Review: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:
Title:  Scarlet  
Author:  Marissa Meyer
Series:  The Lunar Chronicles #2  
Genre:  YA Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Published:  February 5th, 2013
Source:  I purchased the book at a Scholastic Warehouse Sale

I have to say that I had trouble getting through this one.  If you remember my review of book one, Cinder, you'll know that I haven't quite loved this series as much as everyone else, unfortunately.  It took me over a month to read.  At the end of the story, it did pick up and grab my interest again.  Now since I already own copies of the next three books, Cress, Fairest, and Winter, I will probably go on and see where the story goes.  In fact I've heard from many people that Cress is their favorite in the series, so I'm looking forward to starting that one, and hopefully picking up.  If you haven't read the first one, you may not want to read on for any spoilers.  

This story is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood for the most part.  Although we still have the main characters from book one, Cinder and Prince Kai, and Queen Levana.  Cinder is in prison, but after talking to her doctor, she finds that she must escape.  When she does, she is off to try to find answers to who she really is, and she takes along a fun new character, Thorne. Thorne describes himself as a ladies' man.  And he helps Cinder somewhat reluctantly, but he is also glad for the prison break.  And then they are on the run. At the same time we have Scarlet, who is working on her grandmother's farm, even though her grandmother has disappeared.  At the same time a new guy is in town, named Wolf.  Wolf is a fighter, and he also doesn't seem to know much about fresh food, and life as Scarlet knows.  Soon Scarlet finds out that there are other people like Wolf, men who can change into wolves.  And Wolf is trying to protect her, and he agrees to try to help her find her grandmother, who she has found out has been kidnapped.  

It's hard to explain a lot about the story.  It kind of went around and around.  Wolf definitely had something sneaky about him. Something that Scarlet would have to decide if it was worth trusting in the end.  And of course, this retelling would mean a romance might develop between them. But with all the things going on in the world, it's unsure if they can be together.  And there are definitely secrets that Wolf is keeping from Scarlet, even as he is keeping her safe.

Cinder is trying to stay hidden as the number one fugitive. She is a fugitive as Prince Kai was supposed to give her to Queen Levana.  And when Cinder disappears, the Queen plans to attack Earth.  It is then that we find out about the army she has been building on the Moon.  An army of soldiers very similar to Wolf and his kin, but much worse.  To save Earth, Prince Kai gives in to Queen Levana's wish to marry him.  And that is kind of where we end up.  

That's not all, as I said, I can't explain it all.  It's a very convoluted story.  That's probably part of what made me have trouble getting into it. But the end all came together, in a way that makes me want to go on to the next book.

Discussion Post: I'm Yes Then I'm No, I'm In Then I'm Out - Or the Beloved Books That I Just Couldn't Seem to Love

As always I didn't get around to my discussion post till the end of the month.  Partly because of how busy it has been with school getting started back up. And partly because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to discuss.  Even now, my title isn't as good as I want it to be, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment, so hopefully it somewhat makes sense.  My discussion today is going to be about the books that either everyone seems to love and I tried, but just can't get into or don't quite get the fuss.   Of course I am going to throw in some GIFs because it is just so much fun to find them!

A reminder that the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  If you want to check out any of my earlier posts you can go to these links:

• Fiction is Fiction - Or Why I Believe Teens are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For,   

• It's In the Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings on My Blog,   

• This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or Is It Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog,   

• Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews.

• To DNF or Not to DNF, That is the Question - Or How Do You Decide if You Should Give Up on a Book?

So, my title refers to the Katy Perry song, Hot n Cold, but of course my favorite use of the song is in the Twilight parody by the Hillywood Show, which was also my first introduction to the YouTube sensation.  But what I'm going for with this post is all the books that everyone else is so "hot" for, and they just left me "cold" or at least "lukewarm". 

 

The first one is a series, and I want to duck here, because I'm afraid a lot of you are going to be throwing things at me through the internets.  I am on the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am just not feeling it.  

