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5 stars! This review will contain no spoilers for Winter, but if you have not read the first three books in this series… What are you waiting for? GO READ THEM! Because there will be spoilers for those!
Summary:
Winter is the final book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. So just like Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, this book is about another main female who is going to join the crew that’s trying to dethrone Levana and make Cinder Luna’s queen. Winter Hayle-Blackburn is the step daughter to Levana and Luna’s sweetheart. She’s known for not only her kindness and her three scars, but also her remarkable beauty! Being marked as the “most beautiful girl on Luna” you can bet on it that Levana cannot stand her… Winter doesn’t like her stepmother too much either, especially because she doesn’t approve of her feelings for the palace guard, Jacin. What Levana doesn’t know is that Winter is strong (despite her Lunar sickness) and she will do whatever she can to undermine the queen. When she find out about Cinder, her dearest cousin Selene, who has plans to come to Luna, Winter makes her choice and joins Cinder’s side. This book starts off in Winter’s point of view, but soon joins Cinder and the crew aboard the Rampion after a few chapters. To find out about Cinder’s plans to take down Levana on her own turf, you gotta pick up this amazing book!
I have a special kind of love for finales that really tie up all the loose ends. The ones that don’t leave you with waaaaay too many questions that you feel you didn’t get enough. Winter was everything I wanted for the finale to the Lunar Chronicles. This book was almost perfection for me. I feel like this book just sold me on this whole series. This sealed the deal for my love for the world Marissa Meyer created and these wonderful characters. Get ready for one heck of a rollercoaster because this is a LONG ONE. Which makes the ending so much more worth it all. All the hardships, all the obstacles, all the SEPARATIONS. It’s all worth it for that ending. The only thing I wish for is some short stories of how each of the couples end up like 10 years from now… Is that a thing? Please let it be a thing.
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrator for this series, Rebecca Soler, is PERFECT when she's doing all the different voices and she adds the right kind of emotion to her narrating!
Plot:
Okay so this is a retelling and I feel like I should address those aspects of this book first because compared to the others in TLC, this book had very obvious allusions to Snow White! You don’t notice it at first, how similar the story are until the most obvious scene from the original Snow White comes into play. The way it happens too is just crazy. Crazy in like a devastating kind of way. In my opinion this book was very much a good retelling even if the plot didn’t focus on the retelling so much as on the action.
Speaking. Of. Action! I LIVE for the battle scenes in this series, but especially this one. I personally kept wondering how in the world are these people going to be able to tell friend from foe because there are those loyal to Levana and such, then there are her thaumaturges controlling some of the people from the good side and its just SO MUCH IS GOING ON! So not only are the actiony scenes bumped up in this book, but so are the stealth scenes. Much sneaking is going on because Cinder and her crew do not want to get caught by any means, and those parts had be sitting on the end of my seat! I’d be gripping my book saying “C’mon c’mon c’mon! You have to make it!” in my head the entire time. I’d also be super worried one of my babies were going to get caught, or shot, or injured in some disastrous way. I wasn’t sure during which scenes Marissa wanted to be nice or mean to my fragile heart.
Onto Cinder’s plan. It’s quite a good plan. And as you’re seeing it unfold, your heart will constantly be cheering for them and for all the Lunars who were oppressed under Levana’s rule. And when you’re actually with Cinder like in her POV, you get to see her gain so much strength and confidence. It just dumbfounds me sometimes when I think about how much these characters have grown, how far they’ve come in this series and to see it all come to a close.
Rollercoaster isn’t even a sufficient enough comparison to describe the ride that is this book. There are so many ups and downs and side swipes and take offs and crashes. Oh my gosh. My heart was in pieces towards the end of this book, and then the last few chapters were able to mend it back together.
Another one of my favorite parts of this series are all the different ships that are going on. You just root so hard for every single one of them and for their happiness. Oh I just love them all so so so much, but I’ll talk about them in the next section!
Characters:
Let’s talk about Cinder and Kai first. They are so freakin’ adorable in this book! Now that they have finally admitted their feelings to each other, the emotions are coming out in full force. Cinder is so confident and strong willed in this book. She just doesn’t back down at all! and Kai. Oh he gets pretty sassy and smug in this book. Instead of being all “it’s out of my hands” he tries to do his part the best he can.
Cress and Thorne are next and I’m gonna start by saying they are my FAVORITE SHIP in this entire series. We don’t even get to have them until the third book, but I knew they’d be my fave since the desert. First of all, Cress is my favorite character in the whole series because she’s such a genius. Without her, none of anything would have been possible. She’s a techy and a hacker! Who doesn’t think that’s awesome? And then there’s Thorne, who’s my favorite male character in the book because of his downright hilarious lines in the story. He’s just so dreamy, and funny, and caring but doesn’t want anybody to see that. He wants to come off as carefree and selfish, but everyone can see through it. Thorne is just so, ugh, amazing.
Jacin and Winter are kind of interesting. I don’t know why I couldn’t get it out of my mind that Jacin was like 23 and Winter was like 16. I know I know, they are only two years apart, but Winter just acts like such a child sometimes… And Jacin is so… Stoic and formal most of the time. I really do like how much they care of each other even when I was severely confused as to whether or not they actually knew about each other’s feeling. I don’t know how much I love them yet, they’re “wrap up” in the end was not as satisfying as I wished it to be, but it was still pretty adorable.
Scarlet and Wolf are another interesting pairing that really keep getting the short end of the stick. First Scarlet got kidnapped. Then even worse things happen in this book. Separation after separation after separation (not just between them, but other couples too) it just always seems to hit Scar and Wolf worse. I don’t know how they were strong enough to get through all the crap thrown at them, but they did.
Overall:
I’m so happy to say I’ve finally finished the Lunar Chronicles. This series is now one of my favorite sci-fi young adult series ever! Please read them! As you go along, you can definitely see Marissa Meyer’s writing improve and improve. Once you get to Cress, you just won’t want the series to end. And when it does with Winter… You’ll never forget their stories.
Thanks for reading! :)