I Have Scarlet Fever!

I had the same thoughts you did... Cyborg Cinderella? Really? But Cinder by Marissa Meyer was phenomenal, so Scarlet, the sequel, had a lot to live up to! The complex but riveting Lunar Chronicles continue, but you won't be able to predict what happens next!

Cinder learned more about her origins than she can fully process, even though she should have plenty of time to think in prison. Instead, she has to find a way to escape. Using her new-found Lunar abilities to tap into people's minds combined with her cyborg technical abilities, Cinder finds a way out, but she has to take an unwitting felon with her. Together, Cinder and Thorne make it to Thorne's ship, but with little power on the ship, they must find a way to get back to Earth undetected. More importantly, they must find answers about who brought Cinder, also known as the long-lost Princess Selene, to Earth and how she is supposed to stop Lunar Queen Levana from marrying the Emperor and taking over Earth. 

Scarlet is content with her simple life gardening and taking care of her grandmother, but when her grandmother goes missing, she refuses to believe the case is closed like the police tell her it is. She is going to find her grandmother even if it means trusting Wolf, a strange newcomer who fights for a living and doesn't seem fully human. But when Scarlet finds out Wolf's former pack might be the very ones who kidnapped her grandmother, she isn't sure who to trust.

The world is in danger, and while Scarlet and Cinder haven't met, their lives are about to become entwined. Both have different missions, but the people behind their lives may be too similar to be any kind of coincidence. But will they find each other? And who can they trust at this point?

This seems like such an oxymoron, but this is a simple yet complex series. With the fairy tale connections, you feel a sense of connection to the characters you think you know. But then Meyer takes them, refashions them, and all of a sudden you have a character whose name is familiar and situation is vaguely familiar, but who is so different from anything you have seen before that you can't put the book down! I admit I was skeptical of a cyborg Cinderella, but after reading Cinder, I knew this series was pure genius and I couldn't wait for Scarlet to come out. Now, having read the sequel, I am desperate for the next two books!

The beauty of this series is the combination of the familiar and the novel in one fell swoop. I think that is comforting and intriguing to students. They like the familiar connection, but they want something new and interesting, and this series is all of those with a dystopian/science fiction background! It is brilliant and great for a variety of students, including those who don't often read science fiction. And if you haven't read them yet, even if you usually don't read YA, pick this series up- it is phenomenal!