Countdown to Heartless: Review

HEARTLESS
Marissa Meyer
Young Adult/Retelling
464 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available November 8th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Long before she was the terror of Wonderland — the infamous Queen of Hearts — she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the yet-unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend and supply the Kingdom of Hearts with delectable pastries and confections. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next Queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the king's marriage proposal, she meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship.

Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

MY THOUGHTS
Heartless returns us once again to the depths of Ms. Meyer's imagination, granting us access to a world of whimsy and darkness where we're able to view well-known characters through a looking glass all her own.

Catherine wants nothing more than to be covered in sugar and flour all day every day, creating recipes and baking to her heart's content alongside her lady's maid and closest friend, Mary Ann. Given she's the daughter of a marquess however, the path her life takes simply cannot be one of her own choosing, especially when the King of Hearts sets his sights on her. It's so very easy to sympathize with Catherine in the beginning–her dream one that's so simple yet so impossible at the same time– and once we're subjected to the giggly effervescence of the king, we can do nothing but wince along with her every time he opens his mouth and his tittering laugh escapes.

Cath's romance with Jest is full of tension both romantic and forbidden, and though we want to encourage her to follow her heart in this case, a knot of dread deep in our chests pulls tighter every time they're together, wondering when and how it's all going to come crashing down around them given who Cath is destined to become. Though Cath's descent into darkness is at times painful and we find ourselves futiley hoping for an ending we know can never come to pass, it's also a journey that holds us spellbound as Ms. Meyer leads us on a merry dance of wonder and madness. And when the moment comes that we reach the final page and are left with an infamous line ringing in our ears, we simply can't help the Cheshire-like grin that splits our cheeks.

Overall, Heartless is as enormously imaginative as all Ms. Meyer's previous books, and I cannot wait to see what retelling she takes on next.

Rating: 4.5/5

There are only 25 days left until Heartless! Pre-Order your copy:

Amazon • B&N • IndieBound

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

MARISSA MEYER

One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.

When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Those so inclined can still find my first stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanfic turned out to be awesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).

When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more about here). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.

Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER is my first novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around too.

I now live with my husband and our three cats (Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III), who go in and out, in and out, about eight hundred times a day. My favorite non-bookish things include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, re-watching episodes of Firefly, and playing all manners of dress-up.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

Join The Resistance: A Lunar Chronicles Giveaway

YOU GUYS!!!!! Do you know what tomorrow is? It's the release day for a little book called Winter, the fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. *fangirl flail* I have been obsessing over this book from the moment I met Winter in Cress, and now, after waiting 133 years (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, it just felt that long), it's finally time.

In order to celebrate Winter's release, the amazing team at Fierce Reads is letting me give away a prize pack of AWESOME including a copy of Cinder (for those of you who need to start at the beginning!) and fun Lunar Chronicles metallic tattoos. It's possible I've been sporting shiny gold wrist cuffs for a few weeks, forcing my husband to ask the question he should really know better than to ask by now: Why? I told him I'd joined the resistance because Winter was coming. He just nodded and walked away, probably because that's not even in the top 10 weirdest book-related things I've said to him. He's super glad he married me, obviously ;-)

Before I get to the giveaway, here's a little bit about Winter just in case not all of you have stalked this series as closely as I have:)

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.

Amazon • B&N • Goodreads

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

GIVEAWAY

To enter, please fill out the rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US addresses only.

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Review: Cress

CRESS
The Lunar Chronicles #3
Marissa Meyer
Young Adult/Sci-Fi/Fairytale Retelling
560 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available February 4th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

MY THOUGHTS
Cress is a story we enter into with a great deal of excitement, though as was the case with Scarlet we can’t help but let a little wariness sneak in and mingle with our enthusiasm, wondering if it’s going to be this installment when the addition of yet another new main character proves to be a detriment to the overall story rather than a bonus. While Cress as a stand-alone heroine isn’t quite as strong as either Cinder or Scarlet before her, Ms. Meyer proves yet again what a brilliant storyteller she truly is, seamlessly working Cress into the fabric of her stunningly rich and detailed fantasy world and nestling her in with an already-beloved cast of characters as though she’d been there all along.

