Winter

*****

5 Stars/5

Princess Winter is adored by the Lunar people for her kindness and her beauty, despite her scars, but this makes her stepmother Queen Levana hate her. Cinder, along with her allies, have “kidnapped” Emperor Kai from his wedding with Levana, so that they can slip into Luna, rescue Scarlet, gain the support of the people and overthrow Levana. However, when the group is separated, hope looks lost and it seems they will be unable to prevent Levana becoming empress and taking earth for herself. Are Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter able to stop Levana and find their happily ever after?

Winter is the Brilliant fourth and final book in the Lunar Chronicles and I love this series ability of giving each book their fairytale elements and in such a unique way. It is very faced paced as I read it in just over a day and considering this book is over 800 pages long, that is good for me, and it never became dull of boring at any time in the story. Meyer is amazing at giving each character equal amount of book time and none were pushed to the side-lines. In Winter there is lots of romance, action, humour and revolution.

Cinder is just as resourceful, determined and sarcastic as she is in previous books. However, now she is on Luna the more she feels the responsibility and knows what will happen if she fails. Scarlet and Wolf have the hardest journey in this series but they have such a strong bond, and Scarlett is just as stubborn, gusty and no nonsense as she has ever been. Cress is sweet and innocent still and the character I related to the most, although I wish I had her tech skills, but I think she is braver in this book and makes sacrifices for the best of the group. I liked Winter as she is kind and selfless, but because we the readers are only just getting to know her, I found it harder to be interested in her part of the story. I love Iko, but I am a bit disappointed that she didn’t find her “prince”, even though I felt it was a bit hinted at, and I hope there will be a short story which finishes her happily ever after.

Kai impressed me in this book as he is left out of the loop for quite a bit of the story but still plays his part and never doubts Cinder, and will do anything for his country and I like that he is intelligent, capable and just a little bit awkward. I feel very sorry for Wolf in Winter and he has changed the most as a character and has had the hardest time, but you never doubt his devotion and loyalty to Scarlet. Captain Thorne has got to be one of my favourite characters with his witty banter, cockiness and charm, and I think in this book he becomes the hero Cress believes he is. I found it harder to connect to Jacin than the other men, probably for the same reason as Winter, but he is sardonic, very protective and fierce.

I felt this book had the perfect ending and I am going to really miss this series, and I am really looking forward to reading Heartless next year. I would recommend Winter and the entire Lunar Chronicles to fans of YA books, Sci-Fi novels and fairytale retellings.