After waiting a whole year to read Scarlet, I waited only two weeks to "read" Cress, the third book in the amazing "Lunar Chronicles." I say "read" because I actually ended up borrowing the audiobook from my library. But this is the review of the book itself, not it's recording, so I'm not going to go too much into the audiobook version. Although, I will say that the narrator, Rebecca Soler, does an awesome job and it's totally worth the listen. 
 Anyways, into the nitty gritty. All in all, I loved Cress. I was a little bit skeptical of Meyer's plan to seemingly introduce a new character to focus on each book, but she pulled it of in Scarlet and she certainly does a good job here. We're reintroduced to the characters we already know (and, presumably, love). Cinder, Scarlet, Throne, Wolf, Kai, and a slew of others, while also coming face-to-face with some new characters: Cress and (eventually) Jacin. The old characters weave in with the new, and Cress's introduction feels natural, as does her inclusion with the group. The pacing and action were well done, and the characters continue to be hilarious. 
 Another great aspect of the story is, of course, the fact that these are retellings of fairy tales. The characters may be living in a futuristic world with cyborgs, androids, and moon people, but the basics of the original tales are still recognizable. In this case, Cress is Rapunzel, only her "tower" is actually a satellite, where she has been trapped for the last seven years. I personally don't know the original tales very well, but it was fun when Meyer would introduce some new plot point (such as (view spoiler)[when Throne is blinded (hide spoiler)]) that made me gasp as I connected it to the original tale. 
 Now down to why Cress only has four stars instead of five. Because I loved it, I really did. But something felt.. off. You see, all the fairy tales the four books are based off of, save for "Little Red Riding Hood," are love stories. And, even though the original tale doesn't have Red pairing off with anyone, Scarlet still ends up finding love (although she's a little on-the-fence about Wolf, I'm sure they're going to get together in Winter). Which, honestly, is fine with me. I love the romance aspect of these books. Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress are very different people, and so are their romances. However, the issue comes with who they're paired with. Cinder with Kai. Scarlet with (eventually) Wolf. Cress with (view spoiler)[Thorne (hide spoiler)]. Winter with (view spoiler)[Jacin (hide spoiler)]. All of these are women pairing off with men, and all of these characters are presumably straight, as they haven't ever expressed attraction to other genders (except for blushing at Lunars' beauty, but that's the effect of the glamour). At this point, I'm used to characters being set at straight-default, unless they're in a piece of fiction explicitly marked as LBTQA+, usually shelved in the contemporary section of the bookstore. You don't really see non-straight characters as the main in adventure or fantasy or sci-fi YA novels (except for Huntress). Which, honestly, I've gotten used to. But at the same time, if I'm reading a series, I'm usually only dealing with one "main" romance. In "The Lunar Chronicles" we have four romances. All straight. And while I do like how all the characters' stories intertwine with each other, it felt kinda repetitive, after three straight romances, that the new guy introduced in this novel is gonna pair up with the new girl from the next novel. Come one. Meyer, I love these books, but you couldn't throw in one non-straight couple? For me? 
 All gripes aside, I really did enjoy this. The whole lack of LGBTQA+ representation thing started to bug me about 3/4 of the way through, and I just can't let go of it. It's such a simple thing to include, and they are in the future after all. Is if so hard to believe, in a world with cyborgs and androids and mind-controlling moon people, that some of these characters might not be default straight?