Cress, unlike both Cinder and Scarlet, isn’t much of a fighter either mentally or physically, her solitary confinement creating in her an air of extreme innocence and vulnerability that takes a little while to adjust to coming off our experiences with the previous two heroines. While each young woman’s original fairytale had them as damsels in various types of distress, both Scarlet and Cinder defied that label in terms of its common connotation to weakness in their retellings, their independence and fierceness present and accounted for. Cress embraces the damsel in distress label a little more fully, often needing the hilarious and endlessly amusing Captain Thorne to come to her aid. It’s not to say she’s without skills as she’s a truly gifted hacker and plays a significant and vital role in the events of this book, she’s just perhaps quieter and more reserved (understandably given what she’s gone through) than we might have been anticipating.

If this had been Cress’s book alone, one that focused primarily on her and relegated Cinder to a more supporting role, this installment may have come up just a touch short when compared to the first two, but Cress is beautifully bolstered by Ms Meyer’s extraordinary and extensive cast of main and secondary characters. This story is every bit as much Cinder’s as it is Cress’s, and as a result Cress becomes a little something different–a beautiful contrast–to the two young women we’ve already met, rounding out the whole with her differences as opposed to coming off as less-than as she might have on her own. Her relationship with Thorne is a touch weaker as well, but again the strength of Cinder’s relationship with Kai and particularly Scarlet’s with Wolf (despite their limited page time) more than fills in any empty spaces left by the lack of an overly strong emotional connection to the pair of them, and we can only hope that their romance is one that continues to develop in Winter just as the other two romances progressed in this installment.

While there is a myriad of positive aspects and highlights to Cress over which to gush, one of the most arguably striking would have to be the very brief introduction to Winter herself, a young woman who captivates from the moment she appears on page and leaves us profoundly curious after a single interaction with Scarlet. She is a series of riddles, a labyrinthine character full of dark corners and wrong turns who has us practically salivating over the chance to figure her out, but despite the pain of a long wait until she graces us with more of her presence, we are left in awe of Ms. Meyer’s imagination and more in love with her characters than ever before.

Rating: 4/5
 

Find Marissa

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Fierce Reads Event Recap + Giveaway

On Friday afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of attending Macmillan's Fierce Reads tour as it stopped at Books & Co in Dayton, Ohio. Young adult authors S.A. Bodeen (The Compound/The Fallout/The Raft), Alexandra Coutts (Tumble & Fall), Marissa Meyer (Cinder/Scarlet), and Leila Sales (This Song Will Save Your Life) were all in attendance to talk about their books and answer questions, but thanks to the lovely people at Macmillan I was able to meet with all four fabulous ladies for a quick Q+A before the event started.

If any of you have read past recaps for various author events I've been lucky enough to attend, you know that I get absurdly nervous when faced with authors and have a tendency to either freeze up and say absolutely nothing, or ramble on and on about anything and everything that pops in my head just to fill the silence. I was of course a little anxious about meeting these women even as I was enormously honored to be asked to be a part of the event, and that anxiousness only increased when it became apparent that, due to a tight schedule (they were only in Ohio for a matter of hours before flying out to Austin, TX), I would be interrupting them as they ate lunch to bombard them with my questions. Super. Thankfully they were all very good sports about me and my wonderful mother-in-law (and partner in blogging crime) Cathy joining them, and were enthusiastic about answering whatever I threw at them.

I tried to come up with questions that were a bit more on the fun side rather than serious questions about their books and writing processes, so I hope you all enjoy! (Please note that if the answers seem overly succinct, it's because I couldn't write fast enough to catch everything, not because they gave short or clipped answers!)

FIERCE READS PRE-EVENT Q+A

If a portal were to open right here and whisk you off to assume the life of any one character in fiction, who would you most want to be?

Leila Sales: Sarah Crewe (from A Little Princess) at the end of the book once she's free of Miss Minchin.

S.A. Bodeen: Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia

Marissa Meyer: Elizabeth Bennett

Alexandra Coutts: Same as Marissa. Elizabeth Bennett

You can change the ending of any one book, movie or television show. Which do you choose and what new ending do you give it?

Leila: Season three of "The OC". Marissa wouldn't die.

S.A.: Titanic. Jack wouldn't die, Rose would make room for him.

Marissa: Les Miserables. Jean Valjean wouldn't die.

Alex: The ending of "Lost".

What's the last word you wrote (current work in progress, side project, outline, or anything fiction-related)?

