Winter (Lunar Chronicles, #4)

by Marissa Meyer

[Nessa Luna]

In 2013, I read a book called Cinder. Though I thought it was rather predictable, I did enjoy it very much, and decided to pick up Scarlet as well. Then I waited for Cress, which I loved most of the three, and Fairest. And then, finally I got my hands on Winter. The last book in the series (though there is still a novella bind-up coming next year), the last book about Cinder and Kai, Scarlet and Wolf, Cress and Thorne, Winter and Jacin. Also the biggest book in the series, with 827 pages, my edition of Winter is about the same size as Scarlet and Cress combined. And oh my stars, I loved it so much!

I was honestly afraid of starting this book, because I didn't want anything bad happening to my favourite characters. Because after a couple of years of going to this story I had fallen in love with most of the characters. But I also wanted to find out what was going to happen, so I immediately jumped into the book.

We'd gotten the first three chapters already and I'd already read them (even though I told myself I wouldn't) so it was a bit boring to get through those chapters. But then the rest of the story started and oh my stars, it was amazing. Just the gang trying to get to Luna, hiding on an earthen ship and escaping from that space dock. Then they had to travel through Luna to a place where they may or may not find an ally, and then the revolution had to be started. Meanwhile, Kai was trying to do his best to not marry Levana and make her empress of his country. I just felt so bad for him throughout this whole book, because while the rest of the gang had a lot of trouble themselves, he had to deal with Levana firsthand.

My favourite characters overall have to be Cress and Thorne, and Iko. I love all the others as well, but these three are just my absolute favourites. I love Iko's humour, and I love Cress and Thorne's relationship. I think they are my favourite couple of this entire series, and I may have shed some tears when things happened to them. I just wanted them to be happy (with each other) and ugh... We were also properly introduced to Jacin and Winter in this book. We'd seen them both before - Jacin was already there in the first book and had a bigger role in the third one, and Winter had a couple of mentions and an appearance in Cress. But this book was about her, or well - yeah one of the storylines was about her, because there were several happening at the same time.

I really liked Winter, though I was a tiny bit annoyed at her sometimes, just like Scarlet was. But their friendship was really nice, if a bit forced maybe. And I am not sure what to think about the Winter/Jacin ship, but they are nice for each other, and I do like seeing them together.

Honesty time: I thought the book was too long, too big. Yes, I loved the majority of it. Yes, I didn't want the series to end. Yes, I may have cheered when I found out the book was going to be more than 800 pages long; but now, after reading it I have to admit I wouldn't have minded there being a fifth book. I wouldn't have minded if Winter ended somewhere in the middle of this book, honestly. For example around that point where Winter was tricked by Levana into eating a Letumosis-infected candy apple. Or around the time where Jacin found out about this, you know - I don't remember in which part of the book it happened, maybe it happened much further in the book, but it would have been a nice way of ending the book I guess?

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I still love Meyer's writing as much as I did with the previous books, I still loved her characters, her world. I loved the little nods to the original fairytales her characters were based on; ugh I just love the Lunar Chronicles so much and I don't want it to end! This is why I can't wait for Stars Above to be released, even though I've already read the majority of the stories that are going to be in there. I want to read more Meyer, I want to read more about these amazing characters, and I want to read more and more and more!

Overall, Winter was an amazing book, not the best in the series - that award still goes to Cress - but it was good, if a little too long. I definitely recommend this series to people who love fairytale retellings and science fiction!

My opinion on this book in one gif: