RBD Review #10 | After Alice by Gregory Maguire

Book info:
After Alice by Gregory Maguire | 256 pages | Published 2015 by Headline | Fantasy, Retelling, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale

---This is the UK cover, which I found more appealing than the US one---

Summary:
When Alice fell down he rabbit hole, she found Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rules and abrasive egos as the world she left behind. But how did Victorian Oxford react to Alice’s disappearance?

Gregory Maguire turns his imagination to the question of underworlds, undergrounds, underpinnings - and understandings old and new, offering an inventive spin on Carroll’s enduring tale. Ada, a friend mentioned briefly in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, sets out to visit Alice but, arriving a moment too late, tumbles down the rabbit hole herself.

Ada brings to Wonderland her own imperfect apprehension of cause and effect as she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and bring her safely home from this surreal world below the world. The White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts interrupt their mad tea party to suggest a conundrum: if Eurydice can ever be returned to the arms of Orpheus, or if Lazarus can be raised from the tomb, perhaps Alice can be returned to life.

Either way, everything that happens next is After Alice (blurb on book).

My thoughts:

Read March 24-29, 2016 | 5 stars

RBD Review #7 | Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:
Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer | 824 pages | Published 2015 Rampion Books | Teen Sci Fi/Fantasy (external image)

Summary:
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? (ourtesy of Goodreads)

My thoughts (minor spoilers):
Read February 22-March 02, 2016 | 5 stars

Oh my stars. It’s over. It’s all over. How am I supposed to go on now? I guess I have Stars Above left, but I don’t know if that’s going to help.

RBD Review #6 | Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles #3.5) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:
Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles #3.5) by Marissa Meyer | 220 pages | Published 2015 by Feiwel & Friends | Teen SciFi/Fantasy (external image)

Summary:
In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series (courtesy of Goodreads).

My thoughts:
Read February 21-22, 2016, 5 stars

RBD Review #5 | Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:
Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer | 552 pages | Published 2014 by Feiwel & Friends | Teen SciFi/Fantasy

Summary:
Even in the future. there are damsels in distress...

In the third installment of the Lunar chronicles, Cress, having risked everything to warn Cinder of Queen Levana's evil plan, has a slight problem. She's been imprisoned on a satellite since childhood and has only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress a great hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress involving Cinder, Captain Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes as a high price. Meanwhile, 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 (courtesy of Goodreads).

My thoughts:
Read February 19-21, 2016, 5 stars

RBD Review #4 | Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer | 454 pages | Published 2013 by Feiwel & Friends | Teen SciFi/Fantasy

Summary:
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner (Goodreads).

My thoughts:
Read February 18-19, 2016, 4/5 stars

RBD Review #3 | Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Book info:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer | Published January 3, 2012 | 390 pages | Teen Science Fiction/Fantasy (external image)
Summary:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

Read February 16-17, 2016 | 4 1/2 stars
I AM IN LOVE! It’s been so long since I’ve fallen for a teen series. Not including The Hunger Games, it must have been the Great and Terrible Beauty Trilogy by Libba Bray back in 2003. The first few notes I made are simple: set in New Beijing, easy to read/get into, a little confused about the Moon people (or Lunars, if you prefer), but the more I read, the deeper I got and I suddenly realized I had read 100 pages. I loved all the references to the classic tale: the foot, the car, no human friends... Since I’m reading this after the rest of the series is out, I’m aware of the titles and can guess who they represent, and I really appreciated the subtle and not so subtle hints about how they will all tie together. I think it’s really important to do early on in a series with so many characters. This is such an easy read, and I don’t mean that like the writing is simple, it just flows so well; like it’s a third-person stream of consciousness. So easy to fall in without knowing it.

Other than the fact that I could call the plot twists/surprises, I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. I hope they keep me wanting more.

4 1/2 stars from me! (I’m leaving room for the others!!)

Scarlet | Cress | Fairest | Winter

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