I know, I know, five stars is a bit over the top, right? Wrong! Now maybe my love for this book is feuled by a love of Rapunzel (the happier versions, not the Grimm's Fairytale version) or a year-long wait, but I can easily say that this is my favorite book! That's something that's very hard for a reader to say. So, let's talk about what I loved about this book. Please understand that I can't make this review totally spoiler free since it's the third book in the series. I won't spoil anything major for Cress itself, but I can't say the same for Cinder and Scarlet.
Characters.
I'm a sucker for awesome characters. And while a few of them had some minorly disappointing qualities, they were all pretty awesome! There are so many characters in this book. About nine major characters total. She tells the story in several different POVs. Eight out of nine characters get several chapters told in their POV. That's a lot of characters to handle. The remarkable thing about this is that they all have their own personalities. There isn't a single character that makes me go, "Wow. That character is a lot like this other character from the same book." There was, however, a character that reminded me of a character from a movie. Cress is a fairy tale twist on Rapunzel. Cress is supposed to be "Rapunzel" and Carswell Thorne is the "Prince". Thorne reminded me a lot of Flynn Rider. There were too many times that he tried to convince Cress that, no, he wasn't a good man no matter how bad she wanted him to be one. It didn't really ruin his character for me or anything, I still love Thorne, moreso that I did in Scarlet (when he was introduced), I just wish some of the scenes weren't so much like Rapunzel/Flynn Rider scenes. Here's an explample:
Cress quote: “Captain?""Yeah?""Do you think it was destiny that brought us together?" He squinted and, after a thoughtful moment, shook his head. "No. I'm pretty sure it was Cinder.”
Tangled quote: "Something brought you here. Call it what you will, fate, destiny-" "A horse"
So, It's not exact, but close enough! There were a few others, but, like I said, it didn't really ruin anything for me.
One complaint on characters is that there wasn't much Scarlet or Wolf time. There was a ton of Cress and Thorne time (which I absolutely loved) and quite a bit of Cinder time. There was actually quite a bit on Kai time and Levana time as well.
Can we just stop for a moment and salute Mariss Meyer for creating a villain that is almost impossible to feel sorry for? Most villains have a soft spot or something that makes you secretly feel sorry for them or even like them. Take Loki from The Avengers and Thor movies. Everyone loves him because he's charismatic, funny, and we all feel sorry for him. He was never really loved as a child by his father. Levana is no Loki. There is literally nothing I can even remotely like about her. I hate her through and through. Which is hard for me. I'm one of those people who tries really hard to see the good in the villains. I just can't do that with Levana. Marrissa Meyer has a talent for writing despise-able and unloveable villains, apparently.
Plot
Like any good book, the plot has to be amazing! Cress had a downright amazing plot! I was on the edge of my seat the whole entire time. Something bad would happen and I would be like ok, it's over, they're safe! Nope. Within a chapter or two something major and dangerous happened again! By the halfway mark I was yelling (out loud), "CAN WE PLEASE JUST HAVE THREE CHAPTERS OF CALMNESS?! PLEASE?!" It takes a lot to make me yell at a book out loud. Cress went above and beyond on that one. I'm not complaining, it kept me engaged.
Since this post is long enough already I'll skip the rest of the stuff I loved (which is pretty much all of it) and tell you about the one thing that wasn't a favorite thing about it.
The couple of major plot twists were kind of easy to guess. I love it when my theories are right, so I kind of liked that, but I also like it when I'm so surprised that my jaw literally drops. I think they were just fore-shadowed a little bit too much.
And that's about it. All-in-all, Cress was an amazing, exciting book with a great plot and loveable (and despise-able) characters:) And now I have to wait a year for Winter. Which is practically torture!
Hope you all liked my first book review! If there's any advice you have to make them better leave it in the comments please!!:)
Vale!
