Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Summary:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.
Who is the Fairest of them all?

Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her “glamour” to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, Levana lived a very different story–a story that has never been told . . . until now.
New York Times -bestselling author Marissa Meyer reveals the story behind her fascinating villain in Fairest, an unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes a special full-color image of Levana’s castle and an excerpt from Winter, the exciting conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles

My Thoughts:

     I had no idea that I never reviewed Fairest!

So why am I now reviewing a book that came out back in February?

I just re-read Fairest in anticipation for Winter to release in two weeks!

The Lunar Chronicle books always released in the Spring and then Fairest came along and Winter got pushed back to, well, Winter. (okay, yes, I know that November is still Fall.)

Even still- the wait was worth it to have this gem of a novella!

Like most Lunar Chronicles readers, I have HATED Levana. She’s evil and crazy and just…awful. Fairest made me see her in a bit of a different light.

The book shows why she is the way that she is. Granted, this isn’t necessarily like some stories where you find out that she was just misunderstood all this time.

Oh, no. Make no mistake- Levana knows exactly what she’s doing and it is all intentional. However, the reader almost develops some sympathy for Levana thanks to different events—almost….ALMOST!! ….and then you remember all of the crazy things she’s done in response to the things that caused you to have sympathy for her.

So while I wouldn’t say that I really for sorry for Levana, I do feel like the novella made me “get” her to a certain extent. It was definitely a needed addition to the series in order to make sense of her character and actions.

Furthermore, it makes me all that much more excited for Winter! We know more about Winter and Princess Selene’s histories and I’m assuming that will be a large part of Winter now that we know what’s going on. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend reading Winter if you haven’t read Fairest- the information honestly seems to be THAT important!

Now—back to my Winter excitement!

Monday Mindset: Fairest

This is completely new.

As in…the news just dropped maybe an hour ago.

MARISSA MEYER WROTE A PREQUEL BOOK TO THE LUNAR CHRONICLES!!!

If you follow my reads, then you know that I love this series. The Lunar Chronicles mixes two of my favorite things: SciFi and Fairy Tales.

This new book will come out just before Winter, the last book in the Lunar series, and will focus on Queen Levana.  Winter deals with Princess Winter, Levana’s stepdaughter, so it will tie into the book and have needed information.

I’m pumped and this makes the wait for Winter both easier and harder.

How long is it until January 27?

-Melanie

Here’s a link to the original article on USA Today that broke the news: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/06/16/marissa-meyer-fairest-book-exclusive/10573961/

Book Challenge Update!

At the beginning of January I set a reading goal for myself and decided to read 75 books this year. I tend to get busy or in a rut, so I figured that was a safe number.

I here to reveal my January total….7 books! I don’t think that is too bad at all. At least two books were paper copies which do tend to take me a little bit longer to read. All in all, I read some great stuff in January including The Uglies, We Were Liars (comes out in May), The Here and Now (releases in April, and Cress (NEXT TUESDAY!!!). I can’t wait to see what is coming up in February!

Book Review: CRESS by Marissa Meyer

 

Summary:

Publication Date: February 4, 2014

In this third book in Marissa Meyer’s bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, 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 prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped 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 being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

 

My Thoughts:

I love this series. If you’ve been keeping up with my books, then you know that I’m a big fan of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles. Ever since I read Scarlet, book 2, a couple months ago I’ve been dying for Cress. I tried everything I could find to snag an ARC of the book.

I finally succeeded. It resulted in me stalking my mailbox for almost two weeks.

I didn’t know what to expect with Cress being the 3rd book in a quartet. Would there be tons of no-action-filler-content? Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about middle book syndrome from Cress. There is hardly a break in the action!

My favorite thing about the series is how we’re introduced to a new female character each book. Cress is a take on Rapunzel and she may be my new favorite. Whereas Cinder and Scarlet were tough-kick-butt girls, Cress is AWK-WARD. Granted, she has been locked away since childhood, so it is understandable. However, her awkward, normal personality easily made her the most likable to me so far.

As for the guys, Thorne became my favorite in Scarlett and his actions in Cress just make me love him even more. Good job, Captain!

I don’t want to say too much about the storyline because I don’t want to spoil it, but the plot moves quickly. This is the largest book in the series at almost 600 pages, but I never felt overwhelmed at the length because I was completely absorbed in the action. I needed to know what was going to happen next. Were they going to overthrow Levana? Was Kai going to go through with the wedding? I NEEDED to know. Of course, we still have Winter coming out next year, so I don’t want to spoil that.

You may notice that I didn’t mention anything about Scarlet’s character. In the words of River Song, “Spoilers…”

Pick up Cress immediately if you’re a fan of this series! Otherwise, do yourself a favor and read Cinder ASAP so that you can get to know this original story!