Red Cloaks And Underground Princes

I've been going through my Rambling and Future Reading pages trying to clean it all up (more on that tomorrow) when I realized I never did a rambling on Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George, the last book in the Princesses of Westfalain series and that just won't due.  So without further ado, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

In this book we see Petunia, the youngest of the the 12 sister princess almost all grown up.  She is in her way to go visit a relative when she is held up by bandits in wolf masks.  Petunia (with her red velvet cloak) soon discovers that the head of these wolf bandits is actually a young earl by the name of  Oliver.  Turns out that during the brutal war that we learn about in the first book the earl and his family lost their home through what turns out to be treachery.  Petunia is sympathetic but eventually continues her journey.  While at the Grand Duchesses house, Petunia and her sisters are soon caught up in a hellish nightmare come true, when it is finally revealed that the Grand Duchess is actually one of the Nine Daughters of Russaka which are rumored to have given birth to the King Under the Stones sons (this makes a lot more sense if you have read the other books).  The Duchess is now trying to get the 12 Princesses back to the underground world of the dark princes, to fulfill the intent of them all getting married.  The girls, their husbands, boyfriends, and friends all fight back with various magics, of course overcoming the bad guys in the end.  Oliver is restored to his earldom and he and Petunia have a thing and everybody appears to live mostly happily ever after.

Ok Ok, I know that is a super chintzy recap, but really that is all that happened.  Over all the book was supposed to allude to the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, but mostly felt like a rehash of the first book.  This time around the girls were better prepared, and much more knowledgeable about the underground horror's...but I don't know, it seemed a bit redundant.  As with the earlier books, I do appreciate the self sufficiency of all the girls, their ability to knit, sew, read, write, cook and persue their own interests is a refreshing change of pace for a typical princess.  I also enjoy the sheer number of princesses/sisters in that no single one is a super special, treasured, pampered only child, again a different take on your classic princess tale.  This book would be pretty difficult to understand if you had not read the other two, so keep that in mind.  Eh I know this short for a rambling, but there you have it.  This was not a bad book, just a bit flat compared to the other two.  Overall I give it a 6 out of 10 red velvet cloak and appreciate it for wrapping up the story in a neat little package.
How do you feel about the varying degrees of success of a book through out a series?  If a book pays homage to a well known story, how recognizable does it have to be?  How much of a cop out was this rambling?

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?