Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my, this was so much better than Cinder.

I mean, I liked Cinder, but I LOVED THIS.

The story was faster and more fascinating and more adventurous, and I kinda preferred the characters?

OKAY. LOOK. IT'S A BAD BOY THING AGAIN STOP JUDGING ME. I just have such a weakness for bad boys. *swoon*

Warning: You are now approaching Cinder spoilers.

So. Book 1 we get cyborg Cinder who is *gasp* actually the Lost Princess (such a shock that absolutely no one could have seen coming. [note sarcasm]). She falls for Prince Kai, there's drama involving an evil queen from Luna who is trying to take over Earth. There's a cute romance between Cinder and Kai, but the sci-fi angle is pretty steep, with lots of fancy technology and a deadly virus to boot and it was a bit meh for me.

This book, we get to meet Little Red Riding Hood Scarlet, and a badass street fighter called Wolf, and they are an instantly charismatic pairing. Their relationship is fairly typical but it's one that I will always ship because bad boys will always have my heart. Just, like, not too bad. Coz evil is a slight turnoff. Anyway, Wolf is the good kind of bad boy. He's actually kinda pathetic to start with (that whole tomato thing) which was totally unexpected but also endearing.

So Scarlet and Wolf get to do way cooler, more adventurous stuff, like get into fights and jump from moving vehicles. There is some heavy animal magnetism which I was totally digging. Cinder also makes an (inevitable) appearance and she has a fun new sidekick who is a charming idiot who grew on me. I'm waiting for Captain Thorne to really come into his own, though, with a name like that.

Clearly this is another one of those reviews where instead of coherent thoughts I kinda just blurt out my feelings. *shrugs*

So.

Story: much more fun. Less world building = more time for action.
Characters: also more fun. Sassier, less serious. More badass.
Setting: I have to give props to the setting because I am a Francophile so the unexpected French references warmed my heart. I support this series' use of our current world to create a really messed up future world that is still totally recognisable.

I just got into this so much more than the first book, and yes, I read a book in a day again. Now I have to go buy the next one. *Le sigh*

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