Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

***If you haven't read Cinder, this could very well contain spoilers!***

The Lunar Chronicles #2

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Publication Date: February 5, 2013

Rating: 3 Stars

Source: eBook Purchase

Pages: 452

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. 

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

I liked Cinder well enough. I didn't love it, but it was alright. I didn't really care for this one as much. It felt like a chore to finish this book. It took me until almost the halfway point to get interested in the stories. I preferred seeing more of Cinder than I did learning about Scarlet.

In the beginning of this book, Cinder is in the prison in New Beijing. She has been given new cyborg body parts by Dr. Erland that will help her escape. She manages to make a friend who escapes with her and they hop in his stolen ship and try to figure out what to do next. Dr. Erland wants her to meet him in Africa, but she just wants to be free. She decides to look for answers about her past with the clues she got from the comm chip in Nainsi.

Scarlet lives with her grandmother on a farm in Rieux, France. She is running the farm on her own since her grandmother was kidnapped two weeks ago. The police have stopped looking for her. But Scarlet can't give up. Especially when her father comes to the farm frantically searching for something that her grandmother may have kept hidden after being tortured by the same people who kidnapped her. She meets a stranger called Wolf who may know something about the people who took her grandmother and reluctantly agrees to help find her. So off they go to Paris...

I was far more interested in learning more about Cinder and her quest for information about her past. I think that she really grew in this book. In Cinder, she found out that she was actually Princess Selene, rightful queen of Luna, thought to have died in a fire when she was three years old. She heads to France to find Michelle Benoit, Scarlet's grandma, who may be able to tell them about her past.

I don't know how I felt about Scarlet. Towards the end, I kind of started to warm up to her towards the end, but I felt like she just kind of made rash decisions without thinking through the consequences of her actions. She did not think ANYTHING through before she jumped into it. Her motivation was to find and save her grandma and that was valiant of her, but really? Think it through a little bit. Go in with a plan. But you can't say that she wasn't selfless or brave because she didn't care what happened to her, she just needed to save her grandmother, the only real family she had left.

Wolf just kind of struck me as odd. I don't know, I felt like he just acted weird during the whole book. I don't know how to describe it? He went through a lot for Scarlet to help her find her grandmother and they grew close on their journey to Paris. I felt like he was really unsure of himself for the whole book with Scarlet. Like he didn't think very highly of himself, which I guess he probably actually didn't, but I mean, it got kind of old. He's not a bad dude and I hope that he starts to realize that in the next book. He needs a confidence boost, I think.

You meet Scarlet's grandma in this book who is a good character. She has gone through 2+ weeks of god only knows what because she knows things about Princess Selene that Levana wants to know, but she refuses to say anything. She's strong and brave!

You also meet Captain Carswell Thorne. He was an interesting character. I thought that he was kind of a creep, but I liked the banter between him and Cinder and how their relationship grew throughout their journey together.

I liked the romance in this book despite not caring all that much for Scarlet or Wolf. It didn't feel like instalove, but like, by the time they started falling for each other it hadn't really even been a full day I don't think? This book takes place over the span of only a couple of days. So like, it didn't feel like instalove, but at the same time it kind of was because you don't go from not trusting someone and hating them to wanting them to kiss you in less than a day. But I thought that they were cute together. Scarlet is more of a take action kind of girl whereas Wolf is so unsure of everything so she kind of took charge of the relationship.

The plot of this book felt really slow to me. Like for Cinder's part of the story, they escape New Beijing and fly around in outer space for a long time before they go exploring France to find Scarlet's grandma. Scarlet's part of the story feels mostly just like her travels and trying to figure out if she trusts Wolf or not. It does pick up more so after the halfway point and there's some decent action at the end, but I found most of this book to be more on the boring side. I did find the new information you learn about the war Luna plans to wage and about Cinder's past really interesting though.

Also, I have never fully understood what it means when people say that a book does more telling than showing, but I think I figured it out in this book. I feel like this book tells you every little useless detail of what the characters are doing and I found that to be rather obnoxious. 

Overall, I didn't really care for this book. I wanted to because EVERYONE seems to love this series, but I can't find the love in me. I have heard from a few people that Scarlet was probably their least favorite of the series so that gives me hope that maybe Cress will be better and I feel like there will be more action in the next book so I MIGHT read it, I haven't fully decided yet. I'm not gonna try my hardest to get it read in October because I have lots of other books I'd so much rather read. I personally don't think that I would recommend this series, but I also am positive that I am in the minority on this one.

This book will cover the square for 'set in another country'. Mostly, this book takes place in France.