Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3)
Marissa Meyer
Published: Feb. 4, 2014 (Feiwel & Friends)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: purchased
Reviewed by: Amy
Rating (out of 5): 4 stars
Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference events in the first book. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Cinder.
Cress has been stuck on a remote satellite for seven years. She’s been tasked with keeping watch on Earth and the Commonwealth and reporting back to Queen Levana of her findings. Cress decided she was done being part of Levana’s spy network, hence informing Cinder of the Queen’s plans to murder Kaito in Cinder.
At the end of Scarlet our ragtag group of revolutionaries (Cinder, Thorne, Wolf, and Scarlet) retreated to space in order to avoid capture. Cress, who’s been monitoring them, sees this as an opportunity to finally gain her freedom from the satellite. When the rescue attempt goes badly our group is split up in different directions. No matter what, they still need to stay on track with their plans to stop Kaito’s marriage to Levana in order to keep her from gaining the power she so longs to have over Earth.
Things are really starting to come to a head in the Lunar Chronicles and, with this being the second to last book, it was nice to see some action toward the end picture actually taking place. Scarlet focused a lot on Cinder truly figuring out who she is and where she came from, and now, after finding that out, she can move forward with plans to overthrow Levana. Cinder knows what the end result should be, but her problem is figuring out the best course to get there. The split-up of the group doesn’t help matters either, even though, to me, it felt like more of a ploy to give Cress her own adventures/page time.
Cress was an endearing character. She’s been alone, for the most part, for so long that she’s developed a very surreal view of the outside world. She has a wonderful imagination and when she’s first out on Earth she uses it as a way to cope with the magnitude of things she’s experiencing for the first time. Some may be wondering if she’s just crazy, but despite being alone for so long, I’d have to say she’s quite grounded yet quirky.
During her information scouring sessions on the satellite, Cress becomes enamored with Captain Caswell Thorne. She is both delighted and mortified that he’s the one to board her satellite for rescue. When the rescue goes haywire the two are stranded in an unknown desert location and Cress gets to learn if the fantasy of him lives up to reality.
I thought, unfortunately, that Cress’s story was over shadowed by the bigger storyline started in Cinder. Even with Marissa Meyer separating her characters and trying to give Cress her own space in the book, the only thing I could focus on was when the characters would all find their way back together again.
Also, the romance was a little shy for my taste. I found myself still drawn to the dynamic between Wolf and Scarlet and Meyer put in a twist that made me wish those two had more page time. There were times I was reading quickly through passages just to get to another one from Scarlet’s POV.
Despite not being my favorite in the series thus far (that honor goes to Scarlet), Cress was a good read and makes me wish the final book were coming out sooner!
Sexual content: Kissing