Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 5, 2013
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 452
Source: Own

Goodreads Synopsis: 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.

GOODREADS . AMAZON . B&N

Review: It has been awhile since I finished reading the first book in this series, Cinder. In fact, it has almost been a year, as I finished Cinder on March first. I am not sure why it took me so long to read this book since I really did enjoy Cinder, but I am not always the best at reading books in a series back-to-back. The truth is, I did start this book several months ago, back in 2014. I cannot remember when I originally picked it up, but I do know that I was reading it at the airport in September when we went on our anniversary trip. It was not that the beginning was not good, it was, it just also seemed a bit slow for me, too. This was something that I expected, as Cinder had been the exact same way, but then it picked up and I absolutely loved it. I had hoped that I might be drawn in right away on book two, but it still took some time for me.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this book. Naturally, I did take a bit off of the rating due to what I mentioned above, but it was still almost a five star book for me. There was quite a bit more action in this book compared to the first, which I really did enjoy. It was exciting and stressful, and had me reading quickly at the end in order to figure out how things were going to go (at one point I was sure that the whole thing was doomed...then I remembered that there were a couple more books in the series to go!). Meyer definitely is very good at creating suspense and keeping you interested through the end of her books. 

Another thing that Meyer is fantastic with is creating wonderful characters. I really enjoyed the characters in Cinder, to the point where I was not sure that the characters in the series could get any better, but then I was introduced to Scarlet and Wolf. I was a fan of Scarlet from the very beginning. I love how she has her own thoughts and opinions on everything, even if it's the complete opposite views of everyone else in the world. She knows what's right, what she cares about, and what she wants...and she is not afraid to do whatever she has to in order to achieve those things. She is spunky and stubborn, and overall was just a character that I really, really enjoyed reading. I felt like I was pulled into the story with her, and I absolutely loved that. 

Wolf is a wonderful character as well, too. I really enjoyed how back and forth I had to go with him based on some things that happened in the book. I was not sure if he was telling the truth or lying, and it was really interesting to have a character like that (even if it made me really mad at some points). Going along with these two characters, the relationship and romance between them was incredible, my favorite in the series so far. I appreciate that it was not instalove at all. In fact, Scarlet wanted very little to do with him at the beginning, which I thought was a wonderful addition. While the whole story did take place in a pretty short amount of time despite the length of the book, it did not seem like any part of their relationship was rushed. Obviously they are going to have some things to work through, and I look forward to seeing where the next book takes them.

As I said before, I was quite pleased with this book overall. Meyer has done a beautiful job of creating this world, and since she wrote of it so well in Cinder, she really just got to build on it in Scarlet, which did lend itself to the added action and thrill, at least in my opinion. I did love how the point of view switched back and forth between Scarlet and Cinder as well. I wondered how the two stories were going to work side by side and eventually come together, and naturally Meyer did a beautiful job of making things line up perfectly, and foreshadowing how these things were going to work out when it did happen. Needless to say, I cannot wait to pick up Cress and continue along with the series.

Rating: 5.0 is what I gave on Goodreads, but I think it's more of a 4.5 for me.