majority of the time which made my heart break for Wolf a little. I can understand why it had to happen that way though and I'm sure it's going to be very different in the next book.We also get a glimpse at the next heroine, Winter, and I can't wait to find out more about her. She is a lunar princess but because she has refused to use her powers for so long she is starting to lose her sanity. Winter is definitely an interesting character and I'm sure she's going to cause all sorts of chaos in the next book. I've been following this series since the very beginning so it's going to be a long wait until Winter is released in 2015 but I'm sure it will be worth it - I'm absolutely desperate to know how things turn out for Cinder and the gang!

Do you sometimes get urges to read whole series? Even when there are 6 or 7 books in the series? And some are 800 pages long? But you really must just find out what happens to the characters as the story progresses?In my view a true reader of sagas always wants to get to the finale... but never the end, and thus we are very lucky when we find out that yes, a new book will be published in...(usually 2 year’s time but heh, who’s counting?)Well even if you don’t read these series all in one sitting – or over a week or so, I do. And thus began my Xmas reading.I get these emails from book reviewing websites – I get Buzzfeed and BlogLoving and they lead me to sites where people review books etc and at the end of the year, we seemed to be getting a lot of lists – the best of and so on. And one list I was led to was the best of fantasy books come out last year.Now I don’t necessarily read the ‘best of books’ as indicated by other reviewers as I don’t often purchase books for myself as a rule as I get the NetGalley feed, and are offered books by authors, and am on several publishers/blog-tour listings (including being in the Brash Priority Circle) and thus get offered more books than I could ever read and review on a regular basis. But at this time of year I was interested to see what other people were reading, and of course, what they thought of the books. And who reviewed the same books as me, and whether or not they agreed.So I read the list and many didn’t appeal, but one book stood out because it was based on traditional fairy-stories but updated to a fantasy time in the future, where we had a colony, long established on the moon, and had improved our surgery levels to supply people missing limbs etc with artificial limbs that came with batteries and power and pockets for stashing tools and... now this really appealed to me as I have 2 artificial knees and I have always wanted to have batteries/motor power installed in them so that they could carry me along without my effort.wellwrittenbookpileADDICTIVEmust-readoutofthisworldBut this was actually the fourth in the ‘real’ series – there is another which is a side story which also came out last year. So having scouted around the fourth book, I decided I needed to read the first, the second, and the third! And then the fourth properly. So Amazon got my money again (see the reviews to come on the St Mary’s Chronicles – there were yet more these books but they were cheaper per book).Anyway. Here we have a set of books based on fairytales, reworked as fantasy – science fiction. So what’s not to love?We have cyborgs, space ships, computers hackers (white and black hat), lunar colonies, mind control, DNA manipulation, wolves, a deadly disease, wars and more fights, miraculous rescues, androids with a sense of humour and sarcasm – have I missed anything? Ah yes, the equivalent of a Wicked Witch. Possibly more, but it’s all there in these books. Richly imagined in a new world that makes sense and is consistent across the books – but do make sure you start with Cinders – number 1 – or you might find yourself lost as the stories are complex and the villain is often changing coat!I definitely agree that is one of the best fantasy/science fiction series to come out recently. One of the best in the genre altogether. Not quite a classic like Arthur C. Clark’s stories but great fun to read and you really do get hooked and what to know what happens next.Davis says that great stories have 5 parts – the introduction where you discover what the story is about and the main characters – the action – the classic crisis where everything falls to bits but – the part where it is resolved and you can take a breath that we are getting there – and finally the lessons we can learn to pass on.If you look at the original stories such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and so on, you can see these 5 sections very clearly. Here parts 2, 3, and 4 happen in not just one book but all of them combining as the characters don’t go away when their story is finished but help tell the next story and the next and the next. So Cinders appears in all books and indeed, her story is the link and hook that brings in Scarlet, Cress and Winter to complete Cinder’s story.5 stars for all these 4 books. I still have to read the Wicked Witch’s own story – Fairest – but will get to this later in the year.