I really enjoyed Meyer’s take on the classic Rapunzel tale in Cress, giving further insight to the turncoat shell and hacker, Crescent Moon as well as giving Thorne some spotlight as well.

Since they were the “romantic” heart of the story this time, I’ll get to them first. I put romance in quotation marks because even though there is clearly a spark between them, Meyer doesn’t go the cliche route. Cress believes she knows the good man inside the rascally thief after her extensive record-keeping for her mistress. But Thorne punctures those fantasies, admitting that he wished he was as good as she believed him to be. In fact, Thorne tries to let her down gently pointing out that he is the first man she has ever met after being imprisoned in a satellite for seven years. She is socially awkward and unsure, she needs time to live.

And live they do when they end up crash-landing in the Sahara Desert after a rescue mission gone wrong. Meyer gets a chance to highlight a different part of this world by highlighting the African Union and its people, the cities where the letumosis was first found and where mutations unfortunately seem to be spreading. It also brings us back to Dr. Erland and what he has been up to, plus a (probably not) surprise twist when it comes to Cress’ origins.

However, back to Cress and Thorne. Not only does it allow for Cress to have a chance to see Earth but after a sudden bout of blindness due to head injury, readers also get to see past Thorne’s flirty schtick. We see his pride, his independence and some of his vulnerabilities. He is a stand-up guy despite his leanings toward thievery and cheating at cards.

As for Cinder, Kai and the rest, there are continuations of their previous storylines though cinder gets the most development as usual as she begins to really accept her role as a revolutionary for the Lunars and the fact that with these high stakes, she will have to break some of her moral rules. She really leans into playing the bad guy and it works.

Kai is still honorable and conflicted but I find that admirable as he is shown time and time again to be willing to make tough sacrifices for the sake of his kingdom.

But at least with the revelations Dr. Erland divulges on the larger extent of the Lunar’s biochemical warfare and the seeds they planted generations ago to get to the near world war six now, Kai and the others are in a better position to fight back. That we will find out in the last novel of the trilogy.

As is, I think this was a great continuation of the previous novels revealing new details and forshadowing more chess pieces in the game. Plus it features a different sort of road to romance for Cress and Thorne, and has finally made me accept how Kai and Cinder balance each other despite my dislike of insta-love at first sight.