S.A.: Nacho.

Marissa: Unconscious.

Alex: Briscoe.

If you were all able to interview each others' characters, whom would you each choose and what's one question you would ask them?

Leila: Some of Marissa's characters, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't answer my questions! Or Nick from Tumble & Fall (Alex chimed in here to say Nick was based on a friend of hers). Or Sophie from Tumble & Fall, and I would ask "How old are you?"

S.A.: The dad from This Song Will Save Your Life.

Marissa: Same! Or Vicky (from This Song Will Save Your Life).

What's the longest you've had to wait for a book you've been dying to read?

Leila: A decade. There was a decade between two books by Connie Willis.

S.A.: However long the wait was for the 7th Harry Potter.

Marissa: How long was the wait for Bitterblue?

Alex: A decade (she mentioned the titles of the books, but I couldn't write them down quickly enough. Fail.)

Which book has your favorite beginning or end (either that you've read or written)?

Leila: The ending of The Sun Also Rises.

S.A.: The beginning of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron.

Alex: The beginning of Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume - "Stephanie is into hunks".

We all have book boyfriends (some of us have more than others O.o). Who tops your lists?

Leila: Michael from The Princess Diaries.

S.A.: Captain Thorne from Scarlet.

Marissa: Besides Mr. Darcy? Brigan from Fire by Kristin Cashore.

Alex: Augustus from The Fault in Our Stars (we both at this point acknowledged that in our heads, our YA book boyfriends are all more age-appropriate. Obviously ;-)). Wait. No. I'm switching to Gale from The Hunger Games.

*Leila said that not too long ago she was playing a Family Feud type game where they had asked 100 people which fictional character they'd most like to take out on a date, and after we all attempted to guess the number one spot she told us it was Hermione Granger. YAY FOR BOOKISH GIRLS!

After a stressful or particularly difficult day of writing, what's your go-to comfort food?

Leila: I eat chocolate chips while writing. I know it's time to stop when I've eaten way too many.

S.A: A hot drink and a Fiber One lemon bar.

Marissa: Any dark chocolate and a glass of wine.

Alex: Mac and cheese.

If you had $20 and 5 minutes in a bookstore to make a purchase, which section (other than YA) would you run to first?

S.A.: The adult recently released paperbacks section! (Leila agreed with her)

Marissa: Either the recently released paperbacks section or self help books.

Alex: Cookbooks.

• • • • • • • • • •

After all the questions were answered and everyone had finished their lunches, we headed across the street to the bookstore for a quick photo op before heading upstairs to the event itself.

Left to right: Mary Van Akin (publicist), Leila Sales, S.A. Bodeen, Molly Brouillette (publicist), Marissa Meyer, and Alexandra Coutts

There was a really great guest moderator from a local high school who asked a series of questions before opening things up to the audience, so below are some of the highlights of what was discussed; a combination of my notes and Cathy's since she was nice enough to jot things down as I popped up now and again to take pictures.

• There were originally going to be 5 books in The Lunar Chronicles series, with the last being "Puss in Boots", but it ended up being cut very early on and Marissa decided the series would end with Snow White in Winter.

• S.A. Bodeen originally never planned on writing a sequel to The Compound, but she was continuously asked what happened to Eli, so she started wondering that herself and came up with a twist which led to book two, The Fallout. It took 5 years for the sequel to happen though.

• Leila Sales has a background in psychology, her major in college, and has always been fascinated by the more social element to to it – how people interact with one another rather than the science of the brain. One of the studies referenced in This Song Will Save Your Life about people liking someone more if that person smiles at them, is a real study.

• Marissa was asked what attracted her to classic fairy tales and what her thoughts were on the damsels-in-distress-needing-princes-to-rescue-them aspect. She said she loved fairy tales in general, but wanted to present stronger, more diverse female characters who have dreams and ambitions far beyond meeting a handsome prince.

• All four authors were asked how they write full character arcs. S.A. said her characters always start out really flat, and it then takes draft upon draft for her to build their flesh. Alex said she always thinks she knows the full character at the start of their story, but the journey usually changes as she writes. Marissa said she focuses on a character's strengths or weaknesses and then builds up from there, asking herself what her characters are afraid of. Leila said her characters always start out flawed, and then hopefully over the course of the story they find a resolution for some of their problems and end up better than they started.

