DevTheReader

I like you dear book. I like you a lot.

While I've given both Cinder and Scarlet 4 stars as per the goodreads rating system , it's safe to say that I liked Scarlet much more. Scarlet in my eyes was a successful sequel to the previous book. In some ways, it's more edgier , more action packed , more heart breaking (oh yes.) and more badass-er?

What I liked in this one here was the amount of improvement I got to see since Cinder. I feel that the writing is more concrete and that the story is more engrossing but it still did lack that fine finish. It could be because of the fact that we had two stories playing side by side right before our eyes with two very different protagonists. To be honest I had initially loved the contrast. Cinder and Scarlet are two very different characters. While Scarlet is strong and feisty and determined , Cinder is still trying to process things around her and is the kind of a person who thinks not twice but a million times before taking a step which in her case makes a lot of sense.

Cinder's character is easy to understand. All her life of sixteen years she was exploited and hurt. And then she was handed the biggest bomb of all. That she was the missing lunar princess Selene More than anything else, she always wanted freedom and a chance to be normal. She is in right words , clueless. But she doesn't want to be. And this growth in her character is wonderful!

While , Scarlet's character is quite badass. After her grandmother goes missing, nobody steps in to help her. But Scarlet isn't one of those people who just sit around and wait for things to just happen. No sir.
She decides to rescue her grandmother and finds herself crossing paths with a mysterious man who calls himself Wolf.

There are a set of new characters that are introduced to us in this installment. We have Captain Thorne--the evergreen comic aspect of the book who meets Cinder in prison and escapes with her to join her in her journey and Wolf--the mysterious man who well you can say, is with Scarlet. Wolf was a fantastic addition. His dark, ruthless ,cold and dangerous persona mixed together with his and Scarlet's chemistry is definitely the icing on the cake.
Also we have the reappearance of a character who I totally loved and adore and after this one, love even more. You all must be thinking, What happened to the beautiful Emperor Kai?
Earlier above I had mentioned that this book is quite heartbreaking....
So much of pressure. SO MUCH.
The might of a whole nation. The threat from an alien species. The ever growing threat of Plague contamination. His feelings for a girl who he knows could never be his. An alien queen behind his ass. Oh dear, poor guy. His struggle and inner turmoil is heartbreaking and everytime I read about him , I just felt like punching someone hard. I wanted to go inside the book and pull him out and soothe him because his whole life is in a conflict. I love all these characters so much.

And that finally brings me to what this book lacked.
I feel that with so many stories and characters playing along the lines
there was no place for development. They were all put in , taped together but that fine finish was missing. There were places where I wanted more of Cinder and less of Scarlet. I know it's weird but it's true. And this is the kind of thing I don't want. The third book Cress will introduce us to another character and another story plot and I hope with it all these qualms are solved because if not the whole book would be a mess and kind of disastrous.

But then that's just me and my over thinking mind.

Also with that promising end which by the way came with a badass note, I'm sure Cress is on it's way to make me happy.
So do I recommend you to read this book?

Go ahead. Don't think twice.

This review appears at YA Fanatic.