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?
First published: 2015
Winter is the fourth and final book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, and after looking forward to reading it ever since it came out November last year, I finally read it last month! Warning: this review is mostly just going to be a fangirling mess, because I love this series and have all the feels about it having come to an end. Although some people thought the book was too long with over 800 pages, I was glad because it meant more story before the end!
The fairy tale aspects in Winter might have been the most ingeniously interwoven ones in the entire series. The main plot points from the Snow White fairy tale are there, and they’re recognisable, but they are also made to fit within the story absolutely flawlessly. While I have become rather disillusioned by fairy tales and fairy tale retellings recently, I do admire Marissa Meyer’s ability to retell the story in a completely different setting. Plus, I just adore the characters, which makes it easier to put aside my criticism as to the genre for a little while..
It was so nice to read about all these characters that I’ve come to love again, and to get to know Winter and Jacin as well. I like that they’re all unique and are completely their own people. Winter is described as a bit insane, but I thought the reason behind that was very admirable. Jacin was a bit of a douche canoe, but at the same time he truly loved Winter so it was difficult to really hate him. One of my favourite things about this novel when it comes to the characters is Cinder’s transformation through the course of the series up until this novel. She grows up enormously and evolves into the leader that she has to be.
And then there’s the action in this novel… There’s a lot of it! So much happens in this book that it could’ve easily been split up into two books, but that would’ve messed with the whole one fairy tale per book thing. The whole book is jam-packed full of action, and I loved it. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the 800+ pages, which I think is quite a feat.
I’m trying to think of more to say about Winter, but I think this is about it for now. I loved this book and it didn’t disappoint at all as a series finale. Yes, I could add a more critical note about the series in general, but I just really enjoyed these stories. I’m sad the Lunar Chronicles are over and done with now, but I do still have Stars Above to read, which I’m looking forward to.
Anyway, what did you think of Winter, if you’ve read it? Did you think it was a good finale?
Books Baking and Blogging 
Glad to hear you liked this series as a whole – I haven’t actually read any of the Lunar Chronicles yet but now that its finished, it might just be time to give it a try 🙂
I loved the series! It can be very predictable at times, but I became really invested because the characters are so well-written, most of the time! 🙂
Yayy that’s good you liked it! I too loved how Marissa Meyer had woven the Snow White retelling part in to this story as a whole. It was very different but it had the same basis of the fairy tale. I’ve loved that about all of these books actually!
To be honest, it took me months to finish this book because it felt like it went on for too long. For a good 300 pages I would pick the book up and then put it back down not long after, there was action but I was also bored. In the action not a lot happened, like the story didn’t progress very far, so nothing was happening! It was confusing because there were fight scenes, but I was still bored…
I feel like there wasn’t enough of this story dedicated to Winter and Jacin, I really wanted more of them.
I did really liked how the series wrapped up though, BUT I want to know what happens next! I feel like not everything was tied up, I still have questions! I wonder if there will be a spin off series?
Jordon @ Simply Adrift
It’s so amazing how she manages to weave those plots into all four of the books. 🙂 I especially liked what she did with Snow White and the apple, though.
I do understand why you feel that way, I think! The action just keeps going on and on and on, and I think if I hadn’t been in the right mindset, I might have been a bit annoyed by it, too. I think the main thing for me was that I loved the characters so much, so I really liked reading about them, whatever they were getting up to. The amount of times they got themselves out of supposedly deadly situations was a bit ridiculous though. :’) And I agree, more of Winter and Jacin would have been very welcome!
Same! I want to know more about what everyone’s getting up to next! I do also think it was wrapped up nicely, though. There’s an opportunity for more story, but it also fits like this. 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment! 😀
I really want to start this series
It’s really good! I’d definitely recommend it 🙂