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? (via Goodreads)

Winter is the fourth and final book in the popular Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, and in my opinion, the best in the series. It is also the largest in the series at 827 pages in my hardback copy. The series is a science fiction retelling of the Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White fairytales. Winter, as you might have guessed, tells the story of Snow White, while tying up the loose ends from Cress.

I have to give my compliments to Meyer’s design team, because they created a set of book covers that are cohesive, descriptive and pretty. These covers are not only beautiful, they tie back into the original fairy tales that we all know and love, as you can see below. 

Now, as the final book in the series, I have to be careful what I say about the goings on in this novel, but this novel finally brings Cinder and the crew to the planet of Luna. Readers finally get to know Sir Jacin Clay, and the mysterious Princess Winter, and man, did I love them. I also loved that we got to see Scarlet really shine (again), and that she really grew to be friends with Winter, despite the circumstances they were in.

I thought that this book was truly a testament to friendship, even though a lot of it did focus on the romances that had sprung up throughout the series. Before there were the romances, there were friendships in each of the pairings, and that’s just so important in YA books. Every relationship that grew throughout this book organically, and they worked through the problems they had – mostly.

A lot of things went right for our characters in this novel, but so much went wrong for them. Their revolution, while well-intentioned, was kind of thrown together. Cinder was forced to campaign, which I think was a new concept for the citizens of Luna, and which turned out pretty well for them.As they said in the novel,

“Being tyrannized by Levana had a way of making allies of enemies.”

Surprisingly, none of the main characters died, though they all went through some major changes.

Even at the 800 page length, the pacing in Winter never lagged for me. The plot was tense, intricate and spellbinding.  I had a hard time putting it down, even though I was reading it at a book signing for Winter! 

I did end up having to put it down, because I had to drive home from the signing, but I still finished it in about 8 hours in the same night, which was maybe not my smartest decision.

I’d like to thank my wonderful local bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, and Fierce Reads for making it possible for me to have Marissa sign my novel, and to get to meet both her and other fans of the series. It was a great opportunity and experience.

I really, really enjoyed this book from start to finish, and I will definitely be buying and re-reading the entire series. I also know a few people that it would be perfect for, so if you know me in person, get ready to have them shoved at you. I would say I’m sorry, but I’m really not.

I’m rating this book 5 stars, and I recommend it only to those who have read the rest of the series. If you’re thinking about reading the series, I think they’re a great series that any science fiction or fairy tale fan will love. I’m really glad I finally started the series a few months ago.