Winter

Title: Winter

Author: Marissa Meyer

First Published: November 10th, 2015

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Available As: Hardcover, paperback, ebook

Pages: 827

My Copy: Ebook

My Rating: 9/10

Goodreads Summary:

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

I loved, loved, loved this book! I don't even know where to begin. It was so difficult to put down the book once I started reading it. There were so many cliffhangers and I was so scared that Meyer would pull a Riordan and not tell us about each characters' ending. But she did, thank goodness. :)

Alert: this review contains spoilers! Read at your own risk! :)

Cinder, or Selene, is leading the revolution against Queen Levana. Cinder has matured a lot over the series, when she started off as a unknown cyborg to a leader. Many people look to her for support and she is there to give it. But we can still see that she's insecure: she has no idea if the people of Luna would accept her rule or not. That's pretty intimidating, right? Putting these worries aside, she does all that she can to make sure Levana will be usurped. It was a tough battle, but Cinder won out. At the end of the book, Cinder was crowned as the queen of Lunar. From the meeting she had with the Earth representatives, it was fairly obvious that Cinder is willing to change things for the better, and will try to fix the tense relationship between Lunar and Earth. I think that she would make a good ruler, despite her deciding to dissolve the monarchy. Oh well. I guess it's for the best. Luna has suffered too much under the royalty's rule.

Winter was not the person I imagined - but this isn't necessarily bad! We catch a glimpse of her in Cress, but we didn't have much insight to her character. In this book, we find out that Winter has gone a bit crazy because she refuses to use her Lunar abilities no matter what. She's a sweet girl and she gets what she wants, despite everything. Her beauty makes others stare and want to help her out, and she also has a child-like, innocent aura about her. However, during the battle, Aimery was threatening both Winter and her friends, so in a fit of madness, she used her abilities to manipulate Scarlet into stabbing him to death. This showed us that Winter will do what she feels is necessary when her friends are in the face of danger.

What about Scarlet? She's still the fiery girl that we've come to know throughout the series. Being stuck in Winter's menagerie didn't affect her as much as it would've, and she managed to keep her sanity intact. I liked how - despite everything - she decided to help Winter. The two of them fought their way out to reunite with Cinder and co. I was scared for them, hoping that they wouldn't be found out. Luckily, their escape attempt was successful, thanks to Jacin. At the end of the book, Scarlet decided to lay low for a bit, before returning to her farm with Wolf. I think it's kinda cute how the two of them will live ordinary lives in a secluded town in France. After everything, I think they deserve a normal life.

I haven't forgotten Cress! She's really clever and good with technology, so she was the mastermind behind all videos. Using her skills, Cress has saved all of them many times. In Winter, it's evident that she's willing to sacrifice herself if it means Cinder will bring down Levana. She knows what she is doing, except when it comes to Thorne. She loves him, he loves her. It's that obvious. But for the two of them? It took them two books until they finally admitted their true feelings out loud. The scene was really cute. I was squealing out loud. :) My favourite part was when Thorne asked if Cress would like to work on the Rampion with him and he promised to show her the world. <3 Those two are so sweet.

All four of these ships are great. There is no one ship I prefer over the other one. Kai and Cinder are sweet and calm. Wolf and Scarlet are fiery and passionate. Cress and Thorne are cute and adorable. Jacin and Winter are gentle and quiet. All of their relationships are so different, but each completely suit them. I wish we could see Jacin and Winter's relationship develop a bit more, but it was strong  since the beginning.

Levana! What do you think about her? Throughout the series, we see her as cruel and power-hungry. She's the bad guy. The enemy. The antagonist. We all want her to go down. However, in the scene where Cinder confronts Levana in the throne room, we get to see more of Levana as a human/Lunar, and not a queen. She's disfigured from scars and burns, which provokes the question, what happened to her? We also learn (from Levana's point of view) that Channery, Cinder's mother, may not have been the nice, charming woman we all thought she was. But are her words true? In this scene, Levana was feeling her most vulnerable and disheartened, so I guess there isn't much of a reason for her to lie. I guess we will only find out the truth when we read her book, Fairest, which I have yet to do. I feel a little bit bad for Levana, but this doesn't excuse her actions.

This was a great conclusion to the series, and I'm a little sad that it's over already. I still remember the days when Cinder was the only published book. Ah well. I know I won't forget all the characters for a long time, and I hope to reread it someday in the future! :)

My Chosen Quote:

“Much safer to act crazy, when in doubt.”