Winter (The Lunar Chronicles 4)

Winter

By Marissa Meyer

  Ahhh!!! Why did I finish this book so early!!! And why did I pick it up so lately???? I need more!!!! No!!! And that ending!!! Ahhh!!! (Screaming everywhere…fangirl mode opening…3…2…1…) I’m just so glad that I read this series!!! I must have mentioned it thousands time…but it is so great and don’t ever pick up the Chinese edition, no matter how beautiful the covers are!!! I need more Cinder and Scarlet and Cress and Winter!!! Thankfully…I still get Fairest and Stars Above to read…I know, Fairest should read before Winter, so I won’t hate Levana so much…but I haven’t got that book yet! And I’m run out of money…thanks to the extremely expensive Elantris 10^th anniversary… So…let’s wait for May’s book haul! As for Stars Above…I’ve already finish the last story…and I love it!!! I can’t wait to finish this review and devour that book within one day!!! Yeah!!! Now…the retelling of Snow White! And she is definitely not the silly girl we saw in Disney movie… I here announce—Princess Winter Hayle-Blackburn of Luna! (Woo…such a long name…wait till you hear Selene’s.)

  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 feeling 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 too long.

  Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever after? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer’s nationally bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.

  Ah! I love this book! It’s epic…the scenes and the plots…all of it. The story started with Winter and Levana…how she was being forced to watch Levana’s tyranny, and the present of Jacin, her childhood sweetheart. Then the story turns to Cinder and Kai! My beloved characters! We know that Cinder make a bold move to kidnap the emperor of commonwealth. As it turns out, that doesn’t affect them at all!! Haha! But…Cinder isn’t going to kidnap Kai for marrying Levana, instead, she wanted him to delay his marry ceremony and move them all to Luna. Of course, under the “demand” of Cinder, how could Kai not agree? (Wait…he did agree with it happily because of Cinder…but not the entire “marry” part…I think he just wished that with Cinder’s appeared, he wouldn’t have to marry Levana anymore. However, Cinder gave him a quest that he never expected.) And of course…their trip on Rampion wasn’t full of laughter and love…the burden was still on their shoulder, not only Cinder, but also Kai. One hold the future wealth of Luna, the other hold the farewell of Earth…they are so young!!! Oh then, back to Winter. She suffered from her…umm…craziness? She kept seeing things because she refused to use glamour. It was almost impossible to do so, but she did it, but with a lot of side effect. And as you can see, Winter had a bad relationship with Levana, no matter how Levana pretended she loved her stepdaughter…the jealousy is what mainly between them, and the craziness added more. I love how Marissa Meyer compiled all the fairytale together. You won’t able to read the ending of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel till Winter. The ending part of the fairytale is never the end of the first three books of this series. So the fairytale retelling actually follows throughout the entire series, added with other stories originally by the author. I think that’s brilliant! (I almost consider putting this kind of writing into my own novel…but well…I want to stay with my own plan. So…perhaps the next one I can try?) Now, I would like to put this review into characters parts!  

Cinder & Kai

  “Do you ever think about the future?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “And…does it include me?”

  “That’s depends on whether I’m thinking about the good future or the bad one.”

  I believe Cinder and Kai are some of the characters that have the biggest change from the beginning. I mean…who wouldn’t change under such circumstances? Their lives just turn upside down! A normal, unfavorable mechanic becomes the biggest threat of Levana, the long-lost princess, the most-wanted criminal, and the girlfriend of emperor. (Huh? Is the last one important? Indeed it is…to me.) A young price becomes the emperor of commonwealth…but soon faces thousands of troubles: marriage, betrayal, invader, threat, kidnap… WOW, really, is that what lives supposed to be? Just look at all those ancient emperor…most of them were idiots! Especially when they were young…so, impress by Kai? Or…in love with him? (Winking) In this book, Cinder must face horrible things much more than she had expected, everything can go wrong…actually, her first big plan just went entirely wrong… yet she was still studying, and she won’t give up. Once she managed to raise the people’s anger, the revolution began. And I don’t know whether I should say her “cyborg” part good or bad…it gave her so many trouble so many times…yet it gave her hundreds of chances to escape from death. However, Cinder’s progress had begun since Scarlet, since the moment she accepted her identity and determined to take back her throne. It was Kai that actually amaze me! He just changed from a naïve young prince to an adorable Emperor…wait…what? That’s what I mean…part. He started his changes in Cress. He started to question his country’s own law, to make sure they were equal to everyone. And in Winter, Wow, he just took my heart away. Really. He stood up against Levana, he…wait…no spoiler, Vivian. Once again, he stood up against Levana and fight aside with the rebellion. He started his own battle in the castle, inside Levana’s center of authority. That’s all the old Kai wouldn’t dare to do, and to be honest, he was really a great emperor, who cared for his citizen so much. Whenever he smiled at Levana, I burst out laughing so hard and wanted to give him a thousand hearts. And when he smiled at Cinder… (Swoon…melt away…) I just feel like other girls in commonwealth…horrible…especially I despise those kinds of girls so much in real life. But in fiction novels…I can act like an idiot. Needless to say, Kai and Cinder remains my favorite ship, and although I hate the ending stop like that, I did get a satisfy ending in Stars Above. But before all the happily ever after, they mut confront all the difficulties, especially my poor Cinder... 

Scarlet & Wolf

 “I smell you.” Wolf was grinning so wide she could see the sharp teeth he normally tried to hide. It had been a long time since she’d seen him so happy.

“You’re the only one. You’ll always be the only one.”

