Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2014 As the Lunar Chronicles continue, we meet Cress, with Rapunzel-like hair, who is trapped in an orbiting satellite. For seven long years, she has provided intelligence and security for the Lunar Queen, Lavana. Her latest assignment is to search for Cinder, the escaped cyborg mechanic who crashed Emperor Kai’s ball and won his heart in spite of his announced betrothal to Lavana. Emperor Kai hopes his ultimate sacrifice—the marriage—will ensure peace between Earth and Luna. In this third book in Meyer’s fractured fairy tale series, Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, and Cress team up to stop the emperor’s wedding, preventing Lavana from becoming Earth’s queen and thus destroying it. Once again, Meyer offers up a science fiction fantasy page-turner that salutes women’s intelligence and empowerment, with a subtle warning of the perils of misusing that power. Old and new romances, unfinished story lines, and the prognostication of wartime horrors all pave the way for Meyer’s much anticipated next installment, Winter, expected in 2015. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The previous titles in the Lunar Chronicles series were both New York Times best-sellers; with a major marketing campaign pushing Cress, expect similar results here. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2014 High above the plague-ravaged streets of New Beijing, sixteen-year-old Cress is imprisoned in a satellite where she observes on netscreens the events of Earth, with a specific focus on the rebel cyborg Cinder and her accomplices (from Cinder, BCCB 2/12, and Scarlet, BCCB 2/13), who are now on the run as enemies of the Lunar Queen. Cress has been tasked by the queen to pinpoint the group’s location, but the computer-savvy girl instead uses her hacking skills to direct Cinder’s rogue spaceship to her own satellite, thus orchestrating her own rescue. Unfortunately, her dreams of joining the rebels (and making Captain Thorne, Cinder’s pilot, fall in love with her) go terribly awry when one of the Queen’s mind-controlling lackeys shows up mid-rescue, sending the satellite that holds Cress and Thorne plummeting to the Earth. Meyer continues her mash-up of fairy tales and science fiction in this third installment of the Lunar Chronicles, this time focusing on Cress, the Rapunzel figure. The addition of a third heroine makes the plot occasionally unwieldy, with the narration taking time away from Cress’s story to follow both Cinder and Scarlet in their own endeavors. Still, the shifting focalization allows the world to continue to expand, solving some old puzzles and providing a few new ones, while also giving more depth to the characters. The male romantic leads, for example, become particularly fascinating as readers see them in their relationships to each of the women, as love interests, friends, and strangers. This is very much a middle-of-the-series book, dependent on knowledge from the previous books while amping up the stakes for subsequent volumes, but fans will be thoroughly engrossed—and suitably intrigued to continue the series when a new girl ready to play the Snow White role shows up in the final pages. KQG - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 04/01/2014 Gr 8 Up—Cress is locked away in a floating satellite. She dreams of visiting Earth, the planet she has been forced to spy on, and meeting Carswell Thorne, the handsome ship captain who teamed up with Cinder in Scarlet (Feiwel & Friends, 2013). Her wish comes true after an attempted rescue from Cinder and her crew is intercepted, leaving Cress and Thorne stranded on Earth. At the same time, Scarlet is kidnapped, and Queen Levana, frustrated with Cinder's escape, begins to attack Earth. Cinder has her hands full with finding her missing comrades, dealing with an out-of-control Wolf, preventing Levana and Kai's marriage, and accepting her own royal heritage. At the end of the book, Cinder realizes that she can no longer hide from her destiny and begins preparations to head to Luna for a revolution. Cress fills in more historical details about Earth and Luna's relationship—most of which will be of no surprise to the reader—and Cinder's rebirth as a cyborg. Fans of Scarlet and Wolf may be disappointed that their relationship takes a backseat to the newly introduced pairing. As always, Meyer excels at interweaving new characters that extend beyond the archetypes of their fairy tale into the main story. Readers will eagerly await the final installment of this highly appealing and well-constructed series.—Marissa Lieberman, East Orange Public Library, NJ - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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