Winter – Marissa Meyer

Release date: 10 November 2015
Rating: ★★★★★★★ – 7/10
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Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) blurb:

This is not the fairy tale you remember, but it’s one you won’t forget.

Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She’s said to be even more breathtaking than her step-mother, Queen Levana…

When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.

But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter claim their happily-ever-afters by defeating Levana once and for all?

The fourth and final book of the Lunar Chronicles was fitting.  I should have written the review as soon as I finished it — I usually do, but this time I was restless because I’d finished my TBR pile for the month at day 16, I wasn’t well, and I was having my wisdom teeth taken out later in the week.  And now I’ve read three other books since and I can’t remember why I liked it so much.

The story was good – we kind of went back to the predictable-ness of Cinder, but there were some twists and turns that were well thought out.  Meyer’s writing was easy to follow, with simple language and sound plot points.

The characters were good – we really meet Winter and Jacin properly in this book, and I’ve got to say, I wasn’t really a fan of either.  Cinder, Kai, Scarlet and Wolf still remain my favourites…

The one thing I did like about Winter though, was how her ‘optimism’ just kind of led her and Scarlet off down through the tunnels with no real idea of what the situation might actually involve.  Her personality traits (it really just borders on naïvety or lack of awareness) was one of the most annoying things about this book though.  I felt like she was stereotyped as a simpleton.  And the ‘fix’ was kind of obvious as soon as we discovered why she was this way.

Also, I really didn’t like Jacin.  I don’t care how much he cared for Winter, he was an obnoxious jerk and he deserved to be in Levana’s employment.

In terms of huge character development (it was bound to happen sooner or later), I really enjoyed the changes in Wolf in this one.  He was definitely my absolute fave of the series – particularly when they all get to Lunar and we discover some of his background.

All in all, Winter was one of those ‘end of the series’ books that tied everything up quite neatly…  That didn’t make it bad, but it definitely gave it that ‘and they all lived happily ever after…’ fairy-tale ending – which actually, is probably quite fitting for this series…

I’m not entirely sure that I’ll read Fairest or Stars Above. To be honest, I don’t really know that much about them, except that Fairest is the villain’s story (which seems to be a thing now…?), so I’m not really that into it. I do have a copy of Wires and Nerves, which I think is a follow up story focusing on Iko (if someone wants to correct me, I am more than welcome to hear it because I rarely read the blurb until I’m writing the review). I also have Renegades, but I think it’s a totally separate story (again, feel free to correct me!).

I’d like to hear if you liked this book (the monster that it is), or if you have different thoughts! Hit me up! ☺️