Book Review- Scarlet

I finished reading Scarlet on Tuesday night for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-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 and 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 has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

I remember reading Cinder, the first book in the series, and loved it because it was a take on the Cinderella fairy tales and we all know how much I love my fairy tales.  I thought this would be a continuation of that fairy tale.  Instead, it took me a while to figure it out (I don't know why since the quotes at the beginning of some sections should have given it away) but it was based on Little Red Riding Hood.  And yes, the title and cover should have given it away too.  Looking back, I really can't see why it took me so long to figure it out!

Anyways, this book didn't hook me as much as Cinder did.  I certainly liked the characters well enough but I think it was a little too sci-fi for me.  Or maybe it was the switching of the story being told between characters so I never really completely into one character or the other.

But I liked how Cinder's world tied in to Scarlet's world.  I figured it out about halfway through and liked seeing how it all turned out.  I believe the third book is called Cress and will include a Rapunzel character and the fourth book is called Winter and will involve Snow White.

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

Scarlet will be released on February 5, 2013.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 88
2012 ARC Reading Challenge: 71
2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 76
2012 Mammoth Book Challenge: 9

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.