The first book, Cinder, was more interesting to me than this 2nd one, Scarlet, has been so far.  Even then, when I finished Cinder, I was still left a little bit unsure of what all the fuss was about.  It was okay, but nothing that I was now obsessed over.  But, I was able to get a copy of Scarlet for $4 at a Scholastic Warehouse book sale, and then I won the next three books in the series through a couple different giveaways.  I had heard from many people that book 2 was better than book 1, so I assumed by winning all those books that was a sign I was going to go on and be swept away once I started Scarlet.  Umm, no, it's not happening.  I started the book on August 6th, and since then I've read 4 other physical books, and that's not counting the ebooks I've read.  I usually keep a physical book up on my nightstand so that I will read that right before bed instead of staring at a screen, because I feel like it is probably better for my sleep.  But Scarlet has just not kept me reading.  I can't decide whether to push on through, or give up and then maybe just sell/trade all my copies of the books in the series as a big set.  

 

Next is the Heroes of Olympus series and The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  Now see, I loved the Percy Jackson series. 

But I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight in The Red Pyramid as each chapter went back and forth between them.  Which sucked, because I love Egyptian mythology and was so excited for that series.  

And then, when I struggled through The Lost Hero, all I could think was how many more words were used than were needed.  I looked at the size of the book, and thought about how if they'd left all those extra things out, it would have been probably the same length as the books in the Percy Jackson series, and still just as good as those.  Because of that I have not made myself read on, dreading the amount of time and extra stuff to skip over as I try to get to the main story.  

 

The last books I'm going to talk about that didn't blow me away are the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. 

 I actually love the Mortal Instruments series.  And I love Magnus Bane!  But I tried picking up and reading the first one in the series, Clockwork Angel, and just couldn't get into it.  I think it was actually one of my very first ever Books for Trade deals too!  So I have the copy sitting at home.  I don't know that I want to give up though.  I feel like maybe now sometime I might go back and try it again.  Just don't know when.   

So, are any of these books one that you loved?  Do you have any books like this that you don't like but everyone else does?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please chime in below!

Review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer (TBR Challenge #5)

Well, yeah, I know, I'm one of the last people to read this book.  I've had a copy of it sitting on my TBR shelf for about two years now.  I got it at a Scholastic Books Warehouse Sale.  I had a hard time seeing why it was such a popular book as I began reading it.  I'm not saying it wasn't a good read, I just wasn't getting the big deal.  I did finish the book and enjoyed it enough that I need to go on and see what happens next.

It is a Cinderella retelling with a robot/android as Cinderella.  She's part human though, not a complete robot.  She does have a wicked "stepmother".  She was brought home by a man, who then died, and left her with his wife and two daughters.  Really only one of her stepsisters is not nice.  The other one is friends with her. The story begins with the Prince showing up in Cinder's booth where she does mechanical jobs for people.  In fact she is known as the best mechanic around really.  She doesn't want the Prince to know that she has the robot foot and arm, and so wears gloves and also keeps her leg/foot hidden.  He asks her to help him fix one of his own robots, one that has some kind of information in it that he needs, that is very sensitive information that could be bad if it fell into the wrong hands.  Shortly after the prince leaves, someone in the market gets sick with the disease that is killing so many people.  Cinder hides out until it is safe to leave, because she fits the description of the other people/robots that have been taken to be experimented on in order to figure out a cure.

She gets home and of course her two sisters are getting their dresses fitted for the upcoming ball.  When one of her sisters gets sick, her stepmother blames her, and gives her to the lab to be used in the testing.  Well, this leads to finding out more about her past, and also more chances to meet with the Prince, who seems to be interested in her.  Now, the Earth is trying to work out a peace treaty type of thing with the people who live on the moon, and their queen, Levana, is in town to negotiate.  She wants to make a deal with the King to marry the Prince and unite their worlds that way.  But Prince Kai doesn't want to marry her.  There is something about her that creeps him out.  Not to mention the power she has, something that "Lunars" have, hers is mind control, she can sway the way people think.  When more is learned about what is going on up on the moon, an army has been noticed by a satellite, so all the other countries of the Earth are trying to prevent a war.

The Cinderella story has many of the same kind of major story points, the dress, the lost "shoe", etc.  So many things that definitely fit the storyline.  And yet it is its own world, own characters.  I don't know if I'm as gaga over the series as everyone else seems to be, but I will be reading on!