SOPHIE LI

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had 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 of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

• Cress was a cool gal. She wasn’t your conventional kick-ass female heroine. In fact she was a hopeless romantic and all she hoped to be was a damsel in distress. But still, she was capable of doing very cool stuff, like hacking security systems. (I find that in YA fantasy, in general I see a lot of these strong female MCs who are tough and strong-skinned and independent. However I like the idea that there is more than one way to be a strong female MC. You don’t have to be physically strong and it is totally okay to be a softie and a romantic.)
• At first I wasn’t sure about Cress and her love interest, but soon I fell in love with this couple! They were SO cute and most likely my favourite couple of the series thus far!
• In addition to the excellent chemistry between the two MCs, I also liked how they both developed individually and as a pair throughout the story. There were so many heartwarming moments that made me go “awwww.”
• The plot REALLY got rolling towards the second half of the book. We’re ramping up towards the main conflict. Looks like most (if not all) of the important players were introduced, plot elements were all set up, which made me so excited for book 4!!
• I caught a glimpse of the MC for book 4 who seemed very interesting. I started to like her already and this also made me want to read the next book!
• There were some moments towards the end of the book which really made me shed a tear or two.

• I was a fan of Wolf in book 2 but he became a bit hard to understand in this one. He felt like a caricature rather than a person.
• Unlike some of the surprising plot twists from books 1 and 2, I was actually able to predict some of the twists in this book (and maybe that was a good thing??)
• That’s it. I really enjoyed this third book so no complaints!

4/5 fishies!

Cress was a page-turner with plenty of action, the sweetest romance subplot and characters to die for. Can’t wait for the next book!!

Have you read this series? Who are your favourite “strong” female MCs?

Photo by Jesse Echevarria on Unsplash