Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

Title: Winter

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4

Previous books in this series: Cinder (#1) | Scarlet (#2) | Cress (#3)

Previous novellas in this series: Glitches (#0.5) | The Little Android (#0.6) | The Queen's Army (#1.5) | Fairest (#3.5)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA, sci-fi, fairy tale retelling

Publication date: November 2015

Published by: Feiwel & Friends

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis: Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She's said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, 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?

My rating: ★★★★★

This book was SO good! I literally finished all 823 pages in under two days!

Winter was amazing! The character... although the book was amazing as well 😅 Because she doesn’t use her Lunar powers, she has this awful disease affecting her brain, yet she still manages to help out the crew. She's really smart and compassionate and I just love that about her. Oh, and there is a reason she doesn’t use her powers, and it made me so sad! I won’t go into the specifics of the situation, but basically...

“That day I swore to never manipulate anyone ever again. Even if I believed I was doing good—for who am I to presume what is good for others.”

This is a true statement. I mean, you never know what other people are going through behind closed doors. But I just love Winter because she is such a genuinely good person and she tries to help others, regardless of her powers or disease.

Speaking of helping, Scarlet is one of those people she helps out! I mean, as much as she can without being caught by Levana. And honestly, a feisty Scarlet plus a sweet Winter is a team up I did not know I needed. Their interactions were just so much fun!

“Wait,” said Winter as Scarlet nudged the podship forward.
Scarlet’s head dropped. “What?” she said, scanning the port for a thaumaturge, a guard, a threat.
Winter reached over and pulled the pilot’s harness over Scarlet’s head. “Safety first, Scarlet-friend. We are fragile things.”

I also loved her interactions with Jacin because OMG Jacin was SO sweet to her! The change from his interactions with the crew on the Rampion in the last book to him and Winter... WOW! I loved this side of him! I love their relationship and how Jacin is always by her side, protecting her. We got to see first hand the effects of her not using her gift and it was awful! Straight out of a horror movie awful 😩 I was so glad that Jacin was right there to help her out.

So, at the end of the last book, Cinder totally kidnapped Kai, and now he’s up on the Rampion with the crew trying to figure out what they're gonna do next. I love that in this iteration of the story, Cinderella isn't the one in need of rescuing. She’s the one who is doing the rescuing... rescuing Kai from Levana and the wedding! And omg Kai and Cinder are so freaking cute! I love them! The interactions between the characters is one of my favorite things about this series. For example, here we have Thorne, Cinder, and then Kai:

“Oh, Cinder, I’ve missed seeing your face when you make sarcastic comments in an attempt to hide your true feelings about me.”
“Please.” Rolling her eyes, Cinder started organizing the guns against the wall.
“See that eye roll? It translates to ‘How am I possibly keeping my hands off you, Captain?’”
“Yeah, keeping them from strangling you.”
Kai folded his arms, grinning. “How come no one told me I had such steep competition?”

I love the flirtatious Throne! Of course, we all know they mean nothing, cause he and Cress? They are the absolute cutest! They have this intense scene and... I think I may have swooned. It was SO good!

I also love Iko, who is very sassy and dramatic, especially when it comes to her crush on Kai.

Kai jumped back. “What happened? Did I hit her power button or something?”
Frowning, Cinder took a step closer. “Iko, what are you doing?”
“Kai hugged me,” said Iko, eyes still closed. “So I fainted.”

The android, still on the floor, shrugged apologetically. “I would love to give you a good-bye kiss, Captain, but that lingering embrace from His Majesty may have fried a few wires, and I’m afraid a kiss from you would melt my central processor.”
“Oh, trust me,” siad Throne, winking at her. “It would.”

But she is also such a great friend!

“When we saw the feed of you jumping off that ledge, I was so scared I thought my wiring was going to catch fire. And I thought, I will do anything to make sure she’s all right.” [Iko] kicked at a pile of stray screw on the carpet. “I guess some programming never goes away, no matter how evolved a personality chip gets.”
Licking some jam from her fingertips, Cinder grinned. “That’s not programming, you wing nut. That’s friendship.”

Android or not, that friendship is real! 🖤 ALL the friendships in this book are just everything! I love when they all come together and work with each other to take down Levana. It’s so good—so epic! And the anxiety this book produced... OMG. Cinder being a leader of the people and rallying them up to fight against Levana was SO good! It gave me chills! She is a great leader! And then when they were in the tunnels heading toward Levana for the final battle... it gave me anxiety. I kid you not, the anticipation of the final fight gave me a literal sense of impending doom! A book! This hasn’t happened before! Not to this extent, at least. It was crazy! It just goes to show how invested I was in this story. It was THAT good! I actually had to pause and take a breather just so I could continue reading without giving myself a legit anxiety attack 😂 But that end fight was absolutely incredible! There was so much action and I loved it!

And with this being a Snow White retelling, I knew the part when the queen ordered the huntsman to kill the princess would come eventually. But when it did, it still surprised me, and it was still hard to read! There were so many moments like this that I knew were coming because I know the story, but I was so into THIS story and THIS world that every time a plot point came up, be it the huntsman or the poisoned apple, it still surprised me. I think that’s a mark of a good story 🖤

I really love this world and I adore these characters and I am going to miss them terribly. This was just a fantastic series—probably the best fairy tale retelling I have read ever! Things wrapped up really nicely, and there were even some things wrapped up between Cinder and her stepmother, Adri, which I was not expecting. Things came full circle and it was a very satisfying ending. I highly recommend The Lunar Chronicles if you’re a fan of fairy tale retellings, or even if you’re a fan of sci-fi. I loved the way the fairy tales were intertwined with this sci-fi, futuristic setting. It was just so good! And in this one we got to explore Luna quite a bit, so that was a nice change of scenery. But yeah! I cannot say enough good things about this series—it’s amazing!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