5/5 stars

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

Another great surprise!

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Cinder, so I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised I thought Scarlet was just as fun! I must admit though–it sounded gimmicky to write books loosely based on fairy tales. Turns out though this author has done it quite cleverly. Of course, Cinder is based on Cinderella. There’s a cruel stepmother and a couple step sisters, plus a prince that everyone pines for, and a piece of “footwear” left of a set of stairs. That’s about it, so it’s perfectly accurate to say the book is “loosely” based on the Cinderella story. Scarlet is Little Red Riding Hood. This book has a red hood, a Wolf, a Grandma, a hunter, even a wolf dressed up like a grandma. I found it was fun looking for the connections to the old stories because sometimes they aren’t so obvious. The third book is called Cress, and based on the cover I’m guessing it’s connected to Rapunzel. Not sure how “Cress” gets there, but I’m sure it does.

There’s just enough grit, romance, and excitement to get your heart pumping, yet tame enough that I’m happy to let my 13 year old read it. On to book 3…and then a wait. Dang. Books 4 and 5 haven’t been published yet!