I was not prepared for this obsession... This series is taking me by storm! ( )

Fun read. ( )

With the third book the pace of the story has finally picked up and the author is addressing the problem of how to confront the Lunar Queen. At the same time, the fairy tale is Rapunzel who has been isolated in a satellite for seven years. ( )

W-O-W-Z-A.

I love fairy tales and their adaptions, but Marissa Meyer takes this to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. I haven't been this glued to a series in a very long time (almost a decade... back when I was in high school). It's seriously amazing that Marissa can pull my attention so well. Seriously, I just ordered the last book of this series. I have read almost an entire series in a few months, which is super rare for me as a reader. And, I have to say, this series pulled me out of my reading slump. It made me fall in love with reading again, so it'll have a special place in my heart.

Onto the review:

I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two, but it was still mind-blowing. The first half of the book did not pull my attention as much as I wanted it to, but I still love our little Crescent Moon... I mean, Cress. I even had to laugh because Cress and her lover boy gave me serious Tangled vibes. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but I dig the giggles!

This book moves faster than the last two. There's twists and turns in almost every chapter and kept me thoroughly hooked. It was disappointing when I had to put the book down because I knew something else was going to happen.

I also really enjoyed this book address Cress and her instant love for her rescuer. It felt like a parody as it was also participating fully in the narrative. At times, I felt like it was insta-love but then it'd go and make fun of it. By the end, Cress isn't fully in love with Captain Thorne so it did actually pay off. I'm rather impressed with how this YA tackled that trope. Seriously, Marissa got some real respect from me.

And then, the ending. This book leaves on a bit of a cliffhanger (which I hate, by the way), but it did it in a very good way. The book had giggles but it also had absolute terror - murder, genocide and the likes. It seems weird to put that in a review about a fairy tale adaption, but it's true. There were some really bad scenes in this book to show how cruel Levana is. With one book left, Winter is going to have some seriously work to do (but we all know Marissa is a genius, so she'll be just fine).

To top it off, this book had some seriously amazing one liners thrown in. Kai talking about his wedding vows was killing me - remove love, respect and joy - like, Marissa, you're killing it!

The most frustrating parts of these books for me is the last section of the books either "extra content". I always think I'm getting 400-500 pages full of Lunar plot, but it seems like half the book is reader questions and Q&As with authors. It makes me feel a little cheated, but it obviously doesn't affect the story at all. It's just a pet peeve of mine.

In the end, this book was another epic-ly fun read for me. I enjoyed every second of this book (even if it didn't live up to my super high standards). I absolutely will be reading Winter (it's being shipped as I type this!) and I can't wait to see what else Marissa does in her writing career. Books like these make my heart sing - they make my love of reading SO much stronger. But, she does raise my standards a lot higher for other authors...

P.S. Thorne gives me Han Solo vibes and we all know I love Star Wars.
Five out of five crescent moons! ( )

So boring, omg. ( )