BOOK REVIEW: Winter – by Marissa Meyer

Title: Winter
(The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Retelling
First published: November 10th 2015
Finished reading: November 20th 2015
Pages: 827

“She was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in was not an option.”

The Lunar Chronicles is probably one of my favorite series I’ve read this year and in a way I’m sad it’s over. It’s one of the first times I’ve read a book as soon as it was published (not including ARCs), and even six days after finishing Winter I am still trying to get my thoughts together. I really loved this last novel by Marissa Meyer despite its length. My heart did almost stop at some points in the story; damn you plot twists! I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s hard to see your favorite characters suffering if you love a series as much as I do. I kept thinking: please give them a happy ending, they have totally earned it! It took me some time finishing Winter, but that’s mostly because I didn’t want it to be over… And what I can say is that this book was everything I was hoping for. Thank you Marissa Meyer for an excellent series! I do hope there will be a Thorne novella at some point in the future…

WARNING: do not read this summary if you haven’t read the first three books in the series yet! It will most likely contain spoilers, even though I’ve made sure to keep it short.

Queen Levana has always been jealous of little princess Winter. Winter has been admired by the Lunar people ever since she was little and despite the scars on her face it is said that she is even more beautiful than the queen. The princess doesn’t want to use her gift to manipulate others and is slowly turning mad… But she is not as weak as Levana believes her to be and Winter has been undermining her stepmother for years. And now the Lunars are on the border of a revolution, will Cinder, the princess and their friends be able to stand up to Levana and find their happily ever afters?

I know this review probably doesn’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read The Lunar Chronicles yet, but I find it really hard to write a review without fangirling over the place. Marissa Meyer has created with this series a new way of retelling fairy tales and mixes these elements perfectly with the rest of the story. After four books the main characters feel like old friends and it’s really hard to see them suffer… Marissa Meyer knows how to draw you into the story and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. If you are looking for a good YA fantasy series, this one is more than recommended! The fact that there won’t be any new books pending to be published (if you don’t count novellas) is a huge bonus as well.