Review: Cress

Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Science fiction, fantasy, retelling, YA

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:
In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had 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 of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

This book was just so adorable! My love of fairy tale retellings just keeps growing and growing, especially after reading excellent ones like this. It helps that this series continues to get better with each book.

Cress continues the stories of Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf and Thorne while introducing Crescent Moon (Cress) and raising the stakes of the Earth-Luna situation yet again. You would think that with so many main characters, it would be difficult to give each of them the attention they deserve. While some characters were less present in this book - Scarlet, you were missed - others were given an unexpected spotlight. I enjoyed seeing how different characters have changed and continue to grow over the course of this series. Thorne especially goes from a cavalier, arrogant captain that we don't really know much about to a genuinely charming, kind man (who is still absolutely arrogant when it suits him...agh!). There are some very interesting new characters involved as well. Marissa Meyer continues to give each character layered pasts and hidden connections to one another, old and new alike.

For me, it's really the characters that make me love a book, and I cannot say enough good things about the young women in this book. I'm an engineer, and it's so exciting to see girls portrayed as mechanics and computer hackers as if it's totally normal. No one comments about these girls' interests being unusual, and they are great at what they do. While Cinder and Scarlet bring the fighting skills, Cress is a softer character but she is still just as strong. She brings the intelligence and creativity to the situation. It's incredible how she has been through a lot, yet manages to remain positive and help the people around her stay motivated as well. I appreciated how each of these young women had people they cared about, but were never too distracted by love to get the job done.

Science fiction and fairy tales are two of my favorite things, and Marissa Meyer proves yet again that it's an excellent combination.