Review of Cress by Marissa Meyer

 Release Date: February 4, 2014

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Page Count: 560

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA/Sci-Fi

In this third book in Marissa Meyer's bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, 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 prevent her army from invading Earth.
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped 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 being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she's just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she'd ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Cress by Marissa Meyer was one of my most anticipated books of 2014 and it certainly did not disappoint, it ended up being one of my favorite books of 2014. As I've mentioned in previous reviews, Marissa Meyer's books were really what got me into reading YA in the first place and they'll always have a special place in my heart. Years from now I can see myself rereading them and loving them just as much as I did in the first place.

Every new book in the Lunar Chronicles Marissa Meyer gives us new settings and Cress is no exception. Cinder was set in East Asia, Scarlet in Europe, and now Cress takes place partially in space and partially in Africa. Each book gives us breathtaking new scenes and out of all the books in the Lunar Chronicles Cress is probably the best in that regards. There's just something so engrossing about reading this world the author has concocted and I remember finishing Cress in one sitting during the weekend because it was just that good. Since the Lunar Chronicles takes place in the future it makes it even better because you get to see how the world has changed and how technology has affected places from now to then.

Cinder gave us our main character and supporting characters (Cinder and Iko), Scarlet introduced more main characters and supporting characters (Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne), and Cress continues that trend as Cress joins the group. A decent chunk of the book is Cress' journey with Thorne as they seek to find the rest of the group and the other chunks is the journeys of the other separated parts of the group. Switching between POV's/scenes with chapters made for a fantastic story as different events progressed at the same time. During Cress the bond between the group grew and matured even more and set up the series for the sequel (Winter) where the group had to trust each other completely and put a lot of work into accomplishing their goal. Nothing I say will give justice to this book so just take my word that both the characters and other aspects of this book were absolutely amazing.

Cress is probably tied with Cinder as my favorite book in this series although not a single one of the Lunar Chronicles books have a fault in my opinion. Marissa Meyer weaves together stunning imagery, interesting plot, and lifelike characters to create one of my all-time favorite series and some of my favorite books each year. Cress is the same way and is even better than its predecessor, I would even consider it a YA classic (much better than any of the"mainstream" YA titles like Divergent and Hunger Games). You simply can't go wrong with any of Marissa Meyer's books and anyone who hasn't read them yet definitely should.

5/5 - AMAZING Book