Owl Post Reviews: Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles #2
Publication: February 5th 2013 by Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Young Adult ~ Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Cover Rating: 5/5
Overall Rating: 5/5

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the 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 or 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 is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

~My Thoughts:

Okay, wow! I was blown away by this fabulous sequel to Cinder. It ended up being even more amazing and fantastic than I hoped it would be. Just like in Cinder, I devoured this book in record time even though it's a pretty big book of 450+ pages.

This book follows 18-year-old Scarlet who lives in a small town in France. When we meet her her grandmother has been missing for two weeks but the police have stopped searching for her already. When Scarlet meets street fighter Wolf she finds out he might know a whole lot about her missing grandmother and is determined to find out what exactly it is he knows and where her grandmother is.
Meanwhile Cinder is trying to break out of jail in order to escape the clutches of Lunar Queen Levana who will stop at nothing to get Cinder and control of Earth.

This second book in the Lunar Chronicles is even more awesome than the first one. Not only Cinder's story continues but we also meet Scarlet, who's in search of her missing grandmother. There were also other great new characters like Wolf who travels to Paris with Scarlet and "captain" Thorne who assists Cinder in her escape. A lot of the other characters we're used to seeing like Kai, Queen Levana (she still scares the crap out of me) and Iko (yes, she's back!).
The story definitely picks up a notch. There's more action, more gasp-moments, more unexpected friendships formed and more sadness than ever. There were quite a few different points of views; Cinder, Scarlet, Kai, also Thorne also if I remember correctly and one for Levana too (brrr). I loved all the POVs but I must say Kai's made me a little sad.

Scarlet is definitely different girl than Cinder. But does it make her less awesome? No it does not. I like her just as much as Cinder. Scarlet and Wolf are just too adorable together when they were traveling to Paris. I loved their spark so much. And, gosh, is he hot! But swooning aside, I just admire him for changing his ways and trying to warn Scarlet not to go searching for her grandmother because he knew what was waiting them. I just want to hug that guy!

I just love the way Marissa Meyer tells this story. Her writing is seriously awesome and had me flipping page after page, hour after hour. No wonder I finished it in only a few days time. One word to describe this book is: "Addicting". So very addicting. One thing's for sure, I can't wait for the next book, Cress. The wait will be torture but so worth it. Is it 2014 already? Le sigh.

Also, if you haven't read Scarlet I would definitely recommend to read The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles, #1.5) before it because it'll give you more information on what's happening. You can read it for free here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/11/the-queens-army

Overall Scarlet was a kick-ass and absolutely worthy sequel to Cinder. I can't remember any book that's been as fascination, exciting and just stunning as Cinder and Scarlet were, especially the latter. Is Scarlet an even better book than Cinder? Most definitely so! I can't wait to see where the next book will go and what is going to happen in it.

Amusement touched the corner of his lips. "Animals love me."
"Oh, I'm sure they do," Scarlet said, beaming with fake encouragement. She shut the door before muttering, "What farm animals don't love a wolf?”

He was still dazed, and though she hated to admit it, he was actually rather attractive. If a girl happened to like that square-jaw, bright-blue-eyes, devilish-dimples kind of thing. Although he was in desperate need of a haircut and a good shave.

A sickening howl stopped her, sucking the air out of her lungs.
The night's chatter silenced, even the loitering city rats pausing to listen.
Scarlet had heard wild wolves before, prowling the countryside in search of easy prey on the farms. But never had a wolf's howl send a chill down her spine like that.

Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf . . .), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was given a small book of them when she was a child. She may or may not be a cyborg. Cinder is her first novel.