Scarlet, by Marissa Meyer (BOOK REVIEW)

"I knew they would kill me when they found out, but..." He struggled for words, releasing a sharp breath. "I think I realized that I would rather die because I betrayed them, than live because I betrayed you."

Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison-even though she'll be the Commmonwealth's most wanted fugitive is she does. 

On the other side of the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. But as Scarlet searches for her grandmother, she finds that there are a lot of secrets her grandmother kept from her. Secrets that keep Scarlet and her family in constant danger. When Scarlet meets a mysterious street fight, Wolf, she gets a chance at more information to find her grandmother. Turns out, Wolf knows more about her grandmother than she does. Scarlet loathes trusting a stranger but is slowly drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wold search for Scarlet's grandmother, they meet Cinder. Now all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana. 

"We met less than a week ago and in that time I've done nothing but lie and cheat and betray you. I know. But if you give me a chance...all I want is to protect you. To be near you. For as long as I'm able."

Wow! Who knew that this series could get better!? I love how everything from Cinder connected and it immediately picked up from where Cinder ended. Marissa Meyer has a talent; a talent that not many writers have. The ability to make a reader forget their reading. Every time I opened this book to read I was immediately immersed in a completely different world. Reading this book felt like watching a movie. 

The characters were so interesting and each have their very distinct differences in personality. Thorne is probably my favorite XD. He is such a witty and dry-humored kinda' guy. He reminded me a lot of Jaron from The Ascendance series. 

I think the main thing that attracts me to these books is how original and out of the ordinary they are. They are unlike anything I've ever read and so creative. But for this book in particular, I really like the setting. Cinder is set in New Beijing. Which at the same time is cool but also unfamiliar. This book was set in America (from what I could tell) which felt more homey and relatable. 

But lets talk about the fairy-tale aspect of this book. The last book, Cinder was based on Cinderella. This one was based on, drum roll please....you'll never guess...Little Red Riding Hood! I could definitely pick up on a lot of nods to the fairy tale. From the first chapter it talks about Scarlet's grandma and if you know the fairy-tale, Little Red Riding Hood does focus on the grandma a lot. Meyer has a really interesting way of incorporating the fairy-tale elements into futuristic books. It's super cool to read about.

Now we move on to the romance *sigh*. I'm super picky about romances and this one was okay. It wasn't terrible but also wasn't amazing. An author only has so much time in a book to fit a relationship and a lot of times it feels rushed. I do feel like Scarlet and Wolf didn't know each other well enough, but they were acquainted better than the couples in Legend or The Crown's Game. I think that the feelings that Scarlet and Wolf had toward each other were realistic. Their relationship starts out pretty bumpy but as time went on I really liked watching forgiveness reign. 

I give this book a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to ages 14+ 

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Happy Reading!

-Ariana :