Winter – Book Review

 

TITLE: Winter
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
GENRE: YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance
PUBLISHING DATE: November 10, 2015 by Feiwel & Friends

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?

“We think that if we choose to do only good, then we are only good. We can make people happy. We can offer tranquility or contentment or love, and that must be good. We do not see the falsehood becoming its own brad of cruelty.”

Wow.

That was…

Wow.

How do I even express my feelings after reading this gigantic book? If you stalked my Goodreads page last December, you’re probably aware of how Winter brought me LOADS and LOADS of feels. Like, LOADS. Jaw-opening-and-heart-thumping kind of loads.

And since I basically liked 98% of this book and have been wondering for days on how I will write this review, I have decided to pick out snippets from Winter and add commentaries right after.

Oh, and don’t worry – there won’t be any major spoilers found in those quotes. Just ones that might make you want to read Winter already if you haven’t yet. 😉

Thorne guffawed. “My crew? Let me tell you what’s going to become of my crew when this is over.” He ticked off on his fingers. “Cinder will be the ruling monarch of a big rock in the sky. Iko will go wherever Cinder goes, so let’s assume she becomes the queen’s hairdresser or something. You – are you part of the crew now? Doesn’t matter, we both know where you’re going to end up. And once we get Scarlet back, she and Wolf are going to some farm in France and have a litter of baby wolf cubs. That’s what’s going to become of my crew when this is done.”

Thorne. THORNE STRIKES AGAIN. Oh, how I always love reading the Lunar Chronicles whenever he’s in it. Everything just goes from serious and suspenseful to comedic and awkward. I also love how he’s willing to change just so he can prove Cress that he deserves her, even though Cress isn’t even asking him to do it.

AND THAT SCENE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CINDER AND LEVANA BATTLE WITH THORNE AND CRESS. Oh my God. I don’t even— I can’t— How do I— IT WAS SO PAINFUL.

That’s it, I’m adding Thorne to my long list of fictional boyfriends.

Rather than reaching for her again, Jacin took a step back and pinched the bridge of his nose. He cursed. “Princess, you have got to stop collecting these rebels.”

As I have said in my last progress update on Winter in my Goodreads account, I am officially rooting for Jacin x Winter. (I don’t even know if they have a ship name. Do they?!??)

Think about it: Jacin loves Winter no matter how crazy she is or how many times she sees stuff that would make other people want to stay away from her. He truly loves her in her worst. That’s just so sweet. I’m a sucker for these kinds of romances.

“This is Winter,” said Scarlet. “Princess Winter.”

Thorne guffawed and pushed a hand into his hair. “Are we running a boardinghouse for misplaced royalty around here, or what?”

Speaking of Scarlet, I have also come to love her more than I did when I was introduced to her in Scarlet. The way she fights for what she wants and does her best to survive didn’t annoy me anymore than it did in the second book, which really made me happy.

Plus, I love Scarlet and Winter’s friendship. It’s snappy, it’s hilarious, and it’s just plain entertaining.

“I hope you don’t mind our intrusion into your hospitality. Your wolf cub welcomed us. He’s surprisingly tender, given the teeth. And the muscles.”

I also love this “wolf cub” nickname and I don’t even know why. It’s like they’re teasing Wolf and I’m liking it. Wolf isn’t even complaining about it.

When she had tied this, she had practically given him a wrist massage that had made him squirm on the inside.

I also liked the touch of humor from Marissa Meyer all throughout the book. It gave me something to laugh at after I’ve been reading pages and pages of serious stuff happening in Luna.

“It’s like this is ‘Pick on Iko’ day or something.”

Oh, Iko. She definitely comes right after Thorne on my favorite characters list. She’s basically like Thorne’s sidekick in making things funny without even trying.

Also, I liked how she trusts Cinder so much she’d risk destroying her android body so much as long as she can protect her best friend. Iko is confident enough that Cinder can fix her back again anyway (as long as her personality chip is safe, of course).

“There was also a time when I could come visit you without feeling like I was supposed to toss bread crumbs to earn your favor.”

“Bread crumbs? Do I look like a goose?”

“You don’t look like an arctic wolf, either, but that’s what the plaque tells me I’m looking at.”

Ah, Winter. I love this girl. She’s crazy, she’s weird, she’s out-of-the-ordinary, but she is still so smart. She doesn’t let her Lunar sickness stop her (at least, not when she’s incredibly dedicated to do something), and makes the best out of the things she lacks. And at the end of the book, she technically becomes a badass.

How lovely it would have been to live in a world where she didn’t have to pretend.

Even though I did have a lot of things I liked about Winter, it still had a few parts where I didn’t. For the most part, the battle scene. I thought the way it ended lacked something. Like it was all too easy. The scene was picking up so much pace and I was gripping on my phone so hard in excitement (I was reading it as an eBook), and then that. I don’t know. I think I was looking for more in that one-on-one battle scene.

Also, I wasn’t too fond of the crew’s “Assassinate Levana” plan. It had so many loopholes that I knew something would go wrong before it even happened (because if nothing went wrong, then that’s just not realistic). I wanted a concrete plan. One that would really want me to hope that the crew would succeed. But I think everyone was just hoping for luck to happen 70% of the time.

      

Four Stars

All in all, I definitely loved Winter. In all honesty, I would have given this book 5 stars in total, but I had to deduct at least a .5 because, like I said, I really did feel a wee bit disappointed of how Cinder and Levana’s one-on-one battle ended (even though it was still cool). Sorry.

P.S.: Did I mention that THIS BOOK IS INCREDIBLY THICK? It took me two weeks to finish this book when I normally finish one in around a week or less. I have no regrets, though. Definitely. But I still couldn’t help but fidget while reading Winter because I just wanted to read about the epic battle already.

Check out Winter here.

 

 

 

Guest review contributed by Mara Was Here. Mara Was Here is a book blog that reviews books–mostly YA–and talks about anything bookish, as well as publishing discussion posts and other features.

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