Thursday, April 10, 2014

{Mini} Reviews: The Lunar Chronicles 1-3 by Marissa Meyer


Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Publisher:  Macmillan
Publication Date: January 3rd, 2012
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future

These are my thoughts on books 1-3, so there may be spoilers unless you've read all three of these books.

AHHHHHH!!! Why did I wait so long to read this book!!! I’ll tell you why. Fairytale retellings don’t really wet my muffin. I’ve read a few, but it takes me a while before I get the urge to pick one up. So many things can go wrong, especially when your messing with stories I loved as a child.

Take Cinderella for instance… a cyborg Cinderella? Come on now, that sounds lame as shit. Or so I thought. You see, I saw the cover and saw everyone talking about it when it came out. Still, I thought, Nah! This book is not for me. Then Scarlet came out… more raving! *sigh* Really? It can’t be that good, it doesn’t sound that good. Alas, Cress was released and I couldn’t put it off anymore. The blogger applause was deafening, so I proposed to Jess that we give Cinder a try and if we liked it, then we would read the others.

WE Loved it!!! Our normal 25% a day turned into finishing it in about 48 hours. Lol. Some books you just can’t put down. You just can’t. I think Jess almost wet herself the night I told her we could continue reading past 50%, she was fiending, but truth be told, I was too!

As a retelling of Cinderalla, I thought it was excellent. So different and original, but I loved all the little details that were thrown in, that would immediately bring my mind back to the fairy tale.

Love Love LOVED!!!! This Book!




Title: Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Publisher:  Macmillan
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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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.

The week after we read Cinder, we picked up Scarlet. It picks up right where Cinder leaves off. I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only do we read from two knew pov’s, we still got to keep everyone elses!

It confused me at first, but I quickly got used to it bouncing around between them all. And it really gave you a feel for what was going on at all time. Scarlet, she’s feisty and I like her. I liked Wolfe too, but I’ll be honest, I’m still weary of him. He’s the wolf!!! Ya know?

The same as in Cinder, this retelling is so original. I’m kind of blown away honestly and I’m not sure how she comes up with this stuff. Authors are awesome. I loved that you get to learn more about Cinder. More about the revelations that are revealed at the end of book one. It’s good stuff.




Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3
Publisher:  Macmillan
Publication Date: February 4th, 2014
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, 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 her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned 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 just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Oh my freaking gosh, If I thought these books couldn’t get any better, boy was I wrong. Cress, I loved her. Rapunzel is one of my favorite stories, so I was all over this one.

Again, it’s such an original take on the whole thing. So much happens in this one. There is an “OMG, No WAY!” moment towards the end. I love those moments. I love how all these books tie into each other, and the characters too.

This was another buddy read with Jess. We read them all in three weeks. We thought Cress was the last one! Nope, now we have to wait for Winter. *sigh*. It will be worth it I’m sure.

I decided to review all of these together, because they are just too good to review on their own. I had trouble finding enough words for mini reviews. I really feel like if you haven’t given this series a try, you should! The first one is only 2.99 for kindle I believe, so you should totally....

breaking bad animated GIF

Give it a shot!!! 




About the author:

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.

Find Marissa:

Website | Twitter | FacebookGoodreads | Pinterest


17 comments:

  1. I just finished Cinder this weekend!! I freaking loved it... which surprised me because fairy tale retellings also are not usually my thing. I don't know how you could not like the book. I just got Scarlet and plan to start it soon (so I didn't read your Scarlet or Cress review yet... I don't want to spoil anything). Cyborg Cinderella does sound lame LOL... but it's SO good!

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    1. yes!!!! it sounded so lame, but what a surprise!!! I'm so glad you loved Cinder!

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  2. Eeek! I knew you'd love them once you gave them a try!!! :D I didn't think they'd be my thing either, but they're so well-written and so much fun. I can't wait for Winter's story...that girl sounds bat-shit crazy, but I'll probably end up loving her best. :P

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    1. LOL I can't wait for her crazy ass. Is it next year yet? *sigh*

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  3. HELL YEA! 5 Star ratings across the board! You don't know how excited this makes me! I've only read Cinder and FREAKIN LOVED IT. I'm currently listening to the audio, while reading along, to Scarlet, which I'm LOVING!! And I'm sure I'll love Cress & Winter too. I already own all 3 books and can not wait to get the last book to add to my collection!
    Thanks for your thoughts and reviews!!
    Michelle ~ Book Hangovers Blabs Books

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    1. oh my gosh, they just keep getting better!!! I'm excited for you!! :)

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  4. I've seen Cinder pop up a lot around blogland recently, now I'm dying to read it!

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    1. you should!! that's exactly why I decided to give it a go. Everyone and their mother was reading it. :)

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  5. This is a great series! Love, love, love. So happy you enjoyed them well, April. I hope you're just as excited about Winter as I am. :)

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    1. I cannot freaking wait!!! like pins and needles!!! :)

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  6. One of my TOP favorite series. I can not wait to read more from her and see what happens next in the series.
    Stephani @ YAreview.com

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  7. THIS IS THE BEST SERIES OF EVER. I'm so super freakishly excited you love it too!! Scarlet is my favourite, because while I liked Cress SO much, I was disappointed that Thorne wasn't so...Thorney. It was like he was being mature. Bleh. What was that about? ;) And also, there were so many lines that Thorne used that Flynn Rider used, so I kind of felt weird about that. BUT ANYWAY. I adore this series. Waiting for Winter is killing me. X)

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    1. hahaha, I loved thorne. And you are right, he did have that whole flynn Rider thing going for him. I think Skarlet was my least fav of them. Just because I'm not really into red riding hood, but Iike how she pulled it all together with Cinder.

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  8. This is my favorite sci fi series right now. So great. Marissa just makes each book better and I have no idea how she's able to do that. I got to meet her last month and she's great. She told us the story of how this book came to be and that was totally awesome. I love that she's a self professed geek! I had gotten an ARC of Cress and now it seems like the wait for Winter is forever!

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    1. Winter seems forever away for sure. I wish I had known that Cress wasn't the last, I might have waited a while before reading them all. lol. But I regret nothing!! they were amazing. :)

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  9. YES!!!!! I was thrilled that you loved them so much. I don't really know what to say except that I'm so happy you loved this series, April. Marissa Meyer is amazing, no doubt.

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