Angie
Proceed With Caution:
This book contains blood, death, violence, and kidnapping.
The Basics:
Cress is the third book of The Lunar Chronicles, and you absolutely must read the previous two books before starting this one. The titular character, Cress, has been added to our band of misfits. She's also been added as a POV character along with Cinder, Scarlet, and Kai.
My Thoughts:
This series just keeps getting better and better! Cress picks up where Scarlet left off, and we finally get to meet the hacker who's been helping keep Cinder under the radar. Cinder is trying to start a revolution, but she also doesn't want to rely on her new found abilities and become like Queen Levana. This installment is a lot more emotional, but it's also lots more action packed as our characters get separated and have to find each other once again. There's so much going on, and it just speeds on by! This certainly didn't feel like it was 550 pages.
My favorite part of Cress--aside from Iko finally getting the body that she wanted--was Cress and Thorne. After their rescue attempt goes horribly wrong, they crash land in the worst possible location: the middle of the Sahara Desert. Luckily, Cress's satellite was stocked with supplies, so obviously, they're not going to die, but I adored seeing Cress take up a bit of a leadership role. At least until they get back to civilization. Her crush on Thorne is just too freaking adorable, and Thorne is still quite the charmer despite his change in circumstance. They just have so many little moments that do nothing for the bigger picture, but kept me internally awwwing.
The final quarter or so of Cress had me super nervous. I could not read it quickly enough! Our ragtag gang finally has what looks like a rock solid plan: crash the wedding and steal the groom! This is actually quite the obvious and predictable choice of action, but it still had me furiously flipping pages because so much could go wrong! Cinder and Company are not exactly superheros, so it's going to take perfect timing and execution to pull this off. It was a very tense hundred-ish pages, but by the end I could let out the breath I totally knew that I was holding.
Cress left me extremely excited for the finale. We already know that Levana has to retaliate in a big way. Cinder has to find a way to get the Lunars on her side so they can up-rise against their evil queen. Kai clearly cannot get married, but he has a responsibility to his country. Thorne and Cress need to do more kissing! Poor freaking Wolf and Scarlet! I need to know how this all turns out!
