Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Release Date ~ 2/5/13
Format ~ ARC
Publisher ~ Feiwel and Friends
Source ~ Swapped

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.
As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

 I don't even know where to begin about Scarlet. Ever since Cinder I've known Marissa Meyer is a really brilliant author, and Scarlet delivers one hundred percent. The characters and plot continue to evolve and new plot lines begin to pop up.

In Scarlet, another leading protagonist appears in the form of Scarlet, a french girl who's grandmother is missing and the police have done pretty much nothing about it. She's a very fierce heroine and decides to take matters into her own hands and hunt her grandmother down. Accompanied by the mysterious street fighter, Wolf, they track her down on a journey that takes them across France and is eventually entwined with the story of the main character from the first book, Lihn Cinder. Though I missed having Cinder as the only narrator, Scarlet makes a likable protagonist herself.

The action intensifies and everything gets a lot more brutal in Scarlet than it was in Cinder. All the stakes are higher and there is an overall sense that the series has gone in a darker direction. Though Cinder was an amazing read, it was lighter and the stakes weren't quite so big, however, Scarlet really ups the game.

The ending of Scarlet is one that has you so eager to read the next book it's not even funny. The next months will be pure agony because I don't think I will be able to wait that long to see what happens to Cinder, Scarlet, and the gang. The Lunar war has intensified and I cannot wait to see which direction Marissa Meyer takes this story in.

Scarlet was a near-perfect second novel that, in my humble opinion, will set the bar for second books this year.