• Audience question: What is your favorite book of all time?

Leila: The Little Prince. Said it's such a simple story, but one with so much depth.

Marissa: Pride and Prejudice. It's the only books she's read multiple times, she's not a re-reader at all.

S.A.: A Prayer for Owen Meany and Shadow of the Wind.

Alex: The Sound and The Fury. When she was a senior in high school she had to write a paper on it, and has re-read it 3-4 times.

• Audience question: Which character in your book was the easiest to write or do you most relate to?

Leila: Said there's a piece of her in all her characters, even the secondary ones, but she related to Elise most when she was writing This Song Will Save Your Life.

Alex: Surprisingly, she said male characters are often easier for her to understand and therefore write, stating growing up with 2 younger brothers was helpful in that regard. Her female characters all start out similar to her, and she finds it much easier to separate herself from a male character, so Kayden in the book probably came easiest for her.

Marissa: She most related to Cress. Cress has been stuck in a satellite for 7 years at the beginning of the book, so she often escapes into her own imagination and has a profound fantasy life, which Marissa said of course could be said of her as well.

S.A: Eli was easiest for her. She said she enjoyed getting to delve deeper into who he is in The Fallout.

After the Q+A all the authors signed books and handed out fun swag goodies. It was a truly fantastic event and drew the biggest crowd I've seen yet at this bookstore which was really fun and exciting, and I want to say a huge thank you to all four authors (and the awesome Mary and Molly!) for letting me be a part of the event, I had an absolute blast. The second leg of the Fierce Reads tour is coming back to Ohio November 5th, this time passing through Cincinnati, so if any of you are in the area, I hope to see you there!

A few more pictures from the event:

Left to right: S.A., Alex, Marissa, and Leila; Alex answering questions

S.A. signing books; Marissa and Leila listening attentively :)

 Marissa signing books; her tin full of Lunar Chronicles-related goodies

S.A., Alex, Me, Marissa, Leila

• • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the amazingly generous team at Macmillan, I have a truly awesome giveaway for you all today. Up for grabs are signed copies of The Compound, The Fallout, Cinder, Scarlet, Tumble & Fall, and This Song Will Save Your Life. To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

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Review: Scarlet

SCARLET
The Lunar Chronicles #2
Marissa Meyer
Young Adult/Fairytale retelling/Dystopian
464 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available February 5th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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.

MY THOUGHTS 
Scarlet is a sequel that has us initially on edge, our desire to return to Cinder's story alone rather than embark on an entirely separate journey with a new cast of characters strong enough that we crack the spine with a wary sort of anticipation, hoping our doubts will be quickly proven unfounded. Luckily for us, Ms. Meyer gives us everything we could have wished for in this second installment, teasing us a bit as Scarlet and Cinder's stories run parallel to one another for majority of the book, never quite intersecting even as we know they must at some point cross paths. Normally, this setup can be a touch frustrating for us as readers, our eagerness to stay with one character, in this case Cinder since we are more familiar with her, causing us to skim through the other character's chapters in our haste to return to the one who has most captured our attention, however, Scarlet's story captivates from the beginning, and we revel in our time with her as much as we do our time with Cinder herself.

Though Scarlet's search for her missing grandmother and her budding romance with Wolf is as engrossing as the continuation of Cinder's tale, Scarlet herself doesn't quite grab us emotionally from the beginning the way Cinder did. This could perhaps be attributed to the nature of their original fairytales, with Cinderella's status as an underdog causing us to immediately back her, whereas Little Red Riding Hood is a young woman who isn't quite observant enough to notice her precious grandmother has suddenly developed canine features until it's far too late. Scarlet is thankfully far more layered and interesting than her fairytale counterpart, though they share a similarity in their susceptibility to deceit given Scarlet is often quick to believe what superficial appearance tells her is the truth while neglecting to examine the situation from multiple angles before judgement is passed and a negative opinion is formed.

