Scarlet and Wolf's story was the most intriguing to me. First off because Wolf is incredibly cute and sort of mysterious. Biggest plot twist ever was finding out that he wasn't a "Loyal Soldier of the Pack" but was instead a "Lunar Secret (?) Operative" or whatever it was exactly.
Scarlet is okay as a protagonist and has that Gryffindor level of stupid where she's brave and definitely someone you want to team up with...but as a Slytherin the Gryffindor-ish reeked from her. But not to say that I disliked her honestly.

Cinder's plot line was fairly boring to me until Iko came back into the story.
Kai is holding it together and I wish he had a stronger support system.

I lowkey can't see how it's fair that the Lunars can control bioelectricity while Earthens have no power. Because of that, I hope that Earthens have *some* type of trick that they can use to make it a more level playing ground or else the Lunars are extremely overpowered.

I was considering three stars, but ultimately decided 4 because I think that the way the fairytales played into the world-building was pretty genius here. Like Ran using glamour or whatnot to look like her grand-mere was a genius way of interpreting the past incarnations of Little Red where the wolf is disguised as the grandma.

It's an odd and small thing but Scarlet wearing a red hoodie took me out of my suspension of disbelief. Despite this being a futuristic world, it just also seems like it wouldn't have hoodies/sweatshirts but I guess that's just me.

I was initially a bit unsure about her focusing on entirely new characters in this second book, but the page time is split pretty evenly between Cinder and Scarlet. I actually liked Scarlet and Wolf's story line, which is really saying something coming from me because usually I see a YA book with a M/F pairing where the dude is like ~possibly evil bad boy~ and I am immediately out the door, but Meyer actually did a really good job with it. A lot of this is pretty standard YA SFF stuff, but I really like all the characters and she continues to do really interesting things with adapting familiar fairy tales into a sci-fi setting. Definitely enjoying this series so far although I'm a bit apprehensive that the last two books are so much longer.

i must protect carswell thorne for the rest of my days

Blew threw another. Scarlet annoys me a little, but Cinder is still my fave.

4,5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, actually more than I did Cinder.

The first book had a great plot, lots of action and clever details, but I didn't enjoy the characters as much. I liked Cinder and Iko, and their relationship, but the other characters felt flat and under developed. In the second book, to new big characters are introduced; Scarlet and Wolf, based on the Red Riding Hood fairy tale. I really liked Scarlet, and thought her more interesting and genuine than Cinder. Wolf was also another great character, and I felt intruiged about him right away. The fact that he is very different is what makes him so interesting. He doesn't act the way you'd expect, which makes the story more unpredictable.

The perspective changes between Cinder and Scarlet smoothly, and comes together in a nice way. The plot is even better than the first book, perhaps mainly because it isn't that predictable. Marissa Meyer is really clever with all the little details that hint's to the Red Riding Hood, like Scarlet's red hoodie, and I don't have to mention the Wolf. I really like the spin, and the romance was a lot better than in the first book.

I didn't have any expectations when starting on the first book, but I have been pleasantly surprised so far.