Cress by Marissa Meyer is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles. Cinder and Thorn are still on the run but now they are joined by Wolf and Scarlet and together they hope to overthrow Queen Levana.
In looking for help, they stumble upon Cress, a Lunar shell with amazing technological abilities. Cress hates Levana and her Captain Sybil for locking her up and ripping her from her family. Cress has been held prisoner, alone, on a tiny satellite for more than seven years, her only company computers. She has been forced to spy on the Earthens and assist Queen Levana in all of her evil plots. But she has been feeding the queen bad information and secretly communicating with Cinder.
Now Cinder and her crew must rescue Cress and stop the royal wedding. But this rescue mission goes awry and Cinder and her crew are separated–one captured, one seriously injured and two presumed dead.
How will Cinder stop a war when she can’t even save her own people?
Man, these audiobooks get longer and longer. I definitely still enjoyed this one but it wasn’t quite as good as Scarlet. In this one, the main story-line–saving Kai, the world and stopping Levana–gets put on hold until about 3/4 of the way through while everything else sort of falls apart. We once again get diverging story-lines, occurring simultaneously, that will ultimately meet up in the end. This was fine, but I’d just gotten used to the crew being all together.
I really enjoy how each book focuses on a different love story. Wolf and Scarlet are probably still my favorite pairing but Thorn and Cress are super interesting characters and I sort of like how their relationship evolves throughout the book. But really, what are with all of the female characters in this book questioning their hearts and the hearts of others? I get that this type of thing helps to make relationships a bit more dynamic and interesting but I’d sort of like one straightforward relationship to tied me over.
We are also introduced to another layer or element of the story. Jason, a Lunar Guard who lives to serve his princess… not Cinder but Winter. What little we see of Winter in this book was great. I liked this glimpse into her crazy innocence. We also get another hint into Queen Levana’s backstory, but still not enough for me to really care about her one way or another.
Overall, another entertaining listen, just maybe not as tight as the second book. This one gets three stars from me. On to Winter and it’s whopping 23+ hours of audio.
That’s all for now!
-M-