Despite her inability to think with her mind and heart instead of simply trusting her eyes, Scarlet is certainly someone we come to care about, and her troubled relationship with Wolf is gorgeously depicted. Wolf is a deeply intriguing character, both alpha and beta hero wrapped up in one uniquely contradictory package. On one hand, he's alpha to the extreme, a gifted street fighter with a penchant for using his fists to make a life for himself, but he's also shockingly quiet and often reserved once the adrenaline rush fades from his system. He's both curious and hesitant to spend time in Scarlet's presence when not in a violent setting, often exhibiting a skittishness and fear of the unknown so common in his wild namesake. As Cinder and Kai's did, Scarlet and Wolf's romantic relationship builds slowly, something we appreciate even more given that this story is not theirs alone but instead shared with the aforementioned couple, allowing us plenty of time to truly believe in them together.

Though Scarlet is over 400 pages in length, it passes in an utter blur, our excitement over learning of Kai and Cinder's fate since we left them last combining with our giddiness over the addition of a striking new couple to ensure time absolutely flies by when reading. We of course reach the end with no conclusion to the threat of Queen Levana in place, but we can't help but be content with what we've learned in this installment, feeling optimistic when we look ahead to future books that while we'll often face a “to be continued” of sorts at the end of them, we'll never be left unsatisfied.

Rating:4.5/5

Be sure and check out my interview with Marissa Meyer HERE and also enter for a chance to win copies of Cinder and Scarlet!

Scarlet Blog Tour: Interview with Marissa Meyer + A Giveaway

I'm positively giddy today at the fact that I have young adult author Marissa Meyer joining me on the blog as part of the promotional tour for the second book in her Lunar Chronicles series, Scarlet. I absolutely adored the first book in the series, Cinder, and after finishing it Scarlet immediately went to the top of my "I may die if I don't read this" list for 2013. I'm thrilled to say it didn't disappoint! I thought it was a brilliant sequel, and I hope everyone runs to the bookstore on February 5th and loves it as much as I did!

If you could write yourself into any fairytale, which would it be and what role would you play?

This will probably sound crazy, but I have a weird envy toward Rapunzel. All that free time. So much peace and quiet. Just think how many books you could read! But I could probably do without all the crazy-overprotective-witch and blinded-prince stuff.

In Scarlet, we get not only the continuation of Cinder’s story but also the introduction of Scarlet’s journey as well, and both progress side by side until Cinder and Scarlet finally cross paths toward the end. What challenges did writing two separate-but-linked stories present over simply continuing Cinder’s story on its own?

Probably the most difficult part of writing this book (and Book 3, which I’ve just turned into my editor) was keeping a good balance between the storylines. Scarlet is the hero of this book, but Cinder is the hero of the entire series, so I didn’t want readers to get bored with or forget about either protagonist. I did a lot of shuffling around of their different chapters, trying to figure out the best points to break from a storyline and ensure that there was a good mix of suspense and information-gathering. It was kind of like putting together a really big puzzle.

Kai and Wolf are both strong, butterfly-inducing romantic leads, but let’s say they’re not in the picture for Cinder and Scarlet at the moment. Which other fairytale hero (or villain) might each young woman ask on a first date if her life wasn’t so crazy?

Hahaha, what a fun question! Of course, the problem with real fairy tale princes is that so many of them are so booooooring in their original tales, and neither Scarlet nor Cinder would be interested in a relationship with a pretty figurehead. So, hmm. If he was older, Cinder might look twice at Pinocchio—their history of prostheses would at least give them something to talk about. And Scarlet would want someone who fits in on the family farm—perhaps the youngest son in Puss in Boots (they were farmers, right?). In the end, he wouldn’t be ambitious enough for her, but she might want to keep his clever cat around.

If you were facing the same impending battle that Cinder is with the Lunar queen and had an expert fighter like Wolf in your camp, what’s the first thing you’d ask him to teach you?

Any of Levana’s secrets, that he knows. I don’t think any amount of training could turn me into a fighter, so I’d have to rely on wits and strategy.

Thorne is accompanying you on a promotional tour for Scarlet. How long do you think it will take for him to get himself in trouble?

My first tour stop is in Nashville this year, so I suspect it would take him all of an hour before he stole an authentic Elvis jumpsuit, and had convinced himself how goooood he looks in it. Rawr.

If Cinder were to ask you one question about the writing of her character, what do you think she would most want to know?

She might question her fashion decisions. Normally when we think of Cinderella we envision shimmering ball gowns and glass slippers… or at least a neatly pressed apron. But Cinder spends almost the entire series in some form of the boots + cargo pants + plain tank top or T-shirt uniform. Poor girl. I hope someone writes a fanfic that allows her to get dolled up for something!

