HOL

Name of the author: Marissa Meyer
Main genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Romance
Main audience: Young Adult

Main Books:
The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter)
Renegades trilogy (Renegades, Archenemies, Supernova)
Heartless
Instant Karma

Short summary of the author:
Marissa Meyer has a degree in Creative Writing and Children's Literature, as well as a Master's in Publishing. Before writing professionally, Meyer worked as a book editor, freelance typesetter, and proofreader. Meyer loves fairy tales and she began writing Sailor Moon fan fiction when she was a teen. Both of those led her to write her first book, Cinder, a futuristic fairy tale-retelling of Cinderella that involves the Moon country Luna.

Good points / bad points:
Marissa Meyer is an excellent storyteller. She crafts interesting worlds and is able to make both the "heroes" and "villains" relatable. Her target audience is young adult, so some ideas aren't too complex.

Title of the book: Gilded
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Gilded series
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling

Short summary of the story:
Gilded is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin. Serilda is a young lady who is known for telling lies. She isn't trustworthy, but the children all love her stories. The evil Erlking tracks Serilda during one of his wild hunts. She is able to stay alive by convincing him that she can spin straw into gold, so he takes Serilda to his castle in the mysterious town of Adalheid.

Good points / bad points:
Whenever people ask for book recommendations, I usually always include The Lunar Chronicles and the Renegades trilogy. But, I was a bit disappointed with Gilded. I do know it was supposed to be darker, which it was. However, I did not feel a real connection to any of the characters. It is hard to tell what is true or not, which may or may not be intentional. I kept reading, thinking that something important must happen, but it felt like this entire book was simply setting up the next one. I'm not sure if I will actively seek out the sequel when it comes out... Maybe only if it happens to be there when I'm getting other books at the library.