Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the 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 or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life.

Okay to keep this from getting too confusing, because the book changes perspective numerous times, I’ll talk about Cinder, I’ll talk about Scarlet, and finally both of them together.

Cinder’s Part:

Thankfully the book does pick up from the first, with Cinder trying to escape prison. Her new limbs are equipped with convenient tools that help, but she does start to use her Lunar abilities. She even meets another inmate, “Captain” Thorne who aids in her escape.

Because they’re both on the run, everyone is looking for them, and sometimes the story flips to Kai and how he’s feeling about the situation. You can tell he’s glad Cinder escaped, but then again there’s Queen Levanna freaking out.

They traverse space and the planet in order to get more answers to the questions flooding Cinder’s new information.

Scarlet’s Part:

If you’re wondering if these two end up meeting in the end, since the story’s about both of them yes, they do, but it’s the build up as we learn more about Scarlet and her history.

She lives/works on her grandmother’s farm, however her grandmother’s been missing for three weeks and it’s cutting into her life. It doesn’t take long for her to meet the mysterious fighter named Wolf and he helps her in her trek to find her grandmother.

I liked Scarlet. She’s quite different from Cinder but both prove they can handle themselves. Her determination to find her grandmother does sometimes get her in trouble and she doesn’t really think things through.

However Scarlet’s world turns upside down when she discovers something in her grandmother’s past that has been kept secret all these years.

Likes:

This does remind me more of Little Red Riding Hood than Cinder did of Cinderella, but either way I enjoy different tellings of fairy tails. Scarlet’s love for her Grandma is evident and I believed it…a little more so than her romantic interest but I’ll get into it later.

Since this partially takes place from Scarlet’s perspective, we do learn the outside world’s view of Cinder, since the ball was taped and shown to the world…constantly. It’s nice to hear Scarlet not judging Cinder, since she doesn’t know the whole story, meanwhile every else makes crude remarks.

In the end Scarlet and Cinder are connected in a strange way that finally comes into light towards the end of the book. Cinder is looking for someone who may know about her rescue to earth and it just so happens, Scarlet knows this person as well.

Finally there’s the relationship between Cinder and Thorne that grows from respecting one another to actually forming some sort of acquaintanceship…even if you think friendship is a little too far fetched right now. Thorne is sort of the handsome charmer with not so much smarts and Cinder’s sarcasm cuts through his remarks like knife to bread. It’s pretty funny at times.

Dislikes:

This is perhaps my biggest annoyance and it even got me thinking at the end of Cinder. Like I said, Cinder escapes and the Queen isn’t happy. She’s prepared to start a war over it and yet…no one thinks twice about this. To them Cinder is just a wanted Lunar, but for the Queen to get THIS upset? Even Kai makes a statement but doesn’t actually think there’s something about Cinder that could pose a threat to the Queen.

Even Scarlet and Wolf learn information regarding Cinder/the Princess and THEY can’t even put two and two together.

Another small annoyance that I’ve said numerous times about books is..forced romance.

I liked Kai and Cinder. They weren’t “love at first sight” and you can tell they were just forming crushes on one another. But Scarlet and Wolf?

“You’re the one” after what, a few days of knowing each other?

They have some cute moments, I’ll admit that, but it’s nothing over-the-top or special. Oh she brings out the human in him, never seen that before…even when she has no reason to trust him, she does.

Overall

If you liked Cinder, odds are you’ll like this one. It’s funny sometimes I wanted the story to stay on Scarlet and sometimes I wanted it to stay on Cinder, but you get an equal amount of both, meaning less development of Scarlet, but it’s not a big complaint.

I do recommend this book, but obviously you should read Cinder beforehand.