  Here come our star-cross lovers. Really, they are even more miserable than Cinder and Kai. While Cinder and Kai must worry for their life or death...Scarlet and Wolf just…kept being apart! Thank goodness that Scarlet was safe from Levana because of Winter, yet her danger still remains, and it tortured Wolf to think of her. Then in the part of Winter escaped…she came out safety with her. After a thrilling trip…they managed to find the crew. And oh! I just love the part that Wolf found Scarlet, how perfect that scene was! But…yeap, not long after their reunite…they were separated…again. This time, Wolf was the one under Levana’s hands. And that was even worst! Who know what would happen to him! He was a special operative! Those crazy, foolish scientists can do anything to him! After separated with Wolf, Scarlet went on the revolution with Winter, and that almost caused their death…that was a bold move…they might became dinner, and became…cough… To me…Marissa didn’t put a lot point at them, so as Cress and Throne. They might be the major characters in the second book and third book…but it was Cinder that had all the major part. Really, I know Cinder was really, really important…but I would like to see more Scarlet and Wolf! Scarlet was such an interesting character! I felt I didn’t get enough of them throughout the series, and I wish I could have more. Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough Scarlet and Wolf…their review ended her. But wait and you’ll see a lot of little wolves appeared in the future! Haha!  

Cress & Throne

“You can’t leave me, not again. I can’t do this without you.”

“Sure you can. It won’t be as much fun, but you’ll figure out.”

“I’ll find you.” “Be heroic.”

  Cress and Throne…well, remember I said I don’t love this couple as much as I love the other? I’ve changed. Just recently, I saw a post say the reason why he/she loved them so much is because Throne fell in love with Cress when he was blind, he fell in love with her because her, not her beauty. And it occurred to me like, right! Throne was such a guy that fell in love with almost ever girl! But look at him in Winter, you can really feel how much he care for Cress…no matter he was worthy or not. And even Kai felt that, just merely few days with them. So I changed my mind. They won’t be my favorite couple, but I started to love them as well. And perhaps someday Marissa will write a novella about their future? I’ll be thrill for it. Back to the story, really, Cress and Throne are almost as miserable as Scarlet and Wolf…only a little bit better. Captive, unite, captive…this kind of situation should stop!! Especially the ending part of the battle! I just wanted to scream!!! But Cress was luckier than Scarlet, she was never tortured by Levana, only she needed to…and what did I said? I almost give you spoilers!!! But even though Cress was separated, she still played her job well…under the help of…cough! (No more spoiler!) All right, let’s turn to Throne…or I’ll give you bunch of spoilers without noticing. Throne managed to pick himself up after separating with Cress, no, he wasn’t going to be madness like Wolf…only a bit. He was the captain, right? He had to lead them all! (I’m pretty sure that is Cinder leading them all…Throne just…an important part of the crew.) But just like I said…they weren’t enough scenes for them!!! I need more Cress and Throne! Although this was the thickest book of them all, like 800 pages, but Cress and Throne’s part only had about…100 pages? Even when they were captured! 100 for Scarlet and Wolf, 100 for Cress and Throne, and 250 for Winter and Jacin, and 350 for Cinder and Kai. Really? Is that necessary? I need more balance no matter how much I love Cinder and Kai!!! I don’t mind the pages up to 1000… (And I believe no one will object that.) 

Winter & Jacin

“You think I’m perfect?”

“Just sort of,” he said. “You know. On a good day.”

  How can you not fall in love with Winter? She is adorable! Indeed, she was crazy, madness, and sometime weird…but you must admit…she does have her own charm. As for Jacin…no, I’m not going to forgive you for betraying Rampion, but I forgive you since you took care of Cress well. Winter and Jacin must be the only couple that suffered less...trouble than others. Of course they had problems…not small, but at least not so many times…am I right? What Winter suffered most was her mental illness. She must face the consequence since the day she decided not to use glamour. And the hallucination just becomes more and more serious. She always sees blood, dripping from the walls…and believes me, no matter hallucination or not, those kind of scenes are terrible. But she is still bright and gentle, she cares for the Lunars and the country, she cares for the people, and she cares for the true queen of Luna. Her charm can lead to the success of the rebellion and the end of tyranny. Really, you’ll full in love with this little crazy. As for the retelling part, you won’t meet a handsome prince, only an overprotective guard. And can I dislike him…not really, although I really want to. But I think that’s perfect! Princess and the guard, and not love at first sight…something horrible. He truly cares for her, not for her beauty…otherwise he’ll have long gone. And he was also the hunter, the one who must kill her. But…Winter will be saved. You know, the vulnerable one tends to survive all the time…but Winter isn’t as vulnerable as you think…so she’ll definitely survive…right? And the “dwarves” part…haha! Really? That’s awesome. I would like to know their reaction if they were being referred as seven dwarves in the original Snow White…they must be furious. I don’t really love Snow White…but I fell in love with Winter through the story, and I would like to read more about her in Stars Above. This is the best Snow White retelling I’ve ever read!

  WOW! An enormous review…I haven’t written such a long review for so long! But without so many words, I can’t express how much I love it: all the battles, mysteries, thrilling, worry parts…and of course, the sweet moments. Not much, but I still love it. I finally understand why this series remains one of the favorite pictures on Instagram. (As much as Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments series, and some latest published…) This series is definitely a must-read in 2015, 2016, 2017… And I believe it’ll last as long as Harry Potter. All hail Queen Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn of Luna! (Hoo…long-long-long name…I wonder, does she has name as long as Dumbledore?) Now…I’m rushing toward my Stars Above!!!