Scarlet

UPDATE: In honor of finishing the book Winter, by Marissa Meyer, I am posting up my reviews of two of the previous novels that I'd read a while ago. The first book in the Lunar Chronicles is Cinder, which I've reviewed previously and is a great read. If follows Cinder in a futuristic Cinderella story. However at the end of the book, she finds herself in prison instead of with her prince charming, a drastic change of events, right?

In the sequel, Scarlet, we follow Little Red Riding Hood in her attempt to find her grandmother who has disappeared. Scarlet lives on her farm in France and meets up with this burly, odd man who has never eaten a tomato in his life.  Wolf *hint hint* insists on joining her while she goes to Paris to find her grandma. They end up hitting it off and she starts falling for him until things turn for the worst. Wolf ends up belonging to a Pack of Lunar Special Agents who are sent to massacre millions as well as get information about Cinder from Scarlet's grandmother.

Cinder, having just found out she's the Lunar Princess Selene, needs to find out more. With the help of a thief, pilot, extraordinaire, Carswell Thorne, who helped her escape from prison in New Beijing, they fly in his stolen spaceship to France to investigate Cinder's past that she can't remember. Scarlet's grandmother is the best one to ask as she was a military pilot who has something to do with her escape, however, she's missing.

I think this was better the second time through. The relationship between Wolf and Scarlet was originally obnoxious and weird with him being Alpha of his pack and she has an Alpha personality... However, this I like the way the wolf is side of things is presented, "she snarled" and other such things slid into her personality descriptions that mimic him and help them come together as a couple.

Scarlet is a strong, and resourceful woman who doesn't take nonsense from anyone. She has her vulnerable moments where she can get beat around by real bad guys and where she gets taken in by mind manipulations. But she is a very determined and willing to stand up for the people whom she loves. Wolf, I know, can have a personality that can be domineering and can be manipulative. Reasons are given as to why he is still a good guy and not just one of the Big Bad Wolves. He's different than the rest of the canine toothed, rip-your-throats-out-as-soon-as-sniff-you kind of guys. He's different because he loves her. Somewhat cliche and originally why I listed this as my least favorite of the Lunar Chronicles. But I'm mostly able to look past it. Mostly.

I also really enjoy Cinder's side of things and the development she went through. Still very much moving and progressing individually while having her own challenges of finding out who she really is.

But much like Cinder, Scarlet is well written and captivating. Her descriptions are well done and it flowed really well even when jumping from different characters points of view. This is a book you can easily get sucked in and not want to come out.