Moon Wolf

Hello all, sorry about the weird posting schedule lately, but life has been a bit on the crazy side...and it will probably continue to be crazy.  I will still do a daily post, but no guarantee on what time the post will go up.  That being said, all the craziness has actually given me some extra odd moments to read so my TBR pile is finally dwindling.  One of the books on that list was the second book in the Lunar Chronicles.  The book is Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and it continues the story of Cinder, our cyborg lost Lunar princess and introduces us to Scarlet, a young farmer who turns out to have an interesting connection to Cinder.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Scarlet is frustrated, her Grandmere has been missing from their small town outside of Paris, France for several weeks and nobody seems to be taking it seriously.  She is doing her best to keep the farm that she runs with her Grandmere running in her absence while also pursuing leads to what may have happened to her.  On one of her deliveries she meets Wolf, a tortured and conflicted fighter.  He tells Scarlet that he wants out and wonders if she has a job for him on her farm, which she does not.  She heads home to find her estranged father tearing the house apart, looking for something.  When Scarlet confronts him, he claims that he had been captured along with Scarlet's Grandmere and had been tortured to try and get her to reveal something. He also reveals that the captors had a numbered tattoo.  Meanwhile back in New Beijing, Cinder has recruited a rouge American captain/cadet/fellow prisoner named Carswell Thorne to help her escape.  Using her new hand and foot implements that were smuggled to her in her cell, she and her new friend make good their escape.  This of course causes the current Lunar Queen Levana to freak.  She blames the Emperor Kai and tells him if they do not recapture Cinder then there will be war.  Cinder continues to learn to use her new found Lunar power of manipulating bio-electricity to get her and Thorne away.  Back in

France, Scarlet has found Wolf, and noted his tattoo, linking it with her Grandmere's captors.  She receives news that her father had died under mysterious circumstances and is more determined then ever to find her Grandmere.  Wolf decides to go with her and much running and hiding occur.  Wolf tells her that he is part of a pack, that he and his brother were taken at a very young age and trained and molded into these wolf like creatures.  Wolf himself is an alpha or top dog in his pack, while his brother Ran is a lowly Omega.  They run into Ran in the forest and a pretty brutal fight occurs, with Wolf coming out the winner.  He and Scarlet have a moment or five and then he reveals to Scarlet where her Grandmere is.  He begs her not to go on the rescue mission, stating it is too dangerous.  Scarlet is determined and Wolf agrees to go with her.  When they arrive at a bombed out museum/theatre and then the big reveal...Wolf turns out to be a Lunar and has lured Scarlet to the lair on purpose to try and get more information.  Scarlet is understandably hurt, angry and betrayed and now a prisoner.  Back with our cyborg Cinderella, she is trying to get some answers about her past, she stumbles upon some information about Michelle Benoit, who just happens to be Scarlets Grandmere.  They make there way to the farm, which at this point is empty and find a secret chamber.  Cinder then has flashbacks as she looks at all the equipment which kept her alive from the age of 3 to 11, this is why she has no memories of that time.  She was in an induced coma for 8 years while they repaired her burned and broken body.  Scarlet is questioned and imprisoned, while Wolf is praised for his deception and cunning in getting Scarlet to the lair.  Queen Levana decides to use her wolf packs (which we learn are Lunars taken at a young age and mutated into wolf like creatures that are ferocious and bound to a single leader)  that she has positioned all over the world to start a devastating attack on the humans and Wolf is given the honor of leading the Paris attack.  He is feeling remorse and a romantic attachment to Scarlet and slips her a key chip to help her escape.  She finds her Grandmere, who is in pretty bad shape and is with her when she dies.  Scarlet escapes and is saved from an attack by Wolf, who ends up killing his brother Ran.  Chaos ensues and Scarlet and Wolf end up with Cinder and Thorne in their ship and make good their escape just in time to watch Emperor Kai pledge to marry Queen Levana if she promises to stop the attacks on humans.  She agrees and Cinder realizes that she has to quit running and make a stand.  Thus ends book 2.

I am gonna put this out there right now and say I did not like this book near as much as I liked Cinder, the first book in this series.  The first book did a great job putting in every element from the traditional Cinderella story into a futuristic tale that mostly made sense (I am still confused over a lot of the Lunar stuff).  This book was a lot more jumbled with the story of Little Red Riding Hood (kind of) combined with the continuing story of Cinder.  I really enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with Cinder and also liked the addition of Thorne who added some comic relief.  I was not as into Scarlet and her story, it felt a bit forced, like the author wanted to get another fairy tale into the series at the expense of the story.  Most of the whole Michelle Beniot helping rescue Cinder story could have been done with out Scarlet and Wolf, and Scarlet was a character I wanted to shake on a regular basis. Until the whole backstory of Cinders rescue came out near the end, I could not figure out what Scarlet had to do with anything...even Wolf had more of a direct impact on the Cinder storyline.  Again I felt like Scarlet was needless and the story could have been told with out her.  The book felt like nothing happened for 2/3 of it then all of a sudden EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT ONCE AND IT FELT LIKE I WAS READING THE BOOK IN ALL CAPS.  The "love" story between Wolf and Scarlet felt forced into a super short amount of time, and I could never get a read on Wolf.  Is he a tough, alpha Lunar who is willing to betray Scarlet?  Is he a sad little puppy who misses his mommy and

daddy, but puts on a good front?  Is he a depraved killer with a poets soul?  Over all he seemed a bit whimpery to me. I had to go back and read a quick synopsis of Cinder to remember what was going on, and I still don't have a great grasp on the whole Lunar thing...if they can manipulate everybody, and the Queen is especially strong, then why don't they just take over Earth in like, 5 seconds?  Why have a whole bloody war when Queen Levana could just ask nicely for the world and it would be handed to her? Are Lunars aliens or mutated humans? You definitely need to have read the first book to read this one as it is a direct continuation of the story and doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its own. I still love the combination of traditional fairytales and the future, I love the world that has been built and the technology makes sense, which is awesome.  Overall I am still into Cinders story and hope the next book focuses more on the over all story and less on forced characters.  I give it 5 out of 10 red hoodies.
How do you feel about sequels that veer away from the main story line?  Why do I feel the need to edit every book I read?  Do I sound like I hate everything all the time?