Scarlet is the second book in The Lunar Chronicles, it is written by Marissa Meyer and according to the author’s website, there are going to be five books in the series.
This book was first published in 2013 and Winter – fourth book is expected to be published this year November. The Lunar Chronicles are tied to the classic fairy tales as you might guess from the titles, but the events are something new and fresh. To be honest the author does a really good job at explaining most important things that happened in the first book, so I actually think that you don’t need to read the first one in order to get to this one. The only problem a reader might have is the terminology, because it took me a while to get into all the robotics and computer things that were described in Cinder. I myself didn’t like the first book much, you can check my review for that. Scarlet was a completely different story and as you might guess from my booklist, I enjoyed it a lot.

Scarlet lives in future France quite a while after the fourth World War has passed and works on a farm that is owned by her bad ass grandmother who used to be a military pilot. Scarlet’s grandmother disappears and when Scarlet’s father is also kidnapped and let go to search for grandmother’s secrets, Scarlet decides to find her most beloved person by herself! By a chance though she meets and befriends a street fighter named Wolf, who offers his help to find the grandmother.

At the same time Cinder with help of Dr. Erland and Captain Throne manages to escape the prison and is so busy running away from all the people who want her dead that she doesn’t have much time to evaluate the new information about her identity. She fights against it, not willing to have anything in common with Levana, but she cannot fight what she really is and how natural glamour seems to her.

This book was packed with action and adventure, the moment I started to think about putting it down, because something slightly boring happened (or nothing happen for some time), it gave me a huge plot twist and I would stay tuned and the boredom that entered mind few seconds ago would be gone.

I do have to admit that parts of this book was a cliche, for example – relationships, but I didn’t mind it because it was nicely described in a completely original environment and new future setting that was developed in the first book and took me a long time to get used to and start to understand it, but now when I do, I appreciate it. I see how some people might dislike it and I would see myself sighing at classic romantic moments, but somehow this time I didn’t. So, if you really don’t like those cliches and are very critical towards them, perhaps you might want to pass on this novel.

Scarlet around the middle became a page turner to me, it was packed with action, which was accented by masterful jumps between the stories; it was timed very well and I never felt like Cinder’s or Scarlet’s story should end or I should skip it in order to get to the other one, there was balance and I really cannot stop appreciating it. And the writing was good! It’s not like it was the best one, but knowing how young adult novels tend to be written nowadays, I really liked that it wasn’t plain, simple or packed with mistakes. Some writing and logic mistakes were present, but not as many as there could be and it got just some frowns from me, but not really something that would cast a shadow on the story.

Cinder as a character was interesting, as you might recall I didn’t really like her in the first book, but in this book I was from the beginning actually more drawn to her story and character than ever.

Scarlet’s character was annoying, but there’s a reasons why I tweeted that, if the Lunar Chronicles would be films, I would like to be her. First of all, she is a cliche (another one, sorry) – she doesn’t see many obvious things, like how Wolf doesn’t recognize things that humans use in everyday life and seems amazed by them. She has a terrible temper and is kind of a bad and sometimes a stupid girl and comes across as one that could never actually do something (like shoot a person) and she is just basically trusting every stranger that comes across her (like me!). And why I would like to be her? Because if people are nice to me, I believe them, because I might have tantrums, but at the same time I’m a bit of a coward. I see how one would want to be Cinder (and I would, hell yeah), but I couldn’t, because I’m just not as strong as she is and that’s why I felt like Scarlet is the one for me.

Got a slight Twilight vibe that was a bit unsettling  and wasn’t too happy about, I couldn’t really push it away, but as the story evolved and got completely different, I stopped thinking about it. Till this moment. Here, I’m comparing them again in my mind.

Funnily enough, I didn’t really connect or relate to any of the characters (again), but that didn’t give me any problems to enjoy the adventures. I liked the plot and perhaps I wasn’t a fan of everything that happened and some things were just blurry (fights are never good in books), but mostly it was up beat and (yay to all those who said I will like it) I liked it!

I was slightly disappointed by the ending with classical long chapters with things that doesn’t really need to be written because it is a classic romance, classic adventure and we already have imagined how everything turns out, but then we have to sit through and read everything and it is just boring. I almost took away a star for that. Seriously, stop the long endings!

I liked the book and I think that teens would love it, because there’s romance and it is a beautiful teenage appropriate dreamy romance. I also could encourage those that didn’t like the first book to at least give this one a try, because I did and I liked it! As I said before, I almost took away a star for the ending, but after a long thinking I decided to go with four and not three stars on my goodreads page. Because at some point it was a page turner and that doesn’t happen often to me. I know that the fact that I had forgotten small details from Cinder helped to keep the intrigue alive for me, but I was glad for it. So, yes, definetely will read the next one!

What did you think of Scarlet? The book and the character? Who do you like better? Are you waiting for Winter to come in November? (See what I did there?) Let me know in the comment section bellow!