Winter’s the thrilling end and the beginning of an intergalactic love affair!

All of our favorite characters are back in this epic conclusion to the Lunar chronicles. And I am super excited for readers to read Winter simply to see her character! Winter’s teased in Cress, but in this novel she gets the chance to shine! And in my opinion Winter makes this book! I would read more books with a protagonist like her.

If you missed any of my previous reviews in this series, you read them in order here.

Summary: 

Cinder and her Court reunite on the Rampion to plan how they’ll overtake Luna and rescue Scarlet. And with the help of Cinder’s princely boyfriend, Kai, on board they know just how to sneak in undetected.

Meanwhile Princess Winter has greeted the perfect facade as the mad princess, which is only partially true. Winter’s more cunning than her stepmother gives her credit for. And upon learning Cinder’s plans, she does everything in her power to ensure her cousin succeeds. Even if it means separating from her best friend and bodyguard, Jacen.

But things never go as planned, and soon the group separates with Cinder, Thorne, Wolf, and Aiko heading to the mining sector where they hope to sway the workers into joining Cinder’s revolution. At the palace, Cress quickly allies with Jacen and Winter and works to dismantle the Queen’s security.

But Queen Levana has not finished playing games with Cinder, and she has an extra trick to ensure she never leaves the throne.

“She’s our lost princess. And she’s coming home.”

Marissa Meyer

Thoughts: 

I would just like to take a minute to express my love for princess Winter. Winter’s such a great character because she’s both intelligent and cunning in spite of her visions and paranonia, which this novel attributes to Lunar sickness. But she’s also extremely kind and cares for the people of Luna and the animals too. Her kindness is incredible because, despite her stepmother’s wickedness, Winter’s never shown that aggression with anyone.

Now I was not a big fan of Jacen in this series. He’s proven time and time again that his loyalties lay with Winter. Which is great for a romance novel, and I would applaud it any other time. But I was frustrated with him in this novel! Damn it Jacen, let’s all overthrow the queen! That being said, Jacen is boyfriend material.

Winter also kills it in this book. She stole the show! But I do wish she had done more towards the end instead she kind of disappears. 

Overall, I enjoyed the ending of Winter. In the end, everyone gets what they want and it’s tied up rather nicely. However was it just me or did other readers also believe that Cinder would leave the throne to princess Winter. Winter had more experience as a royal and the people of Luna loved her. It would have all worked out but Winter never wanted the throne. But I think we all know she would be a great queen!

Another memorable moment in this novel, was that the relationship between Thorne and Cress finally takes off. Cress and Thorne don’t get together at the end of Cress, and I think that works well for the characters because in this book, Thorne slowly starts to realize he has feelings for Cress. I loved that Cress and Thorne got a slow burn, because it allowed the characters to develop. And it also allowed Thorne to worry about Cress the entire time they were apart. I loved it!

“Captain?”
“Cress.”
She couldn’t not say it, although she realized he was right.It was sort of scary. Much scarier than it had been the first time she’d told him, out in the desert. It was different now. It was real. “I’m in love with you.”

He chuckled. “I should hope so, after all that.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss against her temple. “And I love you too.”

Marissa Meyer

Now I have also expressed my disinterest for Wolf and Scarlet in my past reviews because- I found their story boring. And you know what? I am still not the biggest fan of their characters. But what Wolf goes through in this novel is simply criminal. My boy Wolf is experimented on again! Wolf is a biological engineered soldier because Queen Levana wanted super soldiers to scare the citizens of Earth. Well Wolf becomes even stronger, faster, and scarier!

The scientists who touched him are going to jail. Also, this big bad wolf retelling is looking more and more like Frankenstein.

While Wolf is going through it in this novel, so is Kai. Although Kai’s not experimented on, he is miserable waiting for Cinder and her soldiers to take the palace. But in the meantime, he’s forced to marry his girlfriend’s aunt, all while worrying about her and feeling powerless to help the people of New Beijing. But Kai cannot risk the lives of the other earthens by running away. I kind of wish he had. It would have added more drama, but Kai’s a responsible and a little boring.

Overall, the Lunar series is an interesting read and I do like that it’s a collection of Fractured Fairytales with a Science Fiction twist. That said I was not a fan of the ableism and prejudice towards the cyborgs, who are just people who needed the improved technology to live easier. Although the series does highlights how wrong and damaging this prejudice is I wish the author had gone about it differently. This series does have diverse characters especially the royal characters. But I do love the redesigned covers of this series! The cover of Winter is goregeous!

Content Warnings: violent animal death, war, plague, biological warfare, emotional abuse, fire, violence

Are you a fan of the Lunar Chronicles? Do you have any science fiction recommendations you’ll think I’ll like? Please let me know in the comments of this post.

until next week I’ll be living in Libros,

Gabriela

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