Chibivi in Booksland

“The Lunar Chronicles” series continues with another fairy tale retelling, this time *drum rolls* “Little Red Riding Hood”.

The story of the second installment of this wonderful series begins in Rieux, France where we are introduced to a new heroine, Scarlet Benoit. She is looking for her grandmother who was kidnap and she is helped by no one other than…no not by the Hunter but by the “Big Bad” Wolf.
The chapters bounce between Scarlet and Cinder’s POV, so for the ones who are afraid that the book would be just about Scarlet fear no more, Cinder’s story still continues: in this volume she manages to escape from the prison, but she become the most wanted fugitive all around the world. She tries to find a way to stop Levana’s evil plans while striving to pick up all the pieces of her past. I liked her character development a lot in this sequel; she is more badass and kickass, especially with her new body parts! Even though the different paths Scarlet and Cinder were on were separated at the beginning, they converged to become the same one as the story progressed.

I was relieved to see that the great characters from the first volume I've already grown very attached to are still present in this book, like Iko who is one of my favorites characters or the gorgeous princeemperor Kai, who is a good guy who is trying his best to keep the planet safe even if that means to make some difficult choices like accepting to marry Queen Levana and pushing away the feelings he still has for Cinder - I was a little sad that even though he did have his few spotlight moments, there wasn't that many of them so I hope there will be more of Kai in “Cress”- or even, the mischievous Queen Levana, whom I hate even more…that bi… One thing I really missed in this volume is the interactions between Cinder and Kai. T.T

Besides the usual characters that we know so well, Meyer introduces some amazing new characters like Scarlet, whom I like so much- now it’s even harder for me to choose whom I like most between she and Cinder because both of them are strong heroines. Scarlet is determined, never gives up even when the search for her missing grandmother was declared pointless, she refused to just sit and accept it and she is ready to do anything for her grandma, she’s loyal, courageous, hardworking and a little bit stubborn, so overall another complex heroine who I can’t wait to read more about.
And because behind every great heroine there is a great male character there is Wolf, the very definition of the strong, protective and silent type. I can’t say that I love him and he is sure not my favorite male character from this book (Kai still occupies the first place in my top) and that’s a little weird because I usually like his type: mysterious, serious, protective, badass looking, hmm maybe I will grow to like him more in the next volumes, who knows… I also can say that I’m not so fond of Scarlet and Wolf relationship, it’s a little “meh” for me, so they still can’t beat Cinder and Kai couple, which is surely my favorite pair until now.
Now I will present you my favorite character from this volume *drum rolls again* Captain Sexy ops, I mean Captain Thorne. Ashjgag. *fangirling* His humour is the best and he is so hawt!! Damn. x.x He reminded me of Flynn Rider from Tangled. ^_-

Overall, “Scarlet” is a great book, an amazing sequel for an amazing series and I think that it’s even better than the first volume. “Scarlet” is an action-packed book, full of complex and wonderful characters and great fights, so if you haven’t read it yet then you shouldn’t wait anymore just go, go and read it!!

PS: “The Queen’s Army” by Marissa Meyer (bonus story). The edition I have also includes a bonus story, called “The Queen’s Army”, which is not too long (it has around 20 pages) and it’s very useful to read it if you are interested to find out more about Wolf, whose real name is Ze'ev Kesley, and his background: his childhood, his brother and how did he became what he is.