Scarlet

Scarlet is searching for her grandmother who has been missing for over two weeks, but the police in Rieux, France have stopped their search saying she simply ran away.   When Scarlet returns home, she finds her estranged father tearing the house apart looking for something.  He has been tortured by her grandmother's captors and now he is trying to find the information they want to save his life.  With this knowledge that her grandmother is in danger, Scarlet enlists the help of an unlikely source, a street-fighter named Wolf, to help her find her grandmother and bring her back safely.

Meanwhile, Cinder, the Lunar turned cyborg, is busy escaping from prison with vain and pompous, Thorne, and trying to reach Dr. Egar in Africa.  But she decides she needs to make a stop first, in France, to find the woman that helped rescue her from Luna.

Marissa Meyer does a fantastic job with this new retelling of Little Red Ridinghood, and further adding to the Lunar Chronicles.  The chapters alternate between Cinder, Scarlet and occasionally Emperor Kai.    Cinder is still trying to come to terms with her Lunar heritage and her gift.  The guilt that she feels when controlling people is very well drawn.  The reader also gets the sense that Cinder is a very reluctant hero.  She never knew her true identity, and now so much is expected of her and that is very frightening.  On the other hand, Scarlet is a fiery character that will do anything to protect those she loves, and she is anything but reluctant.  The reader can only hope that Kai will make the right decision and that book 3 will somehow end well for him.

Fans of Cinder will be very pleased with this sequel.  It builds well on the previous action and adds a few more elements for book 3.  There are a couple of short stories that take place on Luna available from Amazon and I think that I will check those out soon while I wait for the finale of this series.

I know that it convoluted, but I love the fairy tale retellings with a sci-fi flare.  I also loved the different headings moving into each part of the book.  I thought those worked well as foreshadowing.

And now, a brief rant.  How is it that February is the shortest month of the year, yet it is the busiest?  It's been a crazy month so far, and unfortunately, it's far from over for me.  Sorry about the lack of posting.  I am probably the only person that actually cares that I post four-five times a week, but I am really trying to stay in a routine.

I hope that your February is flying by and that you have plenty of time for good books.

Happy Reading!