There are quite a few technological advancements in Cinder and Scarlet’s futuristic world. What one piece of technology do you wish we had here?

Who doesn’t want hovercars? (Bonus: They drive themselves!)

If Emperor Kai were to address fans of the series and give us a briefing as to what to expect from book three, what might his concluding words to us be?

“Please rest assured that the other characters and I are working very hard to ensure the future safety of our planet, but I’m afraid things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better.” Then as an aside to me, he’d probably ask, “Things are going to get better… right?”

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Marissa! More information on Marissa and the fantastic Lunar Chronicles series can be found here:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon Buy Link

And don't forget to check out the remainder of this tour and the other participating blogs for more interviews, guest posts, reviews and giveaways, all the details can be found HERE. Tomorrow's stop is at Anna Reads.

SCARLET

LUNAR CHRONICLES GOODIES

•     Meet Marissa on tour!
•     Download 2 Lunar Chronicles short stories for only $.99 each
      - Glitches
      - The Queen's Army
•    Read the first 5 chapters of Scarlet
•    Watch the Cinder trailer

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the fabulous team at Macmillan and Marissa Meyer, I have a paperback copy of Cinder and a hardcover copy of Scarlet to give away on the blog today. *happy dance* To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open US/Canada only. Good luck everyone!

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Review: Cinder

CINDER (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Marissa Meyer
Paranormal Young Adult
387 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

MY THOUGHTS
A beautifully reimagined fairytale, Cinder proves to us how certain core fictional elements never fail to engross and enchant while also intriguing us with the intricacies of a completely new world ripe with new technologies and new problems. Much like she does with our cyborg protagonist, Ms. Meyer takes certain familiar aspects of the Cinderella tale and adds pieces and parts to it to create a fascinating hybrid, a blending of recognizable and foreign plot elements that keeps us glued to the pages despite our basic knowledge of how things will play out. There are so many additional layers to the rags-to-riches storyline of the original fairytale–the tension between Prince Kai and Cinder so much more palpable, the threat of discovery and the subsequent repercussions so much greater, and Cinder’s past so much darker and murkier—that our memories of everything we loved about the version that came before this are overshadowed by a potent desire to see where this new version will take us.

Though Cinder has had a rough past and exists as a servant in a home where she should be an equal, she never elicits a sympathetic response from us, instead earning our outright respect for the way she handles herself against those who seek to tear her down. She never whines over her predicament nor does she meekly accept her circumstances as law, always dealing with what fate hands her in a way that makes us sit up a little straighter and hold our chins up in her honor, infinitely proud and envious of her strength. The formation of a bond with Cinder is smooth and easy, our emotional attachment to her growing with each page even as the weight of all the secrets she’s keeping both from Prince Kai and her family sits heavier and heavier on our chests, dread for the moment when all her perceived undesirable differences are made public wrapping around our hearts with ice cold fingers as we find ourselves pulled fully into her story.

The relationship between Cinder and Kai is refreshingly sweet and slow-moving, sparks crackling back and forth between them on more than just a romantic level as secrets from Cinder’s previously muddled past are revealed, ratcheting up the forbidden nature of merely a royal/commoner pairing and turning it into something else—something darker and more intense—entirely. Though some of the discoveries regarding Cinder’s identity and her history before being adopted at age eleven are easily predictable, it doesn’t diminish our enjoyment in the least, instead our early deduction only gives us more time to think of what it means for her in general as well as for her and Kai specifically, thus adding a whole new level of tension that would have been noticeably absent had the big reveal toward the end been more startling.

Overall, Cinder is a strong start to the Lunar Chronicles series, Ms. Meyer creating a very memorable version of Cinderella with her own unique stamp evident on each and every page. The only minor nitpick would be it starts just a touch slow, the introduction of New Beijing, the plague crippling it, and Cinder’s relationship to her difficult family taking a while to unfold to the point where we can settle in, pull the parameters of this new world around us and let ourselves experience Cinder’s increasingly complicated life. The ending is neither cliffhanger nor neatly-wrapped package, instead leaving us with a lot to think about and anticipate without driving us to the brink of madness, and we close the back cover with a smile and a reminder to locate the release date of the next book at our earliest opportunity.

Rating: 4/5