Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Book Review | Winter by Marissa Meyer

*image from perpetualpages on instagram

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4)
By: Marissa Meyer (@marissa_meyer)
Published By: Feiwel and Friends on November 10, 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Pages: 827 
Goodreads // Book Depository
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?
 

The Lunar Chronicles is officially one of my top five favorite series ever. And Winter didn't disappoint. 
Winter looks about 500 pages, max, but it's actually 800 pages. Did I care? Not really. Did it feel like 800 pages? NO. FREAKING. WAY. Winter legit got me turning that page faster than I can eat a hot dog (which is pretty fast, btw). You know those books that you literally cannot put down? I was reading this at dinner. I will never risk eating with a book. Winter was an exception. So many things were happening at once, and you're just like ALSD;FALKS;FALSKJF;.

Hands down, you have to go read Winter. The characters were amazing (especially Winter and Jacin), and the fairy tale retellings that are intertwined in the books are incredible. Especially this one. If you haven't started The Lunar Chronicles, please do. And if you've read Cress, JUST PICK THIS ONE UP. This review will probably just be me fangirling, but seriously, it's SO good. There's not much else I can say. 

Winter was a satisfying read. Now PLEASE go read this series before I explode. 

spoiler section: please read winter before continuing. or continue anyways. be a rebel. i don't care. :P

characters and relationships~

Winter, as saw in Cress was a slight bit insane, but I still loved her anyways. My favorite part is when SHE MANIPULATED AIMERY AND KILLED HIM. I was SO freaking proud of her, and I was just like, YES GIRL YOU GO! She's so sneaky and clever, especially when Jacin tells her that he can't go in and watch her paint, she just goes outside and does it.

My little shipper heart was complete. Kaider was adorable as usual, but I think my heart still goes out to Cress and Thorne. The speech he gave at the end was just... 
"One should never save cake for later when it can be eaten now." ~Princess Winter Hayle-Blackburn of Luna  

plot recap~
So we start out with Kai on board the Rampion, and Scarlet is still a prisoner. (and Kai + Cinder shipping. The kissing counts. um YES.) So Kai and Cinder create a plan to host the wedding between Levana + Kai on Luna, so Kai goes back to Earth (and when Thorne takes him back they talk about Cress and KAI SHIPS IT TOO GUYS) and convinces the queen, who thinks it's a brilliant idea to do this (that made me really suspicious). So Cinder and Captain and the Rampion crew glamour themselves onto Luna, except Levana gets suspicious and finds them out, and they have a big thingy. Everyone escapes except Cress, which makes Thorne go crazy (SHIP) The crew then arrive at Wolf's mom's house, and they're safe. For now.  

Winter goes and finds Cress (somehow??) and helps her hide in Jacin's room. AND THEN JACIN IS SUMMONED TO THE QUEEN. And she's all like, "bro, i know you like winter so i want you to kill her cuz like you like her and stuff and also she's a danger to my throne." MY HEART WAS BREAKING HERE OKAY? He then fakes Winter's death and they kiss and it's just adorable. <3 
He helps Scarlet and Winter get on the RM-9, but Cress's still at the palace (!!)

The crew sends out a speech that Kai wrote for Cinder (it's perfect <3), and THE REVOLUTION OFFICIALLY BEGINS. And then that idiot, Aimery, he comes and TORTURES MAHA. And then she kills herself, but she was strong 'til the end. #MOTHERGOALS AF 
 

Cinder tries to fight back for Maha, but sorta fails, so they all get captured. Jacin and Cress manage to escape and find Thorne and Iko, who were on their way to save Cinder, who is captured with Wolf. Kai and Levana are getting married (barfs) and they drag Cinder in, who's being rebellious as always. She manages to scare Levana and jump off the balcony? and survive!!! Levana makes a video saying that the"imposter" was dead, but actually, Jacin, Iko, Thorne, and Cress find her in a lake, and they find out her internal computer is dead. Scarlet and Winter stumble upon the wolf-mutant soldiers and Winter uses her kindness and beauty to convince them to join us. 

So Levana finds out Winter isn't actually dead, and is furious. She disguises herself as an old lady and gives Winter sour apple petites (!! I know!!!), which turn out to be the "sour apples", and Winter gets letomosis! PANIC!!! (at the disco!) I loved how she incorporated the Snow White fairy tale. Meanwhile, Scarlet finds her sick and tells Jacin, and happens to get the disease in the process. Iko, Cinder, and Jacin sneak into the lab to try and find the cure for Winter. Jacin and Iko and Cinder make it in time (yes!) and they save Winter and Scarlet. Meanwhile, Cress and Thorne have a plan to attend Kai and Levana's coronation so that Cress can sneak in, do her fancy hacking skills, and release the video. They sneak in, (it's a costume party), and THORNE AND CRESS CONFESS LOVE (YES) But a guard finds Thorne and Cress, and Cress hides but Thorne gets captured (!!!)

Cress and Kai meet up, and Kai helps her sneak in, and Cress does her epic hacking skillzz, and gets the video out *relief* We find out Wolf has been mutated again and is under control another idiotic Thaumaturage. *groan* Kai and Levana continue with their *epic* coronation and then CINDER POPS IN (yas), and Levana is SO PISSED. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. THEY FIGHT AND IT'S EPIC. Wolf comes around and Scarlet is almost about to wack an ax into his head, but then they realize it's each other and *SCORE* WOLF IS BACK! The video is released (!!) and Levana runs away. WINTER GOES SO INTENSE AND KILLS AIMERY USING MANIPULATION (yAS WINTER YOU GO GIRL)

Cinder finds Levana, and Thorne getting controlled by her. IT'S SO TENSE GUYS. THEY DO THEIR MIND MANIPULATION THINGY, and Cress appears and shoots Thorne's fingers (!!!), making him stab Cinder. Levana pretends to give up, which makes Cinder sympathetic, but then STABS HER IN THE CHEST (THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING NICE, CINDER), and then everything goes back. But don't worry. Everything is great. 

and they all lived happily ever after. 

Thanks for reading this, guys. It made my day <3

Final Rating: 




~Beatrice
 

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