Saturday, April 7, 2018

From the shelf: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

Title: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Date read: April 5-7, 2018
Dawn Rates:  (5/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mark 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?

My Review: (also in goodreads)


That's what I thought as I read the last sentence of the final chapter of Winter. I am always nervous when I read through an entire series because the succeeding books might not hold their own or not even surpass the awe given to me by the first book and I'm awfully glad that "The Lunar Chronicles" kept getting better and better.

Following the theme done during the previous installments, Winter is also a re-telling of a well-loved children's tale: Snow White. Winter has been introduced towards the end of the third book and even had a backstory in Levana's story: Fairest. I liked the fact that Jacin's character isn't just supposed to be the Prince Charming to Winter's Snow White but the assassin character was incorporated to him too. And like the evil queen, Levana is just as power-hungry and insecure if not much more. What I liked with the plot is that all the characters had their own charm, they held their own without me hating on anyone in the crew. I know I've said last time that I'm not much of a fan of how mushy Ze've and Scarlet could be but I admire Scarlet's sass and how she is almost like Cinder in a sense. In fact, I could not choose which I liked more between the four ladies: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress or Winter. All of them had their own colors and their own charms that I get excited every time I turn the page, wishing what the other would do next.The character development in this series was abundant and that is what I liked with all the characters involved even the men: Kai, Thorne, Ze'ev and Jacin.

I knew that I craved for the Thorne/Cinder dynamic but I didn't know I would love Thorne with Kai, Winter with Scarlet and Jacin with Cinder....oh, Kai and Iko too. There were too many pairings and I'm awfully glad the author played around with everyone working with everyone.

I loved the fact that every character was made easily for anyone to relate to: broken and with insecurities. I am not a fan of perfect characters, no room for development. What I especially love is the fact that despite the insecurities, everyone danced around it to make everything work. And it did.

The series' elements were really not life-changing or anything since these are the basic story line a series within a dystopian genre would have but what I loved about The Lunar Chronicles series was how everything was woven together. I know I've said in the past that the 1st and the 2nd book was a slow burn and everything made sense during the 3rd book as it paved towards the action I was waiting for all in the 4th book. And this easily was my favorite book. I didn't care if it was 800+ pages I didn't even feel it pass by. Everything that happened in this book was so breathtaking especially the parts where POVs were jumping from one character to another, one chapter at a time. It makes one wanting more, it makes the reader (mostly me) curse the final page, unbelieving that it finally comes to an end, leaving on to hope (even plead) for continuation.
    If I would rank the books in the series hands down it would be Winter then Cress then Scarlet/Cinder. Off to read "Stars Above" right now. I think I'm going to suffer separation anxiety. I miss them all and its only been a few minutes since I was done with the last book. Oh, well....

    Till the next read....



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