Marissa Meyer definitely delivered in this book; now I can't believe I have to wait until next year for Cress! GAH!!! 
 I ended up loving Scarlet more than I thought-- girlfriend's grandmother is a former military pilot, and she herself carries underneath her red hoodie? My kind of heroine. I loved her own character development; the pacing of the story, the descriptions-- everything was riveting and I couldn't put the book down. 
 I was also introduced to Captain Thorne, who reminded me of a sci-fi version of Jack Sparrow (CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow, and Thorne does the same thing-- demands to be called captain). I found him quite lovable and interesting, though I wish he served more of a purpose and I hope we understand more about him later-- right now he seems to be just a comic relief side kick, that we are supposed to accept as good, if not eccentric-- still, I hope there's a decent reason he turned out to be a thief? 
 I did end up feeling like "back to square one" by the end of the book, even if Cinder's character development was necessary. I am SO glad to see Iko back, I nearly cried when she was dismantled in the first book. 
 Overall, this book was pretty much perfection, except for a few personal annoyance-- it really bugs me when writers mess up certain details-- particularly with firearms. Why doesn't Scarlet carry in a holster-- she's smart enough to have a permit, why just stuff it in her waist band? Especially if her grandmother was a military pilot-- she ought to know better. And Wolf's advice to aim for the head first-- it was supposed to be this witty moment in the book, but all it did was annoy me and make me want to bang my head and brought me out of the story... And so on, and so forth-- just random details like that, and it's a pretty small quibble. Few authors get these things right after all. 
 It's a testament to how good of a writer Marissa Meyer, that I want to strangle Kai by the end of the book, while also pitying him. In short, this is a must read, and i'm so glad I bought the book-- also, so glad it was released on Kindle, otherwise I would be out of luck as I am living abroad. Now, to painfully, painfully wait for Cress to come out...