The Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

A futuristic take on classic stories, the Lunar Chronicles follow Cinder (a cyborg Cinderella), Scarlet (a feisty red(-headed) riding hood), Cress (a programmer Rapunzel), and Winter (an evil queen's stepdaughter).

Book one - Cinder - sets the stage. Cinder is a cyborg mechanic in New Beijing, living as a second class citizen because of her mechanical parts with her her stepmother who hates her, and her two stepsisters. A plague has overtaken the planet, the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth has fallen ill, and Prince Kai needs a droid repaired that may have confidential government secrets stored in her memory. It's up to Cinder to fix the droid, and maybe save the country while she's at it.

In book two, we are introduced to Scarlet, who has no idea what her grandmother's past included, but that won't keep her from being the target of people who think she does know. With the help of a street-fighter named Wolf, she starts to put the puzzle pieces together, and figures out just who her grandmother was, who Cinder is, and what her role in everything will need to be.

In the latest installment - due to hit bookstores in February 2014 - we meet Cress. Like Rapunzel, she's been stuck up in a tower. Well, not so much a tower, more a satellite orbiting earth. With her aptitude for hacking, she's been watching all the world leaders for years, and crushing on a certain marauding Captain. When the opportunity to finally leave her satellite arrives, she leaps at the chance. Things don't always go according to plan however, and she winds up stuck in the Sahara desert trying to make contact with her Captain's friends.

The final book will focus on Winter, who is briefly introduced near the end of Cress, and will wrap up the revolutionary war between the Earthen people and the Lunars.

I can't wait to read the final book, but I know I've got at least a year and a half of waiting left to do. These are some of my favorite books. Suitable for middle grade and up, there's action, adventure, politics, science, and romance. Definitely, these books are geared toward girls (as female leads often seem to be). There is more violence in Scarlet, and Cress leads into war, which is never clean; but overall I'd say they are good for ages 12+.