SOPHIE LI

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?

I LOVED the characters in this novel. Everyone was relatable; there were no characters that I actively disliked.

Winter was the MC who was newly introduced in this novel. Overall I liked Winter. She was oddball but gentle, caring and brave. She was a bit different from the rest of the crew… Because she chose to not use her Lunar magic, her mental health suffered from it. I liked that this story acknowledged mental illness in a creative way, although I could not speak for the accuracy of the representation.

I liked that although this book was titled Winter and introduced the new princess, there was focus on each of the other MCs from the previous books as well. Although there were so many characters and only so few pages, I thought this was done very well. I thought that each character got the attention they deserved.

I can’t believe that I’m saying this but I even liked the villain– Levana. She was evil and I wanted to see her defeated, but at the same time she was a very formidable villain.

I loved the romance throughout this series (to be honest- it was probably why I found The Lunar Chronicles to be very addictive!) The couples had chemistry and spark and it really showed throughout their interactions in the novel. One of my favourite couples- Cress and her SO– got a good share of the attention in this book which was so great!!! (If you’re a fan of the other pairings, no worries, there were plenty of those to go around as well!)

Throughout the book, the pacing was steady and full of twists and turns, particularly in the second half. I was never bored.

The world of The Lunar Chronicles was very fascinating. I loved that we were shown more of Luna in this book. It was awesome to read about how Luna looked like, how its society worked, and how people and culture were different from Earth. I loved that a lot of thought was put into the politics between Earth and Luna throughout the novel.

Okay. I’m being nit-picky here, but there was one particular part in the second half where I had to suspend disbelief because (I felt) it was highly medically inaccurate. Not mentioning any details so I won’t spoil anyone. To be honest you guys might not notice (I only noticed because I work in health care haha.)

As much as I liked the characters and the couples in this series… I thought it was a bit unrealistic that everyone on Cinder’s team was paired up? (With the exception of one of the nine team members.) Sure, it made for a fun story and it fit the theme of the books (which introduced one pair per book) but it felt a bit contrived in the last book. Would it not be possible for people to stay single?

Don’t get me wrong, Levana was a great villain, but I did wish that there could be a bit more depth to her evilness… rather than just being evil. That being said, I didn’t read Fairest (book 3.5) SOOOO I should probably do that next.

4/5 fishies!

Winter was a fast-paced and thrilling end to the Lunar Chronicles series. If you loved the previous books, you’ll love this one. If you haven’t read this series yet, it is a definite recommend if you’re into YA fantasy/sci-fi with a romantic twist!

Did you read this series? Do you also find it annoying when all characters “pair up”? Is there a fast-paced YA sci-fi/fantasy series you love? (If so, let me know!)

Photo by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash