A review by phoenix2
Cress by Marissa Meyer

3.0

So, after reading Scarlet I promised to myself not to read Cress till I finish up with my exams. And so, the very day I wrote the last subject, I started Cress, and I was so enthusiastic about it, that maybe I expected more from it. The truth is Cress is not as good as Scarlet or Cinder. But it is good enough. At the beginning, I kind of disliked Cress, because she was all fan girl over Thorne, whom I didn't like from Scarlet much. But, it got better, and really, after the first few chapters, you can understand Cress better and like her more and more, as you can easily identify with her. I mean, I like Cinder and Scarlet, but they are more dynamic and all action and brave in difficult situations, and so I found Cress more realistically reacting to her adventures. But that's just me. Cinder's povs weren't as bad as the ones in Scarlet, and in fact, I enjoyed them. But prince Kai's povs were really unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, I like Kai, he is a sweetheart, but I couldn't help thinking " oh, not Kai again!" when it was time for his povs. His royal struggles were boring. Sometimes his story was unnecessary to the story, as it didn't give us much facts over the main story that we didn't already know. Now, Scarlet doesn't really appear in the story much, which is a shame, and Wolf has his parts, even though the training sessions weren't one of my favorites either. But I liked Wolf from the previous book, so no complains there. Jacin is interesting; he is all moody and sarcastic and reminded me of Christian from the vampire academy books. Plus, I like this kind of characters, as I find them interesting and fascinating. So, I can't wait to see more of him in Winter. By the way, Winter does appear for a brief moment and she seems okay, so another thing to anticipate about. Last, but not least, Thorne. Like I said, I didn't really like him at Scarlet, he seemed arrogant and a playboy, and at the beginning of Cress, her obsession over him didn't help him improve his image. He is funny, don't get my wrong, and attractive as a character, but too much of the bad boy display. However, as the story unfolded, I grew to like Thorne. Towards the end of the book the story got flat again and at some bits boring. The middle however was so thrilling and interesting that makes up for the bland ends of the book. Finally, one thing that bothered me a little, was that even though the book is suppose to be for Cress, her povs were less than Cinder's. And the fact that earth was so hopeless over Luna and that the queen was so powerful that no one could stand up to her, as in politics I mean, it was a little frustrating. I mean, two planets (okay moon is not technically a planet) and only Cinder was the only one who defined her? Not even the earthen union could win a war over her? But, if that's helps the story, so be it.
Overall, Cress is a nice book, hopefully the appetizer for Winter.