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Reread updates:

¡°The people of Luna don¡¯t need a princess. They need a revolutionary.¡±
Cinder furrowed her brow. ¡°A revolutionary,¡± she repeated. She liked that a lot better than princess.

WELP. I'm sad to say that Cress still drove me mad for the first 75% of this book, but once again, she inexplicably improved in the end. This is one series that benefits greatly from multiple POVs.

Onward and upwards.

THEORIES: (view spoiler)[

I'm still convinced Torin is the RAT, but I'm equally convinced it's b/c he's brainwashed or Lunar controlled or whatever:

¡°¡ªstop tampering with official government property. Tampering with a royal android could result in a fine of up to 5,000 univs and six months of¡ªIdentity confirmed: Royal Adviser Konn Torin. Security override complete. Awaiting instructions.¡±

How else would Cress know his security clearance info?

BUT. He told Cinder about the secondary chip. Hmm . . .

I'm also still convinced Wolf's elite soldier brethren are going to turn out to be a MAJOR thorn in Levana side:

¡°I¡¯m well aware of all that. And then she went to Paris and killed a thaumaturge and some useless special operatives."

These guys are the equivalent of black ops soldiers, and yet this is the second time someone has called them "useless."

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. (hide spoiler)]

11/8/15: REREAD. B/c WINTER. On TUESDAY.



*waves at Cress*

3.5 stars

Reviewed by:

I¡¯ve been very up front about my love of fairy tales, and RAPUNZEL is one of the only Grimms¡¯ Fairy Tales that has a somewhat happy ending (even if it is a little bit °ù¾±²õ±ç³Ü¨¦).

In the original version, the prince finds Rapunzel after hearing her sing. He comes back day after day to listen to her, and, eventually, he sees the Witch and learns how to gain "entrance to her tower."

And he does. Frequently.

*suggestively waggles eyebrows*

Which brings us to how Witch discovers that she is no longer Rapunzel¡¯s only visiter--Rapunzel is found to be inthefamilyway (ifyouknowwhatimean).

Anyway, Witch is so furious at Rapunzel¡¯s ¡°betrayal¡± that she cuts her hair and casts her out into the wilderness. Then she waits . . . *cue ominous music* . . . for Prince to show up, and when he does, she flings him from the top of the tower, and briers scratch his eyes, BLINDING him, when he lands.

Stuff happens and they live HEA.

CRESS by Marissa Meyer is the RAPUNZEL--based third installment of the LUNAR CHRONICLES, and while I had no urges to throw or otherwise damage books in this reading, I did have to stifle an urge to throw or otherwise damage Cress (the MC, not the book).

I¡¯ll say up front--until around the 75% mark, Cress is downright A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G. Fortunately, having multiple other POVs kept this from being overwhelming.

I¡¯ve already stated that RAPUNZEL is my all-time favorite fairy tale (and has been since I was like five), so mayhap my expectations were always going to be too high. All I can say is I was dancing with glee that Meyer got the blinding (of the ¡°prince¡±) part right, while simultaneously pulling out giant handfuls of hair every time Cress did a not-at-all-endearing imitation of a certain Disney character.

BUT Cinder and Kai were spot-on, and Thorne was as incorrigible as ever, so it balanced out (Scarlet and Wolf weren¡¯t a huge part of the storyline this go-round). AND once I hit the 75% mark, Cress stopped being silly and ridiculous and started being . . . something else. I don¡¯t know what exactly, but I didn¡¯t hate her anymore, and that¡¯s all that matters.

Or almost all that matters.

I figured out a while back that my rating system is mostly based on THE FEELS. The books that are decent, but don¡¯t really evoke much emotion get 2 to 3.5 stars. The books that have me doing various things of a superlative nature get everything else.

Problem is, sometimes a book is pretty MEH until the very end, then BAM--THE FEELS. Suddenly, I forget all of the MEH from the front 90% of the book.

I¡¯ve been working on that.

Which is why CRESS gets 4 stars and not 5. THE FEELS actually kicked in around the same time I stopped wanting to wallop Cress, and she was the minority (no other characters drove me batty). BUT she was the main character, so I didn¡¯t feel I could in good conscience be totally swayed by THE FEELS.

I felt that Meyer wrapped up CRESS beautifully. Am I happy to be waiting another twelve months to read the conclusion? No. Of course not, but I¡¯m still ridiculously excited to see what happens next. Especially with a nutso Lunar princess waiting in the wings. Winter is clearly C-R-A-Z-Y.



My other reviews for this series:

Glitches (Lunar Chronicles 0.5)
Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)
The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles, #1.5)
Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2)
Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5)
Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4)