Title: Winter

Author: Marissa Meyer

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Source: Sam’s

About: 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?

5 stars!

Pssst. Hey you. Before you read this review, I suggest you check out my reviews for the three others in this series: Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. Then come back here and fangirl with meeeeee!! 

Well. I finished.

I did it and I’m screaming on the inside and quickly dissolving into puddles of crazy fangirl and my stomach is doing somersaults over the cuteness of the people in this book and the crazy mess they turned me into.

I just CAN’T BELIEVE I FINISHED! So… let’s see… I began reading Cinder on November 7th and just finished the last book, Winter, on November 27th. Twenty days, everybody. Twenty days I read this series and it’s been an ongoing wild-emotional-crazy roller coaster of feels and squeals and I don’t know where to begin. 

Winter, the last book in The Lunar Chronicles, is 827 pages long. EIGHT HUNDRED and twenty-seven pages. I was largely intimidated by this gargantuan size, and it took me an excruciating six days to finish. (Thanksgiving week, family coming in, all that sad stuff that takes my mind off of reading, *sigh*) I whizzed through the first three in two weeks, so I was a sad little human when it took me that long to finish. I wanted to know the ending SO BADLY! (Mostly cause Brooke and Izel kept holding stuff over my head, geez…) But even though the book is larger than what I typically read, and I was preparing myself for a few bored spots (I know I know what is wrong with me?!) there was not a single page where I was not immensely captivated by the perfection of Marissa Meyer.

The first page and I was in love with the newest character, Princess Winter. You see, she’s crazy.

No, I mean REALLY crazy. She’s a Lunar – that is, someone who lives on Luna, which is the moon – and all Lunars have a so-called gift to manipulate people into seeing anything they want them to see, to do anything they want them to do. But Winter has decided not to use her “gift,” and it’s making her hallucinate and literally lose her mind.

But she’s positively adorable! Naive and sweet and pretty much flawless. I was hooked.

Then there’s the rest of the gang from the past three books that I was eager to catch up on: Cinder, Iko, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf (*squeals*), Cress, and Thorne (*swoons*) Everything wrapped up so perfectly. Beforehand, Scarlet and Wolf were my main squeeze, guys. But I don’t know, in Winter… Cress and Thorne were pretty cute. Basically: all the couples in this book are totally swoon-worthy. Including Winter and her crush Jacin. I LOVED THEM ALL.

I was a little sad that I only got to know Jacin and Winter for one book though, because by the end of the book it still seemed like they could use a little character development. Even though of course I adored Winter, I still wanted her to be healed, so she wouldn’t be so crazy and this way… I don’t know, she could actually make sense of her mind and I could get to know her a little better. At least, see her in part of the book as her normal self. That said: the way Jacin looked at her as this perfect little baby and adored her so so much even the way she was… he was so selfless and I really loved this little romance going on and how Jacin loved Winter even through her craziness.

The plot line? Sublime. I couldn’t put it down for a second. It was… just… AMAZING! 

Lucky for me that my mom bought me the copy of Winter… even though I got a little cream cheese pie on the cover… (yup I dropped a pie for Thanksgiving, imagine what a klutz I am) because I’m so excited to own it because it is DEFINITELY a re-read (or maybe a “skip-to-my-favorite-parts-read.”)

I’m just a pile of feels. I need help. I need understanding. Thank goodness I have all of you because I’d go crazy if I couldn’t talk to someone about this! So TALK! Go to the bottom of this post and spill your heart out. I don’t mind if the comment is long or rambly or what ’cause I NEED HELP OMG!

Oh and before I forget – thank you all so so much for forcing this series into my hands. I promise I won’t turn my nose up at another sci-fi book again because I have been proven wrong, imagine that. I’VE BEEN CHANGED FOR THE BETTER! I’ve got a feeling this is one of those books that will lead me into a whole other genre of awesomeness, so thank you for that. Love ya!

Farewell, Lunar Chronicles. Until I get my hands on the short stories…