20 Books of Summer Book 20 Review – Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4)

Title: Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA Fantasy

Goodreads Rating: 4.41

My Rating:

Source: Paperback

Synopsis:

Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She’s said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana…

When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.

But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter claim their happily ever afters by defeating Levana once and for all?

My Review:

I actually don’t know what to say, I’m speechless. When I first listened to Cinder (the first book in the Lunar Chronicles) I knew this was the perfect series for me. I’m a huge fan of Disney and loved Marissa Meyer’s twist on the classic tales. I’ve been slowly making my way through the collection and decided to pick the last book, Winter, for a readathon prompt. With this book being 827 pages long I was prepared to take my time with it and part of me was sad that this was the final book.

After saying I would pace myself I found the book impossible to put down! I initially took it away on holiday and read a few chapters but once I was home I found myself better prepared to sit and absorb this story. I ended up reading near on 300 pages in one evening!

To say this book was intense would be an understatement. Every chapter had my hoping and wishing with all my might that Cinder and her army would succeed. There were some unexpected and pleasant surprises along the way and that final battle scene was gruesome! There were so many relationships and characters that you wanted to see reach their happily ever after so lets talk about them in a bit more details.

Cinder and Kai were the first couple to be introduced to the series and whilst Kai has underwhelmed me in the previous books I did feel he stepped up in this one. He came out of his shell a little more and found a backbone! As always Cinder was her usual ass kicking, formidable self. There were moments when I did worry about her fate but she always had this ability to bounce back, with a little help from her friends.

We met Scarlet and Wolf in the second book and they have been on quite a journey. They seem to be constantly separated and despite being reunited in this book they still faced further hardships. I found their journey the most emotional especially when Wolf faced further devastation and changed. He had such a kind, protective nature that seemed unstoppable. Scarlet made a brilliant right hand woman for Cinder. Like her leader she had a way of communicating with people and stood in the face of danger, determined to win.

My favourite couple had to be Cress and Thorne. Whilst they didn’t get as much of the spotlight in this book there was a very significant moment that had me weak at the knees. They compliment each other so well and as always Thorne’s sense of humour often gave me the giggles. Jacin and Winter were explored in more detail in this book and I did like them. Winter was absolutely bonkers but it’s a wonder anyone remained sane under Levana’s control! Jacin had a heart of gold and like Wolf he was very protective of Winter. He fitted in nicely with the rest of the crew and he grew on my quite quickly.

Now this round up of characters wouldn’t be complete with mentioning Iko. She seemed to be the character that no one could defeat! She constantly threw herself in the way of the danger and her battle scene with Wolf was terrifying!

If you can’t tell by now I loved this book. It was the perfect finale to an already brilliant series but I’m also sad that it is over. I know I have the anthology ‘Stars Above’ to read but I feel like Cinder and her troop have become part of my world and I’m not ready to say goodbye. This was the perfect book to end my summer reading challenge on.