Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was not my favorite of this series, although I can't quite pinpoint the reason. Maybe my expectations were too high. Admittedly, I missed Scarlet and Wolf having more page space. Cress is just not very interesting. She is loosely based on Rapunzel and just a little blah. Slight spoiler alert; I am glad that Captain Thorne now has a potential love interest and I having more of the story surrounding Thorne because he is, as already established in Scarlet, the most colorful and enjoyable of the main characters.

The story continues to develop as the group of renegades travel to a satellite to rescue the brilliant, pint sized Cress, who happens to be a gifted hacker. This rescue is the pivotal point of the story as plans go awry and the group gets separated. I was bored with Cress very soon. Her saving grace was Thorn whose character is already established and continues with his great charisma and occasional acts of selflessness.

Meanwhile, Dr. Erland is in Africa, ground zero for Lumatosis, the deadly disease. Cinder is plotting to overthrow Levana and save Earth and Prince Kai, all while being a wanted fugitive. The main parts of this book, at least of continuing interest to me, is the revelations regarding Lumatosis, Dr. Erland, and the introduction of Jacin Clay, a peripheral character who quite endears himself to the reader.

Last, but hopefully most interesting, is the introduction of Princess Winter. She is devastatingly beautiful which likely drives her stepmother quite mad. Sound familiar? Speaking of mad, Princess Winter seems to quite so. But in a charming way. It will be interesting to see the development of that story in the next book. And I really want to see happier days for Scarlet and Wolf. I really, really hated how Scarlet was SPOILER! Can't say. But I didn't like the turn of events.

I'm still invested in the series but this one did not measure up to Cinder and Scarlet.